DFW

Selected essays and nonfiction, with direct links to the texts. Some are hosted by their publishers; others are transcriptions or scans. Links checked on .

Essays in PDF

  • Big Red Son (PDF scan)
    The adult film industry's awards in Las Vegas. Originally published in Esquire as “Neither Adult Nor Entertainment”; scan hosted by the publisher.
  • Consider the Lobster (PDF)
    Maine's lobster festival and the ethics of eating animals. Gourmet, 2004; hosted by East Tennessee State University.
  • Deciderization 2007—a Special Report (PDF)
    Choosing essays and making sense of information. Introduction to The Best American Essays 2007; hosted by neugierig.org.
  • E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction (PDF scan)
    Television, irony, and American fiction. Review of Contemporary Fiction, 1993; hosted on James Somers's personal website.
  • Fictional Futures and the Conspicuously Young (PDF)
    Young American writers and the influence of television. Review of Contemporary Fiction, 1988; hosted by neugierig.org.
  • The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys and the Shrub (PDF)
    On the road with John McCain's 2000 presidential campaign. Rolling Stone article; WordPress-hosted copy.
  • The View from Mrs. Thompson's (PDF scan)
    September 11 as experienced in Bloomington, Illinois. Also published as “9/11: The View from the Midwest.” WordPress-hosted scan; pages are sideways.

Essays on the web

  • Tense Present: Democracy, English, and the Wars over Usage
    English usage, authority, and Bryan Garner's dictionary. Harper's, April 2001 version, later collected as “Authority and American Usage”; hosted by California State University, Bakersfield.
  • David Lynch Keeps His Head
    On the set of Lost Highway, and on Lynch's films. Reproduction of the Premiere article, 1996, at Library of Babel.
  • The Nature of the Fun
    Writing fiction, ambition, and the changing pleasures of the work. Transcription at Michael Fuchs's Dispatch from the Razor's Edge.
  • F/X Porn
    Special effects and the films of James Cameron. Transcription at Michael Fuchs's Dispatch from the Razor's Edge.

Publisher pages

These pages carry the articles, but access may be metered or require a subscription.

  • The String Theory
    Professional tennis through the career of Michael Joyce. Esquire, 1996.
  • Host
    Talk radio and the working life of host John Ziegler. The Atlantic, 2005.
  • Just Asking
    Security, liberty, and the costs of responding to terrorism. The Atlantic, 2007.

Speech and book-related reading

  • This Is Water (full speech transcript)
    Kenyon College's 2005 commencement address, on attention and everyday life. Transcript and audio at Farnam Street. Kenyon also hosts an abridged version.
  • Signifying Rappers (magazine article)
    Rap and race in Boston, coauthored with Mark Costello. The Missouri Review, 1990; this is the article, not the entire book of the same name.

Interviews

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