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On cataloguing David Foster Wallace

Former NER intern and Middlebury graduate Jenn Shapland writes for The Millions about her summer spent cataloguing Wallace’s papers at UT’s Ransom Center.

I begin with a delicacy that is paralyzing. I fear getting anything out of order, out of place. I fear removing the rubber bands, the paper clips, the numbered Post-it notes. I’m distinctly aware that if I mess up, if I lose the order, the order is lost. That if I damage anything, there is no replacement. This is always the tricky, taxing part of archival work. The sense of responsibility is kind of overwhelming. I have to take out all the staples I find, because they make the paper deteriorate faster. Staples take me about five minutes each, using a thin metal wand, hands shaking. The process feels unnecessarily violent.

[read the essay]

 

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Filed Under: NER Community Tagged With: David Foster Wallace, Jenn Shapland, Ransom Center

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Writing this poem was not a commentary on a rivalry between the sister arts—poetry and painting—but more an experiment in the ekphrastic poetic mode.

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