Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes: A Midwestern Boyhood
E1009695
"Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes: A Midwestern Boyhood" is a personal, reflective essay by David Foster Wallace recounting his adolescence in the American Midwest through the lenses of sports, academics, and regional culture.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| David Foster Wallace’s tennis writings | 1 |
| Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes: A Midwestern Boyhood canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T12885964 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes: A Midwestern Boyhood Context triple: [A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, containsEssay, Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes: A Midwestern Boyhood]
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A.
Game, Set and Math
Game, Set and Math is a popular mathematics book by Ian Stewart that uses games, puzzles, and recreational problems to explore a wide range of mathematical ideas in an accessible way.
-
B.
Extraordinary Tennis for the Ordinary Player
Extraordinary Tennis for the Ordinary Player is a classic instructional tennis book by engineer and management scientist Simon Ramo that explains the game through statistical insight and practical strategy for recreational players.
-
C.
On the Pythagorean Life
On the Pythagorean Life is a Neoplatonic biographical and philosophical treatise that portrays the life, teachings, and communal practices of Pythagoras and his followers.
-
D.
The Tennis Players
"The Tennis Players" is a novel by Swedish author Lars Gustafsson that blends philosophical reflection with a wry, introspective narrative about identity, memory, and the passage of time.
-
E.
Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court
"Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court" is a memoir and leadership book in which legendary basketball coach John Wooden shares his life lessons, coaching philosophy, and personal reflections on character and success.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes: A Midwestern Boyhood Target entity description: "Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes: A Midwestern Boyhood" is a personal, reflective essay by David Foster Wallace recounting his adolescence in the American Midwest through the lenses of sports, academics, and regional culture.
-
A.
Game, Set and Math
Game, Set and Math is a popular mathematics book by Ian Stewart that uses games, puzzles, and recreational problems to explore a wide range of mathematical ideas in an accessible way.
-
B.
Extraordinary Tennis for the Ordinary Player
Extraordinary Tennis for the Ordinary Player is a classic instructional tennis book by engineer and management scientist Simon Ramo that explains the game through statistical insight and practical strategy for recreational players.
-
C.
On the Pythagorean Life
On the Pythagorean Life is a Neoplatonic biographical and philosophical treatise that portrays the life, teachings, and communal practices of Pythagoras and his followers.
-
D.
The Tennis Players
"The Tennis Players" is a novel by Swedish author Lars Gustafsson that blends philosophical reflection with a wry, introspective narrative about identity, memory, and the passage of time.
-
E.
Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court
"Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court" is a memoir and leadership book in which legendary basketball coach John Wooden shares his life lessons, coaching philosophy, and personal reflections on character and success.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (35)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
essay
ⓘ
nonfiction work ⓘ personal essay ⓘ |
| author | David Foster Wallace ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| features |
tennis
ⓘ
tornadoes ⓘ trigonometry ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
David Foster Wallace's boyhood
ⓘ
formative years ⓘ youthful experiences ⓘ |
| form | prose ⓘ |
| genre |
autobiographical essay
ⓘ
memoir ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | contemporary American literature ⓘ |
| literaryStyle |
personal
ⓘ
reflective ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
Midwestern United States
ⓘ
academics ⓘ adolescence ⓘ regional culture ⓘ sports ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | first person ⓘ |
| portrays |
Midwestern suburban life
ⓘ
Midwestern weather ⓘ academic pressure ⓘ junior tennis competition ⓘ |
| settingRegion |
American Midwest
ⓘ
linked to:
Midwest
|
| targetAudience | adult readers ⓘ |
| theme |
coming of age
ⓘ
identity formation ⓘ intellectual development ⓘ regional identity ⓘ |
| workOf | David Foster Wallace ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes: A Midwestern Boyhood Description of subject: "Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes: A Midwestern Boyhood" is a personal, reflective essay by David Foster Wallace recounting his adolescence in the American Midwest through the lenses of sports, academics, and regional culture.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
→
containsEssay
→
Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes: A Midwestern Boyhood
ⓘ
linked to: Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes: A Midwestern Boyhood