David Foster Wallace, RIP

[lizziebith]

David Foster Wallace found dead yesterday (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080914/ap_on_re_us/obit_wallace_1) of an apparent suicide. One of my favorite authors...:(

[tracilicious]

Wow. A huge loss to the writing world. Best wishes to his friends and family.

[€uroMeinke]

Maybe it's finally time for me to read Infinite Jest

[lizziebith]

Read IJ three times...DFW's usenet list was one of my first forays into the internet conversation world back in the early-mid 90s (and was oddly active today...which tipped me off), and this is one of my favorites (in the short-short format):

A Radically Condensed History of Postindustrial Life

When they were introduced, he made a witticism, hoping to be liked. She laughed extremely hard, hoping to be liked. Then each drove home alone, staring straight ahead, with the very same twist to their faces.

The man who’d introduced them didn’t much like either of them, though he acted as if he did, anxious as he was to preserve good relations at all times. One never knew, after all, now did one now did one now did one.

David Foster Wallace
Spring 1998
Ploughshares

***

I was lucky to meet him in '97 (at the Skirball) and have him sign a book or two. I made him wince with whatever pithy comment I'd carefully constructed in anticipation of the meeting. That's me. I make people wince. Ah well, I've accepted it.

But I'm really feeling a fist-hitting-desk "DAMN" feeling about this though...like a pathetic fangirl who just can't get it. WHY? I've read every word he's written and never saw this coming; in fact -- he seemed to have a lovely coper* HUD on. Honestly? It was a coper I emulated, and which seems to have served me well. But it failed him? Damn!!

Damn, Damn. Damn.

I will miss the words unwritten. Aw DFW...geez. My cheese is real sad.


*cope+er

[lizziebith]

Oh and to tie it into the board:


In 2002 he was named the first Roy E. Disney professor of creative writing at Pomona College.

Gary Kates, the college's dean, called Wallace's death "an incredible loss."

"He was a fabulous teacher," Kates said Saturday. "He was hands-on with his students. He cared deeply about them. . . . He was a jewel on the faculty, and we deeply appreciated everything he gave to the college."


You can google more about that whole thing...
Oh but...I tired and my cheese is sad still

[Strangler Lewis]

I read "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" and liked it, even with all the footnotes. Sad and a shock.