The system of David Foster Wallace’s literary sociology

David Foster Wallace was first and foremost a fiction writer who thought of himself as a fiction writer. When interviewers asked him about his nonfiction, he answered: “I’ll be honest: I think of myself as a fiction writer.” So why write about his sociology? Is there even such a thing? And why should it be interesting? What follows shows that the answers to these questions unveil the core of Wallace’s lifelong project: Wallace did construct a sociology, and one which presents a clear and convincing diagnosis of the loneliness so widespread in American society and establishes the foundation of his attempt to provide a solution to the American contemporary predicament via his fiction. For this reason, his sociology must be understood to be the core of his literary project.