The autobiographical tennis-prodigy substrate under Hal and E.T.A.
echoes
From: Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley
- Early text: "Between the ages of twelve and fifteen I was a
near-great junior tennis player" [opening ¶s]; the whole essay is Wallace's
first-person account of ranked Midwestern junior competition — the drills,
the tournaments, the ranking system, the townships' volunteer-coach circuit.
[e-text]
- IJ echo: E.T.A. as an entire institution built around exactly this junior-tennis
life, and Hal as its ranked-prodigy center; the tennis-academy world
(the Schtitt/deLint drill and ranking apparatus; the Port Washington match;
Hal's competitive ascent). The autobiographical readings of the novel treat
Hal's tennis background as drawn from Wallace's own — this essay is the
primary documentary source that reading rests on.
- Weight: prefiguration