David Foster Wallace’s “Ticket to the Fair” and County Fair Memories on the Torg Stories Podcast

It’s David Foster Wallace’s article “Ticket to the Fair” on this week’s episode of the Torg Stories Podcast. 

Wallace’s article tells the story of his August, 1993 visit to the Illinois State Fair, and Anne and I use the article to remember some of the fairs of our youth. 

As for what I was doing in 1993, I was living with my mom and dad in their house on Lake Manitou in Rochester, Indiana. I was about to start my first year of teaching: 7th grade language arts and head boys basketball coach at North Miami High School in North-Central Indiana.

Prompts for Discussion: 

1. Anne, you said this was a good read. That surprised me. Why did you think it was a good read? 

2. Pick a paragraph to read to us to give readers a taste of what this essay is like. I’ll react to it and then you tell us why you picked that one.

• I’ll read the very first paragraph or bottom of p. 39 around the ag pros and the swine. Can finish that paragraph. 

3. What are your own “fair” memories or impressions? 

• Grandpa serving snow cones. Was that Kiwanis? 
• Who did the gambling with throwing the wiffle ball into the painted circles? 
• Miss Pulaski County. 
• Winning quarters. 
• Just riding my bike to the park everyday the fair was in town. 

4. List some strengths of the piece along with some examples of what you are talking about. 

• Cataloging descriptive paragraphs as in the food on the bottom of 42. The “4:45” race on p. 50. 
• Fresh metaphors: the sky is the color of old jeans
• Funny: Last paragraph 46 about the baton twirlers. 
• Weaving in his observations. On top of page 40, I thought he was knocking the Midwest pretty hard. He was there to make fun of the Midwest. But knowing DFW, I thought there would be more. I wondered if we were going anywhere different, as far as thesis and perspective. One of the places we went was the turn from animal rights stuff to, “They are just in the agribusiness of weight and meat.” 
• Also p. 42: a Midwestern perspective on East Coasters and dealing with jerk men. 

5. What would you most like to eat at this fair? Not to eat? 

• I like lemon shake ups a lot; also elephant ears. 

6. What would you most like to do at this fair? The least? 

• Eat the food. Play games. I used to like the game where you rolled balls and made the horses move and you competed against other people while a barker announced the race like it was a real horse race. 

7. What are some of the “of 1993” details that are mentioned? 

• Boom box, Billy Ray Cyrus, Miami Sound Machine

8. What are some of the “of the Midwest” details that are mentioned? 

• Corn, corn, soybeans, corn, exit ramp, corn…tree with tire swing, barn, satellite dish 
• Detasseling 
• Town of Normal, Morton

9. In what ways are you Midwestern? 

• Short to no goodbyes, keep the small talk down with neighbors, stoic and keep my feelings to myself, meet my responsibilities, give maximum effort, tell the truth

10. Two things about being Midwestern or an East Coaster:

1. He says Midwesterners go for the crowds when they have some time: fairs, ball games, bingo. He says East Coasters like to get away: placid lakes, hikes in the woods. Let’s reflect on what we do on our vacations…
2. He starts out beating up on Midwesterners…it takes a turn when he is worried about the pig but then remembers he was planning on getting a hot dog..and then there are shots at East Coasters…and it ends with observations about the Midwest. 
3. Have you adopted any of the ways of where you live now? Or would you point to traits that make someone West Coast? 

• What makes someone Southern? Friendliness even if sometimes it’s fake friendliness 
• Lots of hugging, long goodbyes
• Y’all – I use it a lot 

12. Did you think anything seemed unbelievable? A big stretch? 

• The batons were pretty crazy, he walked away from the guy on the giant swing and didn’t even watch? 

13. Why do you think Harper’s wanted a piece about the IL State Fair?

• I wonder who pitched who on this? I know he gives a reason, but I don’t know if I believe it. He’d published two novels, maybe they just wanted him to do about anything and this is what he did. I do feel like this was the start of this kind of thing. 

14. DFW says he hasn’t been back to Illinois for a long time and he can’t say he’s missed it. Is that Indiana for you? Do you ever get nostalgic for it?

• The basketball is good in NC too, but going to something like a Pacer game. For Kirkwood in Bloomington. For Broad Ripple and Butler area in Indy. For something like fireworks in the park or the front yard of where the Pughs used to live. Don’t know what’s there now…Just for people I knew a long time ago. 

15. If DFW was still around, what would you send him to in LA to write about? 

• In Boone: an App State football game, Caitlin Clark game in Indy, Luke Combs concert here, 

16. Anything else? 

• I used to run rides: was it the tilt a whirl? Scrambler, something else next to the scrambler at Indiana beach, the Alpine ride where you brought your own music, the log run, one bad job on a roller coaster. There was quite a bit of throwing up. 
• He is with Native Companion, who was his prom date many years ago. 
• He talks with some people sharing the Gospel. Dad would let people like that in to our house and talk to them. 
• The 17.6 lb zucchini. 

Anne vocab quiz…

• Nelson Eddy hats- like a Canadian mounty hat, Megan says like “Shooter” wears in Secret Window
• Carved out of feldspar – mineral containing aluminium, I’m thinking sparkly 
• Slow masses move peristaltically along – a process of wave-like muscle contractions, typically found in the digestive system, that propel substances forward
• Peripatetic feeding frenzy – nomadic, that’s great!
• Passing an enfilade of snores – volley of gunfire 
• Gamboling and twirling in vivid costumes – jumping playfully 
• Caveat emptor – Latin, let the buyer beware…the principle that the buyer alone is responsible for checking the quality of good before a purchase
• Xanadu of chintzola – chintz, I think, is a flowery pattern. 16th century India 

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Torg Stories Podcast! 

Next week, Anne and I are planning on NFL storylines for the upcoming season, listen to Anne’s case for who should play quarterback for the Colts, and a check in on the end of the WNBA regular season.