A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
First Edition hardcover
Author(s)	David Foster Wallace
Cover artist	Elizabeth Van Itallie
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Non-fiction
Publisher	Little, Brown and Co.
Publication date	1 February 1997
Media type	Print (hardback, paperback)
Pages	353 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-316-91989-6
OCLC Number	35318437
Preceded by	Infinite Jest
Followed by	Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments is a 1997 collection of nonfiction writing by David Foster Wallace.

In the title essay, originally published in Harper's as "Shipping Out", Wallace describes the excesses of his one-week trip in the Caribbean aboard the cruise ship MV Zenith, which he rechristens the Nadir. He is ironically displeased with the professional hospitality industry and the "fun" he should be having and explains how the indulgences of the cruise turn him into a spoiled brat, leading to overwhelming internal despair.

Wallace uses footnotes extensively throughout the piece for various asides. Like much of Wallace's work, the essay is written in postmodern style. Another essay in the same volume takes up the vulgarities and excesses of the Illinois State Fair.

This collection also includes Wallace's influential essay "E Unibus Pluram" on television's impact on contemporary literature and the use of irony in American culture.

Essays

Essays collected in the book:

• "Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley" (Harper's, December 1991, under the title "Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes")
• "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction" (The Review of Contemporary Fiction, 1993)
• "Getting Away from Already Being Pretty Much Away from It All" (Harper's, 1994, under the title "Ticket to the Fair")
• "Greatly Exaggerated" (Harvard Book Review, 1992)
• "David Lynch Keeps His Head" (Premiere, 1996)
• "Tennis Player Michael Joyce's Professional Artistry as a Paradigm of Certain Stuff about Choice, Freedom, Discipline, Joy, Grotesquerie, and Human Completeness" (Esquire, 1996, under the title "The String Theory")
• "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" (Harper's, 1996, under the title "Shipping Out")

In popular culture

In his 2011 book That Is All, John Hodgman titles a chapter about taking a cruise "A Totally Fun Thing I Would Do Again as Soon as Possible." The name of the 2012 Simpsons episode "A Totally Fun Thing That Bart Will Never Do Again" also references the title essay.

References

• Wallace, D. F. (1997). A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-92528-4
• Wallace, D. F. (1996). "Shipping Out", Harper's Magazine, January 1996 (292:1748)

External links

• "Shipping Out: On the (nearly lethal) comforts of a luxury cruise", Harpers Magazine. Also known as "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again".
• "Ticket to the Fair", Harper's Magazine. Also known as "Getting Away from Already Being Pretty Much Away from It All".
• "The String Theory", Esquire. Also known as "Tennis Player Michael Joyce's Professional Artistry as a Paradigm of Certain Stuff about Choice, Freedom, Discipline, Joy, Grotesquerie, and Human Completeness".
• "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction", The Review of Contemporary Fiction.
• "David Lynch Keeps His Head" Premiere, 1996
• "Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley", Harper's Magazine. Originally under the title "Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes"