Not P but DFW: Richterish-looking sound wave

[Mike Jing]

Interesting tidbit that may or may not be relevant: Wallace also used the
word "Pollockian" in the same article:

Except for the door and soundproof window, the entire studio is lined in
acoustic tile with strange Pollockian patterns of tiny holes.

On Tue, Feb 17, 2026 at 2:06 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
>>>>>>
>>>>>