A number of places on the web have pointed toward “I Write Like,” a site which analyzes your writing style (assuming you have a style) and vocabulary, and compares that to a somewhat limited database of authors. According to the algorithm, I write like David Foster Wallace¹ (with one Dan Brown outlier; apparently some find a Dan Brown comparison to be off-putting). Or, from another perspective, my writing least resembles the other writers.

The only David Foster Wallace I have read would be short snippets from things posted by DFW fans who write blogs I read; I get the impression that it’s a highly nonlinear effect — if you like DFW, you really, really like DFW. And he’s been in the news in recent years: his death (a great career move for so many) and subsequent discovery of unfinished works.

¹I am told his works are heavily footnoted