Young on Searching for the Author: A Performative Reading of Legal Subjection in David Foster Wallace's "The Pale King" @SteveIsInOtago @law_humanities @OtagoLaw

Stephen Young, University of Otago, is publishing Searching for the Author: A Performative Reading of Legal Subjection in David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King in Law and Humanities (October 2019). Here is the abstract.

This article argues that law is a central character and subject in David Foster Wallace’s unfinished, metafictional novel, The Pale King. As a subject of the novel, the so-called author disclaims this legal character, while also subjecting himself to it, which provides this text with its extra-textual and metafictional aspects. These aspects raise unanswerable questions, like ‘who is the author?’ and ‘is it finished?’ In showing that the ‘Pale King’ is the legal character, this article contends that The Pale King is a meditation on legal subjection that also, importantly and didactically, demands that readers performativity engage in processes of legal subjection.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Burri on International Law and David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest" @HSGStGallen

Thomas Burri, University of St. Gallen, has published International Law, Infinite Jest. Here is the abstract.

This short paper shows how international law mirrors David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest". While it should generally be of interest to both international lawyers and aficionados of "Infinite Jest", hopefully it also satisfies an urge we all sometimes feel when coping with the rigid rules of our professional discipline: the urge to smile for fear of losing our sanity.

Notes: (The paper is based on an essay written in German for a Festschrift for Daniel Thuerer.) Download the essay from SSRN at the link.

David Foster Wallace and the Mysterious World of Tax Law

Arthur J. Cockfield, Queen's University Faculty of Law, has published David Foster Wallace on Tax Policy, How to Be an Adult, and Other Mysteries of the Universe at 12 Pittsburgh Tax Review Faculty of Law 89 (2015). Here is the abstract.

As one of the most highly acclaimed fiction writers of his generation, David Foster Wallace had many things to say on a seemingly endless variety of topics. In his last work, the unfinished novel The Pale King, he chose to elaborate on, of all things, tax policy and tax administration. Wallace directed tax topics at one of the novel’s main themes: true adulthood often involves overcoming boredom in the workplace to derive a sense of community and care for others. In a sense, the book serves as a guide on how to become a reasonably happy and fulfilled adult. This Article integrates archival research conducted by the author within the Collected Works of David Foster Wallace at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.