david foster wallace: classic or dud

I remember Stevie T showing me The Broom of the System, years ago. I didn't like the title much, I don't think.

I have never read him except things like the first paragraph or so of an essay on Roger Federer. Steady Mike has read him a lot more!

i read A Supposedly Fun Thing recently and absolutely loved it. apart from the quality of the writing and the insight and the jokes, i enjoyed it because DFW came across as extremely likeable. i can't believe he's dead, it's too horrible :(

i'm totally gutted about this, espcially since i clicked the thread with expectations and high hopes for news of new work to be imminently released. damn. RIP big guy.

Fucking Fuck.. This Is crushing. He was one of my favorite contemporary authors, for his fiction, yes, but (as many of you have noted) ESPECIALLY for his essays. Ned, OTM regarding the Lynch piece: Easily the finest appraisal of Lynch's work I've come across, and perhaps the single piece of writing I've reread most in recent years.

Devastating. R.I.P.

..a dangerous influence on the young - I would have to agree with this, however.

holy shit... this is terrible

this also needs to be posted:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/27769

There's this one: "Federer as Religious Experience"

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/playmagazine/20federer.html

Make sure you print the footnotes if you're printing it out.

Shit shit shit.

Fuck fuck fuck. I only finished Infinite Jest about a month ago so this feels very raw for me. One of the things that stuck out was the ease in which he moved from goofy comedy to articulating absolute crushing despair. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised or shocked by this news, but still, I am. RIP.

God, this is too much. He's been a sort of a big literary voice for me (me, who has never been particularly immersed with literature). I remember hearing he had contemplated suicide earlier in his life, but nevertheless, I couldn't even post here until this morning because it's been a bit too surreal. I've been reading IJ all summer, as well. An enormous writer and wit. Rest in Peace.

sad :(

i'm a huge fan of his essays too, although maybe it's finally time to get around to IJ.

i feel quite bad that my third thought after hearing this news (after "what the fuck" and "god I never read oblivian") was "I wonder how much my signed first editions of Girl with Curious Hair and Infinite Jest are worth now?"

Oblivion is about half totally incredible and half ...what the hell? i don't recommend a reading of Good Old Neon to anyone who is particularly upset about this news right now but, jesus, what an incredible story. i've read the story 3 or 4 times and i've still no idea what he does in the last paragraph or what it means.

very sad, brutal, worrying
onion article still makes me laugh tho
but, sigh

i'm really crushed.

i loved his writing so much.

it's hard to think of things to say about him, this is really hard for me because -- good old neon aside (good lord there's no way i could read that now) -- but despite his reputation as some sort of po-mo trickster/showoff...to me what made wallace was his heart...if anything he was painfully sincere...a guy that had so much to express, wanted to explain everything he felt to you in such detail....the footnotes always seemed like a byproduct of a real exuberance to me, not some sort of stylistic schtick...

but the sad thing to me is that I always felt his worldview, while sad at times, was a positive one...that the things we love are worth it, despite all the mental horrors of the world....to find out he ended up losing to them is infinitely sad to me.

first thing i thought of was the above referenced Kenyon University commencement speech, which in it's own small way might be my favorite thing he ever wrote:

And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom all to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the center of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving and [unintelligible -- sounds like "displayal"]. The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.

That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.

I know that this stuff probably doesn't sound fun and breezy or grandly inspirational the way a commencement speech is supposed to sound. What it is, as far as I can see, is the capital-T Truth, with a whole lot of rhetorical niceties stripped away. You are, of course, free to think of it whatever you wish. But please don't just dismiss it as just some finger-wagging Dr. Laura sermon. None of this stuff is really about morality or religion or dogma or big fancy questions of life after death.

The capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death.

It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:

"This is water."

"This is water."

It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out. Which means yet another grand cliché turns out to be true: your education really IS the job of a lifetime. And it commences: now.

I wish you way more than luck.

"i wish you way more than luck"...i dunno...that line always sort of got me a little choked, what else can you say to a kid going out in this world?

but despite his reputation as some sort of po-mo trickster/showoff...to me what made wallace was his heart...if anything he was painfully sincere...a guy that had so much to express, wanted to explain everything he felt to you in such detail....the footnotes always seemed like a byproduct of a real exuberance to me, not some sort of stylistic schtick...

yeah, this. he always seemed so....affable.

also:

By the way, it’s right around here, or the next game, watching, that three separate inner-type things come together and mesh. One is a feeling of deep personal privilege at being alive to get to see this; another is the thought that William Caines is probably somewhere here in the Centre Court crowd, too, watching, maybe with his mum. The third thing is a sudden memory of the earnest way the press bus driver promised just this experience. Because there is one. It’s hard to describe — it’s like a thought that’s also a feeling. One wouldn’t want to make too much of it, or to pretend that it’s any sort of equitable balance; that would be grotesque. But the truth is that whatever deity, entity, energy, or random genetic flux produces sick children also produced Roger Federer, and just look at him down there. Look at that.

i love the ending.

ugh i am furious. i just cannot believe this. my rubric for people i think have intellectually mastered living is totally wrong. what a shame. RIP.

Nothing like discovering that my all-time favorite writer has committed suicide on the eve of my grandfather's funeral. I am just going to stop trying to process anything for a little while, thanks.

if anything he was painfully sincere...a guy that had so much to express, wanted to explain everything he felt to you in such detail....the footnotes always seemed like a byproduct of a real exuberance to me, not some sort of stylistic schtick...

so very very OTM.

Yesterday evening my friend Kevin and I had this big conversation about DFW because I saw IJ lying around. Husband didn't know who he was so we were explaining and he decided to borrow the book and give it a go. After five hours later at 2 in the a.m. we came home and saw the news. It was made even more WTF by the conversation we'd had earlier. :-(

jeez deric sorry man.

WTF?!

lol, classic or dead

also: when i originally read "a supposedly fun thing i'll never do again" i thought the title story, the account of the cruise ship experience was a great bit of non fiction writing.

last year, my wife and i went (somewhat unenthusiastically) along on a family cruise with her side of the fam...and goddamn...i realized it was not just great, but like absolutely amazing in how he explained the weird layers of dread/boredom/horror/relaxation/guilt that are build into a cruise.

oh good cankles is here

Douglas's comment way upthread -- "for verbal glory plus neatly masked high moral seriousness, there's nobody anywhere near him writing right now in English" -- dovetails excellently with Wallace's stated fondness for The Screwtape Letters (hardly masked there, admittedly).

This is really hard to process. It's got to be a pretty surreal and depressing way for Claremont Colleges kids to start their school year.

at least he got to see that last Wimbledon

Shit, this is a shocker. No doubt somebody has already recycled a joke from the Onion to depict
him writing a 76-page multi-footnoted suicide note. Me, I thought both "Broom" and "IJ" were wonderfully
entertaining reads (even tho parts of the latter were more satisfying than the whole) and I'm sad there won't
be any followup. RIP

I totally forgot about the article on cruises. Anyone read David Rakoff? The tone of much of the essays in Fraud reminds me of Wallace.

Who was doing the footnote thing first, him or Baker?

man i just assumed this thread was revived for some contrarian b.s. seemed too engaged with the world for something like this.

The Mezzanine is from 1988, and I don't know if there are footnotes in Broom of the System (1987).

Of the footnote generation, I've been more of a fan of Vollmann and Baker. But Wallace, poor guy, poor guy, and best thoughts to those who connected with his work. As with the week when Elliott Smith died, I think of the folks I love who are hurting from this.

I'm kind of dreading the thought of a published suicide note. That would be some heavy, dark shit.

― kornrulez6969, Sunday, September 14, 2008 4:46 AM (18 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^this

its really terrible news. my heart really goes out to the guy. i have a vhs of his appearance on charlie rose that ive watched a ton of times and i think if i put it on now im gonna ball my eyes out

i'd forgotten about this, which i read and liked when it came out and which struck me as possibly a small breakthrough for him.

Who was doing the footnote thing first, him or Baker?

jack vance ("dying earth") did the footnote thing first

I'm really sad about this. Motherfuck the haters. E Unibus Pluram is probably one of the most personally important things I read in my college years and it's still great.

In fact, going back to that essay now, I'd even say some of his thoughts about television were proto-poptimist.

jesus guys, is now really the time for this vv important inquiry into who was "first" on footnotes? really?

jesus guys, is now really the time for this vv important inquiry into who was "first" on footnotes?† really?

― rogermexico., Sunday, September 14, 2008 5:37 PM (2 minutes ago)
________________________________________
† (footnotes have, in fact, been used for some time)

haha

and they're endnotes, too, not footnotes

All the links posted have been great. Thanks.

jesus guys, is now really the time for this vv important inquiry into who was "first" on footnotes? really?

Talking about what he wrote in context >> posts saying "RIP"

Sounds like it was fun to take his classes!

http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=266836

I just searched my notes for mention of his name. He keeps coming up during 2005 when, through personal circumstances, I had the energy and opportunity to read and take notes on countless long articles and books and think seriously about them. I miss that.

Here's a great review of his book on infinity in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society: http://www.ams.org/notices/200406/rev-harris.pdf. The fact that it got reviewed in this journal, never mind reviewed favourably, says it all really.

Salon interview: http://www.salon.com/09/features/wallace1.html

Last paragraph of this LRB review is a major bummer: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n22/maso02_.html

Wallace has the right to write a great book that no one can read except people like him. I flatter myself to think that I am one of them, but I haven’t any idea how to convince you that you should be, too; nor, clearly, does Wallace. And it might not be the worst thing in the world, next time out, when big novel number three thumps into the world, were he to dig deeper, search longer, and find a more generous way to make his feelings known.

If you can track it down, there was a good review of the infinity book by Jordan Ellenberg in one of the first issues of SEED, which was also 2005. I'll see if I can dig up my copy.

n+1 manages to make itself useful for once:

http://www.nplusonemag.com/david-foster-wallace

(I mean I really thought this was a good piece)

10/23/03 writing 2 4 4 emoticon smiley 1215949 Very particular about usage. Excellent at explaining concepts. Very neurotic and tends to chew tobacco and spit in a cup while lecturing. If you are a female, do NOT fall under his spell...he's a heartbreaker.