You might be looking for a primer on subatomic particles. If so, you're in the wrong place. When people talk about string theory David Foster Wallace style, they aren’t talking about Calabi-Yau manifolds or 11-dimensional membranes. They're talking about tennis. Specifically, the gut and nylon variety.
It’s a bit of a linguistic prank. Wallace, the late author of Infinite Jest, was obsessed with the game. He played it until his knees gave out and wrote about it until he changed the way we look at athletes. The "String Theory" in question is actually a posthumous collection of five essays published by the Library of America in 2016. It is, quite arguably, the best book ever written about a sport.
Bill Gates famously said this book has nothing to do with physics, but its title will make you look super smart if you’re reading it on a plane. He’s right. But the irony is that Wallace’s approach to tennis was deeply mathematical. He saw the court as a geometric grid. He saw the players as variables. Honestly, for him, a cross-court forehand was basically a solved equation.
Why the Essay "The String Theory" Matters
The centerpiece of the collection is an essay originally titled "The String Theory," published in Esquire back in 1996. It follows a journeyman player named Michael Joyce. At the time, Joyce was ranked 79th in the world. To you or me, 79th in the world at anything sounds like being a god. To the tennis world, it means you’re a ghost.
Wallace spent time with Joyce at the Canadian Open. He didn't just watch the matches; he watched the "qualies." These are the brutal, untelevised preliminary rounds where players fight for a spot in the main draw. It’s a slaughterhouse.
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The Genius Paradox
One of the most jarring things Wallace explores is why elite athletes are so boring. You've heard the interviews. "I just took it one point at a time." "I gave 110 percent." We usually think they're being guarded or maybe they're just not that bright.
Wallace suggests something much weirder.
He argues that to be that good, you have to be able to shut off the part of your brain that thinks. If you’re thinking about your mortgage while Roger Federer is serving at 130 mph, you’re dead. The athlete’s gift is a literal "blindness" to the stakes. Their vacuousness isn't a flaw; it's their superpower. They can act without the "paralysis by analysis" that haunts the rest of us.
Life in the Midwest
The book opens with "Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley." This is Wallace’s autobiography as a "near-great" junior player in Illinois. He explains how he won matches not because he was the most talented, but because he understood the wind.
While other kids tried to hit beautiful, powerful shots, Wallace just lobbed the ball into the gale. He used the "trigonometry" of the plains. He was a "wind-geometer." It’s a hilarious, slightly self-deprecating look at how a geeky kid with a "robotic detachment" could beat much better athletes by simply refusing to fight the environment.
Roger Federer as a Religious Experience
You cannot talk about string theory David Foster Wallace-style without mentioning his 2006 piece on Roger Federer. Originally titled "Federer Both Flesh and Not," it is the most famous piece of sportswriting in the last thirty years.
Wallace describes "Federer Moments." These are times when you’re watching the Swiss maestro and your jaw literally drops. Your brain can't process how a human body did what it just did. He describes Federer’s play as "kinetic beauty." It’s not just sport; it’s art.
"Genius is not replicable. Inspiration, though, is contagious, and multiform."
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He captures the transition from the "power" era of the 90s (think Pete Sampras and heavy serves) back to a version of the game that felt more like ballet. It’s the kind of writing that makes you want to go buy a racket immediately, even if you know you’ll never hit a ball like that.
Beyond the Court: What He Was Really Writing About
If you dig into the footnotes—and with Wallace, you always dig into the footnotes—you realize he isn't just talking about tennis. He’s talking about the human condition. Tennis is just the "vector" he uses to get there.
He writes about:
- The loneliness of the individual. In tennis, there’s no bench to go to. No teammates to pass to. It’s just you and your own head.
- The brutality of commerce. His essay "Democracy and Commerce at the U.S. Open" is a cynical, funny look at how a sports tournament is basically a giant mall with some tennis happening in the middle.
- The limits of language. He struggles to describe what Joyce or Federer does because their genius is "pre-verbal."
It’s heavy stuff. But it’s written with such a "kinda" casual, conversational vibe that you don't realize you're learning philosophy until you're halfway through a 50-word sentence about sweat.
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The Tragedy of Tracy Austin
In "How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart," Wallace reviews the autobiography of a former prodigy. He hated the book. Not because Austin wasn't a great player, but because her writing was so sanitized.
He wanted to know what it felt like to be the best in the world at 17 and then have your body break down at 21. She wouldn't tell him. Or maybe, as he suspected, she didn't even have the words to describe it. This silence "breaks his heart" because it reminds him that the things we most want to understand about greatness are the things that can't be explained.
How to Approach This Book (Actionable Insights)
If you're going to pick up String Theory, don't treat it like a beach read. Treat it like a conversation with a very smart, very caffeinated friend.
- Don't skip the footnotes. Seriously. Half the magic is in the tiny print at the bottom of the page. That's where the best jokes and the deepest insights live.
- Watch the clips. When he talks about a specific Federer shot from the 2005 Wimbledon final, go find it on YouTube. Seeing the "Federer Moment" while reading Wallace’s description of it is a total brain-melt.
- Read "The String Theory" (the Michael Joyce essay) first. It’s the most accessible and gives you the best sense of Wallace’s "outsider looking in" perspective.
- Accept the complexity. Some sentences will be longer than this entire paragraph. Just go with the flow. The rhythm is part of the experience.
Honestly, even if you hate tennis, you’ll probably love this book. It’s about the obsessive pursuit of excellence. It’s about what happens when a human being tries to be perfect in a world that is fundamentally messy. Wallace knew he couldn't be perfect, but he loved watching people who came close.
To get the most out of it, start with the Library of America edition. It collects all five essays in a slim volume that fits in a jacket pocket. Read "Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley" to understand the man, then move to "Federer Both Flesh and Not" to understand the myth. By the time you reach the final page, you'll see why the intersection of David Foster Wallace and tennis is one of the most important landmarks in modern American literature.