Not P but DFW: Richterish-looking sound wave

[Mike Jing]

I'm not exactly wedded to the idea, and it's not even my idea to begin
with. In fact, my first instinct was to dismiss it out of hand. However,
something has always bothered me about using "Richterish" to describe a
seismogram. It's more of a gut feeling than anything else, and it surprises
me that it's a feeling few native speakers of English share. Obviously I
could be wrong, but that's how I felt from the very start.

The main objection to Gerhard being the Richter referred to here seems to
be that he is simply not well-known enough for the reference to work on the
average reader, and that was my initial reaction as well. But considering
the target audience here, it's not as outlandish as it seems at first
glance, I would think.


On Tue, Feb 17, 2026 at 1:43 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> I will detail my case if no one else changes your mind....I do not think
> anything I say will change your mind anyway, so
> I'll hold and fold later....
>
> On Mon, Feb 16, 2026 at 12:03 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Upon further reflection, I'm all but convinced that Gerhard Richter is
>> indeed the intended reference here. What's being talked about here is a
>> picture or waveform of a soundwave, showing its amplitude vs. time,
>> displayed on a computer screen by audio editing software. Although it looks
>> very similar to a seismogram, I find it odd to describe it as
>> "Richterish-looking", because although a seismogram is closely related to
>> the Richter scale and thus to its namesake and co-creator Charles Richter
>> the seismologist, it's not quite the same as the relation between an artist
>> and his work. For one, the seismograph/gram was not actually invented by
>> him, nor does it hear his name. This is where I think the use of
>> the name-derived adjective breaks down. It's far more likely the
>> "Richterish" here actually refers to an artist, in this case a painter, due
>> to the visual nature of the comparison. In fact, a google search of
>> "Richterish" yields several results that refer to Gerhard Richter the
>> painter.
>>
>> Furthermore, Gerhardt Richter had a good deal of play in the early 2000s,
>> and many in art circles raved about his work. A writer like Wallace was
>> likely exposed to his work. And this particular essay was published in the *Atlantic
>> Monthly*, whose readership may very well be more knowledgeable in such
>> matters than the general public. So it's not out of the realm of
>> possibility. Actually, I think it's quite probable, for the reasons given
>> above.
>>
>> What do you think?
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Feb 14, 2026 at 2:07 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> That's what I went with originally, and I was going to reject the
>>> suggestion out of hand due to the simple fact that I've never heard of the
>>> artist or his work. Then I looked him up and it turns out he is sort of an
>>> important figure in contemporary art, so I thought I'd better ask in case
>>> it was my own personal ignorance.
>>>
>>> Thanks for replying, Mark.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Feb 13, 2026 at 2:54 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> It refers to the Richter scale....jagged sometimes earthquake-like
>>>> size....
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Feb 12, 2026 at 1:18 PM Mike Jing <
>>>> gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> The following excerpt is from David Foster Wallace's *Host*:
>>>>>
>>>>> NexGen (a Clear Channel product) displays a Richterish-looking sound
>>>>> wave,
>>>>> of which all different sizes of individual bits can be highlighted and
>>>>> erased in order to tighten the pacing and compress the sound bite.
>>>>>
>>>>> It was suggested by a proofreader that the Richter here refers to
>>>>> Gerhard
>>>>> Richter, a German painter, and the picture of the sound wave displayed
>>>>> by
>>>>> the NexGen software looks like some of his abstract paintings. I've
>>>>> never
>>>>> heard of the artist before but it does sound plausible, and the word
>>>>> "Richterish" is similar to "Picassoesque". Does anyone care to confirm
>>>>> or
>>>>> refute this?
>>>>> --
>>>>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>>>>
>>>>