Infinite Death

[5laky]

I realize not a lot of people read this guy (maybe they did) but I really was hoping for a new novel at some point. Crappy.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080914/ap_en_ot/obit_wallace

[Jon]

Yeah, I just read that. I've never read him, but I've been told to more than once.

[5laky]

Yeah, I just read that. I've never read him, but I've been told to more than once.

If you ever were so inclined, pick up Infinite Jest and give it a shot.

[Pre]

I agree, hell of a book.

Hell of a non-fiction writer too.  I'm depressed now.

[Thrillho]

http://gawker.com/5049526/david-foster-wallace-dead-of-suicide-at-46

Foster Wallace, longtime darling of grad students and civilian PoMo lit fans, was often very funny in print (see his famous essay skewering the cruise ship experience, "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again"), but as his 2005 speech at Kenyon College implied, he was not unfamiliar with the heft of existence:

[L]earning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It 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. Think of the old cliché about quote the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master.

This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth. It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger.

Very Sad.

[5laky]

http://gawker.com/5049526/david-foster-wallace-dead-of-suicide-at-46

Foster Wallace, longtime darling of grad students and civilian PoMo lit fans, was often very funny in print (see his famous essay skewering the cruise ship experience, "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again"), but as his 2005 speech at Kenyon College implied, he was not unfamiliar with the heft of existence:

[L]earning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It 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. Think of the old cliché about quote the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master.

This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth. It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger.

Very Sad.

I'm curious as to why he hung himself when he knew his wife would find him that way. That seems cruel. Unless she knew it was coming.

[Fork]

I told him he had to go home, but that fucker kept hanging around.

[Pre]

I told him he had to go home, but that fucker kept hanging around.

David Foster Wallace ... was found dead in his home

I don't get it, he was at home already.  Were you in his basement for a party and under the impression that it wasn't actually his home but someone else at the party?  Why were you in California?  I don't get your post at all.

[Fork]

I told him he had to go home, but that fucker kept hanging around.

David Foster Wallace ... was found dead in his home

I don't get it, he was at home already.  Were you in his basement for a party and under the impression that it wasn't actually his home but someone else at the party?  Why were you in California?  I don't get your post at all.

Kurt was supposed to make me a photoshop that would clear everything up.

[Pre]

McSweeney's has a wonderful tribute to Wallace up.

[5laky]

McSweeney's has a wonderful tribute to Wallace up.

Some of those stories were great, some were written by people who must think they could be him. Either way, it's great reading about people's experiences with IJ.

Two bookmarks and marked up with a pen. Never read a book that made me do that before, never have since.

[5laky]

Pre, I'll one up you....sorta.

http://harpers.org/archive/2008/09/hbc-90003557

[Pre]

As a partial aside: If you enjoyed Infinite Jest, then I'd highly recommend House of Leaves

It's no replacement for DFW, but if I were to give it a bad one sentence pitch that would be given in a Red Eye equivalent of a literary magazine I'd say it would be like IJ and Foucault's Pendulum had a love child. 

[5laky]

As a partial aside: If you enjoyed Infinite Jest, then I'd highly recommend House of Leaves

It's no replacement for DFW, but if I were to give it a bad one sentence pitch that would be given in a Red Eye equivalent of a literary magazine I'd say it would be like IJ and Foucault's Pendulum had a love child. 

I have the hardcover multi-color edition at home asking to be read..I was told not to read it at night though...what are your thoughts on that?

Also Pre, have you read any Gaddis or Pynchon? I'm a big, big fan of Thomas Pynchon and I've been reading Gaddis' The Recognitions lately. You can see these guys were big influences on DFW and he kind of got me into all of those writers a bit.

I'm trying to stay in order with Pynchon, so I've got V, The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow and Vineland done. I still have to read Mason & Dixon and Against the Day (which is just MASSIVE). V is definitely my favorite so far. If you wanted a sample of Pynchon without spending months reading it, check out the Crying of Lot 49. Not too long, but dense as hell.

[Jon]

As a partial aside: If you enjoyed Infinite Jest, then I'd highly recommend House of Leaves

It's no replacement for DFW, but if I were to give it a bad one sentence pitch that would be given in a Red Eye equivalent of a literary magazine I'd say it would be like IJ and Foucault's Pendulum had a love child. 

I have the hardcover multi-color edition at home asking to be read..I was told not to read it at night though...what are your thoughts on that?

Also Pre, have you read any Gaddis or Pynchon? I'm a big, big fan of Thomas Pynchon and I've been reading Gaddis' The Recognitions lately. You can see these guys were big influences on DFW and he kind of got me into all of those writers a bit.

I'm trying to stay in order with Pynchon, so I've got V, The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow and Vineland done. I still have to read Mason & Dixon and Against the Day (which is just MASSIVE). V is definitely my favorite so far. If you wanted a sample of Pynchon without spending months reading it, check out the Crying of Lot 49. Not too long, but dense as hell.

House of Leaves is pretty rad a good read. I basically read it in three days straight during a Christmas holiday, with very little sleep.

Night reading of it is...a little creepy.


EDIT: Did I really say "pretty rad?"