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[miles]

It's been so long since I've posted that I can't remember whether these posts about recently deceased artists/entertainers go in this forum or in Arts & Entertainment, so I'll just follow Golfhaus's lead.

I've never read Infinite Jest, or really anything else by David Foster Wallace, but I seem to remember some fans among the group. The story mainly caught my attention because he hanged himself this past Friday, and three years ago this month (right around this time) three people close to me ended their lives, one by hanging herself. Apparently Wallace had been battling depression for quite some time.

There is an obituary on Slate (written by their TV critic, oddly) with a link to a "review" of the 2003 Maine Lobster Festival, which turns into a piece about whether boiling lobsters alive is morally right. Also, it's now the only thing I've read by Wallace.

This, by the way, isn't what prompted me to start reading the board again. I'm actually just getting caught up with Achewood and was mainly interested to see if anyone was going to the GOF convention thingy.

[dejavroom]

Dude, you really shouldn't have... there's gonna be cake.

[AugustWest]

Sad.  I read half of Infinite Jest and got weary, but I enjoyed what I did read.  Obviously a great talent.  I'm always sad to lose a quality writer.

[wombat]

I am sorry to push aside the sad story of David Foster Wallace, who I have never read, but miles' post has my head spinning in so many unrelated directions. Three people you know killed themselves in one month? Good Lord. And, what GOF convention thingy?

[CortJstr]

I read IJ on Andalucia's recommendation, mainly because I like footnotes. I liked it, but I found his writing, and moreso his critics, to be somewhere between "very good" and "I don't understand it therefore it must be fantastic." I never read any of his shorter stuff just because I'm not a big fan of short stories.

[miles]

I am sorry to push aside the sad story of David Foster Wallace, who I have never read, but miles' post has my head spinning in so many unrelated directions. Three people you know killed themselves in one month? Good Lord. And, what GOF convention thingy?

This thingy. And yes, sadly, that is true. It also happened right after my fiance broke off our engagement. I'd say it was a bad month for me but then I'd sound like an asshole, considering how shitty it turned out for those friends' families (and for those friends, of course). Anyway, especially since then, stories like this tend to catch my attention.

[theinevitable]

I think my friend, who loves Infinite Jest, may have tried to kill herself a few weeks ago. She told me that the reason she'd been out of contact is that she was in the psych ward at the hospital, and changed the subject when I did the usual "you can tell me about it if you want, but I understand if you don't want to..." thing.

I really really like this Lobster article.

[wombat]

I read IJ on Andalucia's recommendation, mainly because I like footnotes.

That is the funniest bit of literary criticism I have heard in a long time.

"I don't understand it therefore it must be fantastic."

And that is the saddest, I have always believed that the world would be a better place if no one ever believed this about anything.

And miles, well, welcome back. Don't be a stranger.

[Doc]

And that is the saddest, I have always believed that the world would be a better place if no one ever believed this about anything.

So true.

I've had people tell me I should read IJ for ages, kind of annoying it took the guy dying to convince me to do it, it's going to be impossible to find the damn thing in libraries for ages.

[jaydub]

I picked up Eight Interviews with Horrible Men partially because of the title, but mostly because the author and I share names.  I found it at an airport, and after reading the preface quickly realized the work was going to be more of a slog than I was interested in at the time.

[dejavroom]

A friend of mine wrote a darn good short piece on the man. If anyone is interested it's here (it's weird but DFW is quite the big thing - both in an intellectual level and an emotional one, too - for a small circle of literary heads in Brazil, even though he has nothing published down here; and the biggest part of the blame/merit in that can be traced back to this selfsame friend, who started talking about DFW some 4, 5 years ago).

[theinevitable]

http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/DFW_present_tense.html

Apparently he was pretty into prescriptivism. What a shame.

What makes me glad, though, is that I was able to find the main error in his argument. Which... normally I am utterly horrific at doing.