Traditionally, critics credit Felice Bauer with being at least partial inspiration for "The Judgement"-the first story of his that satisfied Kafka. The evidence is circ.u.mstantial but convincing: it was dedicated to Felice, its composition dates to the beginning of their correspondence, and its heroine, to whom the hero is engaged, shares her initials: "Frieda Brandenfeld, a girl from a well-to-do family."

52.

Now more commonly used for recent immigrants to Western democracies.

53.

Begley: "Three 'ritual murder trials,' throwbacks to the Middle Ages, and unimaginable for Jews believing that they lived in an era of moral as well as material progress, took place within his lifetime."

54.

From her introduction to Walter Benjamin's Illuminations: Essays and Reflections Illuminations: Essays and Reflections. As Begley points out, Benjamin and Kafka were "near enough contemporaries for Arendt's comments to be considered directly relevant" to Kafka's case.

55.

Sylvia Plath hinted at this: "I think I may well be a Jew."

56.

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic Ungeziefer. Ungeziefer. Variously translated as Variously translated as insect, c.o.c.kroach insect, c.o.c.kroach-much to the horror of Nabokov, who insisted the thing had wings-bug, dung-beetle, the literal translation is the literal translation is vermin. vermin. Only the David Wyllie, Joachim Neugroschel and Stanley Corngold translations retain this literal meaning. Only the David Wyllie, Joachim Neugroschel and Stanley Corngold translations retain this literal meaning.

57.

McCarthy is also the author of the novel Men in s.p.a.ce Men in s.p.a.ce.

58.

This can be heard at http://www.listen.to/necronauts.

59.

In another INS report, this line is described as "an active construct in which 'nothing' designates an event, perhaps even a momentous one."

60.

RAI is the Italian state broadcasting corporation.

61.

Alessandro Blasetti (July 3, 1900-February 1, 1987) was the director of more than twenty films including Quattro pa.s.si fra le nuvole Quattro pa.s.si fra le nuvole (1942) and L (1942) and La fortuna di essere donna (1956). (1956).

62.

The bikini-clad showgirls on Italian television.

63.

Literally a recommendation of iron. A good word that will secure an applicant in a position.

64.

Urban Italian ma.s.s housing, the equivalent of England's housing estates and America's projects.

65.

From Larry McCaffery's Dalkey Archive Press 1993 interview with Wallace, conducted during the composition of Brief Interviews Brief Interviews. The great majority of Wallace quotes in this piece come from that interview.

66.

Each year, the MacArthur Fellows Program gives out awards of several hundred thousand dollars (nicknamed genius grants) to individuals working in any field who "show exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work." Wallace received his in 1997. Brief Interviews Brief Interviews was published in 1999. was published in 1999.

67.

Wallace's most attentive mainstream critic, Wyatt Mason, made this point in his 2004 review "You Don't Like It? You Don't Have to Play." There he asks and answers the question-"Why should [the reader] grant Wallace any of his demands . . . when the reader feels, not unreasonably, that Wallace is making unreasonable demands?"-with the only honest response available, that is, an account of Mason's own pleasure: "having read the eight stories in Oblivion; Oblivion; having found some hard to read and, because they were hard and the hardness made me miss things, reread them; having reread them and seen how they work, how well they work, how tightly they withhold their working, hiding on high shelves the keys that unlock their treasures; having, in some measure, found those keys; and having, in the solitary place where one reads, found a bright array of sad and moving and funny and fascinating human objects of undeniable, unusual value." But to those readers who find even Wallace's habit of abbreviating the phrase having found some hard to read and, because they were hard and the hardness made me miss things, reread them; having reread them and seen how they work, how well they work, how tightly they withhold their working, hiding on high shelves the keys that unlock their treasures; having, in some measure, found those keys; and having, in the solitary place where one reads, found a bright array of sad and moving and funny and fascinating human objects of undeniable, unusual value." But to those readers who find even Wallace's habit of abbreviating the phrase with regard to with regard to (w/r/t) an unreasonable demand, no counterargument will suffice. (w/r/t) an unreasonable demand, no counterargument will suffice.

68.

The second person present tense imperative-a fashionable conceit of the '90s.

69.

Maybe writers have this dream more than most.

70.

I once asked Wallace, in a letter, for a list of favorite writers. Larkin was the only poet mentioned.

71.