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Times Writer Responds To David Foster Wallace Commencement Address
New Yorker Gives New Perspective On David Foster Wallace
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David Foster Wallace: A Fellow Of Infinite Jest
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kithkin
04/28/09

In reply to Times Writer Responds To David Foster Wallace Commencement Address
You guys, I am really sick and sad about this death. I'm so sick and sad about it I'm posting seven hours after the last post. I cried for DAYS in September after he died and just the other day I thought "I miss David Wallace," even though I never knew him. A friend just wrote a fictionalized biography of Alan Turing for his thesis and I thought, "I like fictionalized biographies." My husband replied, "Like LBJ?" and I couldn't believe I had been so obvious.

The first time I was able to read something he wrote all the way through since his death was when I read his piece about the Illinois State Fair in A Supposedly Fun Thing. I know no one will read this comment, probably, but I had to say it.
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SomeAuthorGirl
04/27/09

In reply to Times Writer Responds To David Foster Wallace Commencement Address
In retrospect, I wish I'd started reading his work sooner than I did. It was enjoyable for starters, but it also taught me to fear my own work less, if that makes any sense.

He also said this, which is one of the most true things I've ever read:

[Being free] "means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed."
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mbprice
04/27/09

In reply to Times Writer Responds To David Foster Wallace Commencement Address
Question: I'll be needing another book to read soonish, and I am considering picking up some DFW. However. I don't usually go for the genius-but-impossible-to-read writers. I've stopped halfway through Pynchon books. Joyce, with the exception of Dubliners, makes me recoil. Will I enjoy DFW?
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saintbernadette
04/27/09

@mbprice: I don't have any suggestions for you, but I feel your pain.

I've gotten to the point in my life where I don't have enough spare time to struggle through books that I don't enjoy, no matter how much I feel like I should read them.
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morninggloria
04/27/09

@mbprice: Yes, but ease into Infinite Jest. Read "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never DO Again" and "Brief Interviews With Hideous Men" before proceeding with the IJ.
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morninggloria
04/27/09

@morninggloria: Did not mean to capitalize DO. Do.
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Mary McCarthyite
04/27/09

@mbprice: Also, check out the recent Profile of DFW in the New Yorker, and the excerpt from his unfinished novel, Pale King.

[www.newyorker.com]
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mbprice
04/27/09

@morninggloria: @jollydolly: Thanks :) I eased into Umberto Eco and wound up falling in love, so I think that's probably the secret.

That sounded way dirty.
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girl.of.your.dreams
04/27/09

@morninggloria: 100% agreed. Infinite Jest is my favorite book ever, but I read those first and I'm glad I did so. And honestly, Infinite Jest is not so much difficult as time-consuming. But in a good way. :)
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SomeAuthorGirl
04/27/09

@morninggloria: @mbprice: I concur with Morning Gloria, and I especially recommend Brief Interviews With Hideous Men.
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PilgrimSoul
04/27/09

In reply to Times Writer Responds To David Foster Wallace Commencement Address
I would love it if dudes would get over his death. The idolization is creepy and kinda infantilizing.

I've become a fan of DFW's essays, don't get me wrong, but I think he too would have balked at this.
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morninggloria
04/27/09

@PilgrimSoul: It's not just "dudes" who were upset by the death of David Foster Wallace. I haven't found mourning the loss of a genius to be a particularly gendered act.
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morninggloria
04/27/09

In reply to Times Writer Responds To David Foster Wallace Commencement Address
His Kenyon College commencement address is among the most inspiring pieces I've ever read.
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Mary McCarthyite
04/27/09

In reply to Times Writer Responds To David Foster Wallace Commencement Address
DFW is going to go down in literary history as being more celebrated, more mythologized, more talented than, perhaps, any other writer in the last 100 years.

A bold statement, I know. But I'd bet money on it.
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tomatoheart
04/27/09

@Mary McCarthyite: "It's better to burn out than fade away..."
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jollydolly
04/27/09

@Mary McCarthyite: Celebrated and talented I can see. Mythologized, hopefully not. There's a lot of himself in his essays. He has, however, joined the ranks of the 'creative talent = depression and madness' brigade. The mining of his work for references to suicide will go on for a while.
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Mary McCarthyite
04/27/09

@jollydolly: I think a lot of the myth-making is going to stem from the fact that he died so young. Critics and readers will always ask "What else could he have achieved if he lived?"
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TexasCrude
04/27/09

@Mary McCarthyite: And somewhere up in the mountains in New Hampshire, J.D. Salinger says, "Heh."
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Rare Affinity
04/27/09

@Mary McCarthyite: You only have to go back 100 years to discover that many much feted and celebrated writers are often scarcely known today outside of academia.
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Mary McCarthyite
04/27/09

@Rare Affinity: Not even. Go back twenty years when Raymond Carver died. He was huge in the 70s-80s. Thanks to his premature death, few people read him now. In spite of that and other historical precedents, I don't think this is going to happen with DFW.
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billybobnyc
03/02/09

In reply to New Yorker Gives New Perspective On David Foster Wallace
"his writing encourages the constant questioning and revising of every single thought."

No, that is not a healthy way to live your life. No wonder he had anxiety - I am not familiar with this guy, except what I have read here and on gawker - but it sounds as if probably spent his entire life looking at his belly button.
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Miss Smith Drank Your Vodka
03/02/09

@billybobnyc: Not just looking at his belly button, but pondering how to change it and what life would be like if it were different. ;)
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Miss Smith Drank Your Vodka
03/02/09

In reply to New Yorker Gives New Perspective On David Foster Wallace
But I believe that only if you do this, and only if you are willing to examine those choices again and again and again, will you come even close to understanding the way the world and other people work - to being the kind of person who can make other people become less alone.

Yes, but analyzing all your cognitive choices and moves can also be a sign of and/or lead to anxiety.

This type of overthinking and analyzing is a key ingredient of anxiety, and can become so weighty on a person that it sinks them into or further into depression. This struggle to make everything count and to live with such meaning can make you feel alone in a world where many do not see or live that way. Sometimes you need to let go in order to find the best path or choice.

RIP
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billybobnyc
03/02/09

@Miss Smith Drank Your Vodka: See my commment below. Good observation. I have been guilty of this, and have found that most people do not live their lives this way - they just live.
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Miss Smith Drank Your Vodka
03/02/09

@billybobnyc: And, for that I am jealous.

I was just reading an essay of his right now, online, taht someone suggested on here. The neuroses of the characters is heartbreaking and eerily close to some thought patterns I find myself stuck in. An "emotional surfer" he called one girl, always riding on the waves of her emotions and where they take her.

"They just live" - I am working on that. :)
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rocknrollunicorn
03/02/09

In reply to New Yorker Gives New Perspective On David Foster Wallace
His wife's summary of the week leading to his death is interesting, and quite familiar, to me. My father is an alcoholic and every time he binges, in retrospect, my mother knows exactly when he made that choice and began lying to her/being evasive. If I'm around, I can usually tell too.
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formergr
03/02/09

In reply to New Yorker Gives New Perspective On David Foster Wallace
It's interesting that this piece says that DFW stopped taking Nardil because of concerns it was interfering with his creative process, and then didn't give new ones time to work once he was released from the hospital. Didn't another piece on him about a month or two after his death (was it Vanity Fair? NYT?) that Jezebel also covered say that he had to stop taking his antidepressant(s) because of medical side-effects, according to his father?

Not that it matters in the end, since the very unfortunate result was the same, but I just remember that for some reason and found the difference interesting...
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eya
03/02/09

@formergr: I really really hope it is not true that he stopped a med that was working in the hope of being more creative and it ended up costing his life. that is abominably sad.

I too have stopped a med that was working for me and it did not work when I resumed it. heartbreakingly frustrating.
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formergr
03/02/09

@eya: Oh, that must be so difficult. I hope you've been able to find at least a somewhat effective substitute and are hanging in there.
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Eleanor Ramilly
03/02/09

In reply to New Yorker Gives New Perspective On David Foster Wallace
You'll have to excuse me because it's been a while since I read Infinite Jest, but do you remember in the beginning of the book when the young girl is in a mental institution for depression/marijuana addiction, and she describes her pain? I always thought that was the most beautiful and well written explanation of what it is like to suffer from clinical depression.
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eya
03/02/09

@Shannon: Yes. Kate Gompert is her name.
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Eleanor Ramilly
03/02/09

@eya: Ah, yes, thanks!!
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PilgrimSoul
03/02/09

In reply to New Yorker Gives New Perspective On David Foster Wallace
I did not like DFW's fiction, particularly, but have been reading his essays since his death and enjoying them. But I find this fetishizing of his mental illness and subsequent suicide worrisome. I realize he was an idol for what I call the Dudely Literati and they have therefore felt it necessary to appropriate him for themselves by writing about him endlessly, but I'm hoping soon people let this go, a little bit.

I've been struggling lately with a pretty severe bout of depression in which I am reasonably incapacitated professionally and personally, and I would not wish it on anyone, but if I had managed to write half the beautiful things he had, I would be sad if it was all people had to say about me after I was gone.
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rocknrollunicorn
03/02/09

@PilgrimSoul: It is a bit insulting but it is always what we can't understand or relate to that we focus on in one's biography (not that a lot of people aren't depressed, but I think a lot of people have difficultly imagining making that final decision). Let's hope, as time goes on, his legacy is like Van Gogh's in that people talk about the ear all the fricking time, but also appreciate the art.
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MockMyWorld
03/02/09

In reply to New Yorker Gives New Perspective On David Foster Wallace
Jeez, this is all so serious, insightful and interesting that I can't even make any Axl Rose jokes.
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Sev
03/02/09

In reply to New Yorker Gives New Perspective On David Foster Wallace
I'm really tired of this idea that says in order to be creative one must be a tortured soul.

Of course, I say that knowing I want to be a creative person yet I'm not. Considering I don't need meds and I've never created anything worthwile in my life, I think this might be something I tell myself so I can sleep at night.
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Beets.Go.On is the Fat Yogini
03/02/09

@Sev: i suppose objectively one doesn't have to be tortured to be creative, I just have never come across a creative person who wasn't suffering with mental demons, nor a piece of moving art/literature/performance that did not come from a tortured soul.
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kimsama
03/02/09

@Beets.Go.On: I suspect it is partially from the introspection one derives from suffering. When I am lying awake all night having panic attacks, I tend to do a lot of mental gymnastics to keep myself in a "good place." This leads me to exhume thoughts/imagery/reflections/regrets/fears that stay buried when I'm not so stricken.

I don't think it's so much that some people suffer more, because we all suffer. But some types of suffering give you a measure of insight just because of how the suffering itself plays out (i.e. it forces a sort of obsessive self-reflection on you). Maybe that's why creativity seems to be linked to certain ailments.

@Sev: If you're sleeping well, that is a wonderful gift. You're lucky, not uncreative!
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Schm
03/02/09

In reply to New Yorker Gives New Perspective On David Foster Wallace
I'm not sure how I feel about the publishing of The Pale King so soon. Apparently he hadn't finished it yet and the manuscript was still laying around at his house, not having been submitted to any publishers. Seeing how much of a perfectionist he was, I'm not sure he would have wanted anyone to read this yet. I will probably read it out of literary and general DFW curiosity, but it just seems a little... too soon?
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rocknrollunicorn
03/02/09

@schmalerie: You know, I don't even ever have any desire to read unfinished works. They just don't appeal to me at all. If the author did not send them to his/her editor, I really kind of feel like it's none of my business.
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Schm
03/02/09

@rocknrollunicorn: Right? They just make me feel like a voyeur. And this strikes me as a little bit too much capitalization on his recent death. If they waited a year or two to do this, I'm sure just as many of his fans would still be interested in reading it, and it would come across as much less grave-robbery. Since its only been a few months, it doesn't quite feel like an artifact yet and I still can't help but think about what his wishes may have been.
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Talaton
03/02/09

.@schmalerie: The article states that he left the piece organized to be found. He also had a very close relationship (and longterm) with both his agent and his editor at the publishing house.

These people seem to have been very close and really heartbroken to lose their friend and I think accusing them of grave-robbery is really harsh. We can't be privvy to everything that happens behind closed doors and none of us knew his wishes, but he seemed to trust his people. And honestly, they probably knew his wishes better than you and I do.
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Schm
03/02/09

@Talaton: I wasn't accusing them of outright grave-robbery; I said it sort of comes across that way. I am not sure if he meant for it to be published, as it just says that he left it for his wife.

I just personally don't know if maybe it's too soon to be making money off of it, and as I said before I'm not sure how I feel about it. That's all.
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Schm
03/02/09

@Talaton: And when I said the grave-robbery comment, I wasn't talking about his friends.
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