David Foster Wallace commits suicide (1 Viewer)

[The_Man]

Just heard that my favorite writer, David Foster Wallace committed suicide last night. I'm so bummed by this.

From the LA Times:

David Foster Wallace, the novelist, essayist and humorist best known for his 1996 tome "Infinite Jest," was found dead last night at his home in Claremont, according to the Claremont Police Department. He was 46.

Jackie Morales, a records clerk at the Claremont Police Department, said Wallace's wife called police at 9:30 p.m. Friday saying she had returned home to find her husband had hanged himself.

Wallace won a cult following for his dark humor and ironic wit, which was on display in such books as "Girl with Curious Hair" and "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men." In 1997, he received a MacArthur "genius" grant.

Born in Ithaca, New York, Wallace was teaching writing at Pomona College

 

[Da Guru]

Just heard that my favorite writer, David Foster Wallace committed suicide last night. I'm so bummed by this. From the LA Timesavid Foster Wallace, the novelist, essayist and humorist best known for his 1996 tome "Infinite Jest," was found dead last night at his home in Claremont, according to the Claremont Police Department. He was 46.Jackie Morales, a records clerk at the Claremont Police Department, said Wallace's wife called police at 9:30 p.m. Friday saying she had returned home to find her husband had hanged himself.Wallace won a cult following for his dark humor and ironic wit, which was on display in such books as "Girl with Curious Hair" and "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men." In 1997, he received a MacArthur "genius" grant.Born in Ithaca, New York, Wallace was teaching writing at Pomona College

RIP, Why is that many people of humor seem to end their own lives in one way or another?

 

[snitwitch]

That's terrible. I remembe slogging through Infinite Jest many years ago.

Here's his excellent article on Federer from 2006: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/p...?pagewanted=all

 

[kupcho1]

Holy ####

 

[The_Man]

I think it's a stretch to call Wallace a humorist, although many of his essays were hilariously funny. The guy was an acute observer of everything -- including himself and his own writing, to the point where I think his self-consciousness and self-criticism must have finally driven him to this. Infinite Jest is a genuine masterpiece, but he never published another novel. I think he must have been afraid of being unable to do something as good or better.

 

[AhrnCityPahnder]

I remembe slogging through Infinite Jest many years ago.

I bought it with the intent of doing that, but so far it's been nothing more than a 17 pound doorstop.

 

[pecorino]

just saw this on yahoo.

i've read a lot of his stuff but never made it all the way through infinite jest. think i'll take it up one more time. very sad news.

 

[kupcho1]

I remembe slogging through Infinite Jest many years ago.

I bought it with the intent of doing that, but so far it's been nothing more than a 17 pound doorstop.

Fantastic book, Ahrn. I may have to read it again now (even though I just reread it about a year ago).

 

[tommykt]

This name really rings a bell for me but I can not place him at all. Anyone with some links of his work maybe?

 

[kupcho1]

From Gawker:

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.

 

[El Floppo]

I remembe slogging through Infinite Jest many years ago.

I bought it with the intent of doing that, but so far it's been nothing more than a 17 pound doorstop.

Slogged a bit myself... but never made a dent.Horrible news about Wallace.

 

[Alan Smithee]

That's terrible news. DFW was one of my favorite writers and Infinite Jest is just an amazing novel. I usually tell people to stick with it until the Eschaton Debacle. If they're not hooked after that, then it's ok to give up.This snippet is from an essay in "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" in which he writes about a deluxe seven day cruise he was sent on.

The Fleet Bar was also the site of Elegant Tea Time later that same day, where elderly female passengers wore long white stripper-gloves and pinkies protruded from cups, and where among my breaches of Elegant Tea Time etiquette apparently were:(a) imagining people would be amused by the tuxedo design t-shirt I wore because I hadn't taken seriously the Celebrity brochure's instruction to bring a real tux on the Cruiseb) imagining the elderly ladies at my table would be charmed by the off-color Rorschach jokes I made about the rather obscene shapes the linen napkins at each place were origami-folded into;© imaging these same ladies might be interested to learn what sorts of things have to be done to a goose over its lifetime in order to produce pate-grade liverd) putting a 3-ounce mass of what looked like glossy black buckshot on a big white cracker and then putting the whole cracker in my mouthe) assuming one second thereafter a facial expression I'm told was, under even the most charitable interpretation, inelegantf) trying to respond with a full mouth when an elderly lady across the table with a pince-nez and buff colored gloves and lipstick on her right incisor told me this was Beluga caviar, resulting in (f(1)) the expulsion of several crumbs and what appeared to be a large black bubble and (f(2)) the distorted production of a word that I was told sounded to the entire table like a genital expletiveg) trying to spit the whole indescribable nauseous glob into a flimsy paper napkin instead of one of the plentiful and sturdier linen napkins, with results I'd prefer not to describe in any more detail than as unfortunate; and (h) concurring, when the little kid (in a bow tie and [no kidding] tuxedo shorts) seated next to me pronounced Beluga caviar "blucky" with a spontaneous and unconsidered expression that was, indeed and unmistakably, a genital expletive. Let us draw the curtain of charity over the rest of that particular bit of Managed Fun.

 

[flysack]

NO EFFING WAY.



I have no words. In fact, I have a hard time believing it's true except that DFW would never stoop to a publicity stunt like this.

I really have no words.

 

[pantagrapher]

One of my favorite writers. An immense talent. I can't ####### believe this.

 

[culdeus]

Eerie similarity to Toole no?

 

[flysack]

I know. A great light has gone out.

He was one of America's young(er) geniuses. My generation's Thomas Pynchon. F!@K.

 

[flysack]

Eerie similarity to Toole no?

NO.Toole killed himself out of artistic depression. No one would publish his work.DFW had immense recognition. Maybe too much. He was considered a genius by many, a supreme talent. It's nothing like Toole.

 

[culdeus]

Eerie similarity to Toole no?

NO.Toole killed himself out of artistic depression. No one would publish his work.DFW had immense recognition. Maybe too much. He was considered a genius by many, a supreme talent. It's nothing like Toole.

Ok, well I had only heard of this guy through only the most offbeat of sources. If he was immensely recognized then good for him. Wasn't aware of that. More or less recognized than a Jonathan Safraan Foer(sic) (spelling sue me) in your opinion?

 

[Sand]

Not sure exactly why, but I'm kinda missing Lewis Grizzard right now.

 

[flysack]

Eerie similarity to Toole no?

NO.Toole killed himself out of artistic depression. No one would publish his work.DFW had immense recognition. Maybe too much. He was considered a genius by many, a supreme talent. It's nothing like Toole.

Ok, well I had only heard of this guy through only the most offbeat of sources. If he was immensely recognized then good for him. Wasn't aware of that. More or less recognized than a Jonathan Safraan Foer(sic) (spelling sue me) in your opinion?

Yes. Very much so. I'm sure a number of bios will be out tomorrow in the newspapers. Read them.Many considered him the brightest American writer under 50. He was considered a genius of sorts, and recognized as such.

 

[flysack]

In fact, if I were pressed to guess, I bet he'll be remembered more for his essays than his fiction. He was the Emerson of the postmodern era.

 

[pantagrapher]

"The library, and step on it!"

 

[krista4]

Holy ####

I just yelled "Oh my God!" when I saw this thread title. One of my top three favorite writers and an absolutely brilliant man. This is horrible. ETA: After typing this, I looked down and noticed "Girl with Curious Hair" sitting right next to my computer on the coffee table. Turns out my boyfriend had just pulled it out earlier today and started re-reading it. I officially find that spooky.And I can't ever remember being so upset to hear about a "celebrity" before. I'm shaking and feel nauseated.

 

[flysack]

The Depressed Person sleeps.

 

[Statler & Waldorf]

I remembe slogging through Infinite Jest many years ago.

I bought it with the intent of doing that, but so far it's been nothing more than a 17 pound doorstop.

I remember reading an article on Wallace and he said that exact same quote.....thinking most people who bought it probably didn't read it. That being said, my book has also been a doorstop. RIP

 

[Chigurh]

Here's his whole speech at Kenyon University:

http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html

 

[snitwitch]

Eerie similarity to Toole no?

NO.Toole killed himself out of artistic depression. No one would publish his work.DFW had immense recognition. Maybe too much. He was considered a genius by many, a supreme talent. It's nothing like Toole.

I don't know if there aren't similarities.It's depression that killed em both, let's face it. The big difference is that one was younger and unknown, the other older and well received.

 

[pantagrapher]

A nice piece from Cosmopolis:

DFW, RIPNews of David Foster Wallace's suicide comes as a shock, although I have a feeling it will soon begin to seem inevitable. A writer who kills himself at the age of 46, to paraphrase Walter Benjamin, becomes a writer who was always destined to kill himself at age 46. All DFW's work will be read retrospectively with knowledge of his end, as if it were ordained. (If I were Wallace, I'd have a footnote here referring to Hart Crane, Sylvia Plath and John Kennedy Toole, whose company he now joins.)Wallace and I were in only intermittent touch recently, but I assumed he was on an even keel -- writing prolifically, recently married, happily teaching. I guess not. He could document his troubles in Infinite Jest, a work of fiction so brilliant you often find yourself putting it down just to breathe, but he could not, in the end, escape them. Already I hear editors making phone calls, clearing space in the November issue, the writers jockeying for position to interview those left behind to record The Suicide of America's Most Brilliant Writer, and how Everything Wasn't Enough, how He Fought His Demons but They Finally Triumphed. It may even be true. But Wallace would have hated it anyway. He dodged the press--when the LA Times sent a writer out to Claremont he declined to talk--and kept his private life as private as he could. He was a good friend, in all senses of the word. I was once having some woman trouble -- my girlfriend, a poet, had run away, big melodrama, I was angry and stricken. Here's what will happen, he said. She will call and beg to come back, and tell you this time it will all be different, she's changed, she's better now. And when you hear that, let me know, and I'll tie you to a chair so you can't answer the door.And so a few weeks later, right on schedule, she did call, and say, this time it will be different, I'm so sorry, I want to come back. I took her back, and it didn't work out, which only proved Wallace was right."I had a thing for mad poets for a while," he wrote in an email. "Got tired. Karen is a painter, and also works as a stylist for photographers, and once taught tapdancing to the whole cast of Cheers. My brush with greatness."I like the sentiment at the Howling Fantods, a DFW fan site: "I never made an effort to contact him, in fact, I actively avoided it. This seemed to be the right thing to do in the light of all I knew about David Foster Wallace. I don't know where I am going with this." Writers. They always break your heart.

I did have the good fortune to meet and speak to the man several times when I was a student at Illinois State. Of course, back then I hadn't the foggiest idea what I was dealing with. He seemed like an ordinary guy who just happened to give very good, simple advice about writing. About a year after I graduated (sometime in 1998), I found myself in the university bookstore. The legend of DFW had taken root by that time. I went to see if I could find any of his books to read because I hadn't read any of them yet. There were three hardcover copies of "ASFTINDA" nestled in the Ws. They were all signed. But for some reason I didn't buy one.I always wondered if he just wandered in there one day, signed them, placed them back on the shelf and left. It seemed like something he would do.

 

[flysack]

I did have the good fortune to meet and speak to the man several times when I was a student at Illinois State. Of course, back then I hadn't the foggiest idea what I was dealing with. He seemed like an ordinary guy who just happened to give very good, simple advice about writing.

About a year after I graduated (sometime in 1998), I found myself in the university bookstore. The legend of DFW had taken root by that time. I went to see if I could find any of his books to read because I hadn't read any of them yet. There were three hardcover copies of "ASFTINDA" nestled in the Ws. They were all signed. But for some reason I didn't buy one.

I always wondered if he just wandered in there one day, signed them, placed them back on the shelf and left. It seemed like something he would do.

Great story. Closest I came was attending a reading. When he was doing the mandatory question/answer period (which he claimed was the only thing about readings he liked), he admitted that The Depressed Person was the story he received the most letters about. Then he said something that seemed obvious to me then, but hits me hard now -

"Yea, it's never a good idea to write a story by taking a bicycle pump to a darker part of yourself. But people liked it, so whatever."

 

[pantagrapher]

DFW interview w/Charlie Rose back in 1997

ETA: at about the 29:00 mark, he begins discussing previous thoughts of suicide and drug use he experienced back in the late-80s. He also talks about his fascination with people who've been through a midlife crisis—how for them "the normal incentives for getting out of bed no longer apply."

 

[phthalatemagic]

What's with the three names?

 

[kupcho1]

DFW interview w/Charlie Rose back in 1997

ETA: at about the 29:00 mark, he begins discussing previous thoughts of suicide and drug use he experienced back in the late-80s. He also talks about his fascination with people who've been through a midlife crisis—how for them "the normal incentives for getting out of bed no longer apply."

Wow, this is interesting. The wincing after he answers a question is almost painful to watch."This is gonna get cut out, right?"

 

[pantagrapher]

I found this bit from the NYT terribly heartbreaking:

His father said Sunday that Mr. Wallace had been taking medication for depression for 20 years and that it had allowed his son to be productive. It was something the writer didn’t discuss, though in interviews he gave a hint of his haunting angst....James Wallace said that last year his son had begun suffering side effects from the drugs and, at a doctor’s suggestion, had gone off the medication in June 2007. The depression returned, however, and no other treatment was successful. The elder Wallaces had seen their son in August, he said.“He was being very heavily medicated,” he said. “He’d been in the hospital a couple of times over the summer and had undergone electro-convulsive therapy. Everything had been tried, and he just couldn’t stand it anymore.”

I knew that he'd struggled with depression, but I had no idea how deeply troubled he was. It sounds like he tried everything he could. I guess in some respect, it's heartening to know he fought his demons so hard. But tragic that they eventually won.Ugh.

 

[The_Man]

Still so saddend by this.

I knew him: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!

 

[krista4]

Still so saddend by this. I knew him: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!

 

[Jefferson the Caregiver]

It always amazes me when succesful people who seem to have everything going for them and are able to do what they dream of doing career wise, commit suicide.

The guy was definately an incredible talent, hard to believe that he would get to this point but the mind is a powerful thing and just goes to show you that depression is very real because this really makes no sense.

I need to read Infinite Jest again. I didn't concentrate on it enough the first time around. It was work but it was also very interesting and one of the most creative books I've ever encountered.

 

[Gadabout]

Eff depression.

 

[TommyGilmore]

The CFO from The Office killed himself??

 

[pantagrapher]

Just a quick update. There is a rapidly growing list of DFW remembrances &c. at The Howling Fantods. I especially recommend the McSweeney's link about three posts down—a thread of brief memories from friends, colleagues and former students.

 

[Why Me?]

Just a quick update. There is a rapidly growing list of DFW remembrances &c. at The Howling Fantods. I especially recommend the McSweeney's link about three posts down—a thread of brief memories from friends, colleagues and former students.

Some great rememberances in the McSweeney's link - thanks.

 

[T Bell]

Just heard that my favorite writer, David Foster Wallace committed suicide last night. I'm so bummed by this. From the LA Timesavid Foster Wallace, the novelist, essayist and humorist best known for his 1996 tome "Infinite Jest," was found dead last night at his home in Claremont, according to the Claremont Police Department. He was 46.Jackie Morales, a records clerk at the Claremont Police Department, said Wallace's wife called police at 9:30 p.m. Friday saying she had returned home to find her husband had hanged himself.Wallace won a cult following for his dark humor and ironic wit, which was on display in such books as "Girl with Curious Hair" and "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men." In 1997, he received a MacArthur "genius" grant.Born in Ithaca, New York, Wallace was teaching writing at Pomona College

RIP, Why is that many people of humor seem to end their own lives in one way or another?

The best way to go out as a humorist is ironically.

 

[krista4]

Just a quick update. There is a rapidly growing list of DFW remembrances &c. at The Howling Fantods. I especially recommend the McSweeney's link about three posts down—a thread of brief memories from friends, colleagues and former students.

Some great rememberances in the McSweeney's link - thanks.

 

[mon]

Mark Morford says a few words about DFW.

 

[krista4]

Harper's has put up all his articles for them. I love Everything is Green. Harper's

ETA: I'm really enjoying a lot of the very personal and heartfelt remembrances at the Pomona website: Pomona For some reason, this really got to me:

Sometimes people brought food to class, like for a birthday or to celebrate the last class of the semester. Dave didn't eat sweets, but he would often go on about how good it looked or how delicious it smelled. One time, when someone brought brownies, he held it up to his nose and inhaled deeply for a long time before passing it on. He used to bring plain almonds for himself. If you sat next to him, he'd occasionally place an almond in front of you. He wouldn't ask if you wanted it or not, he'd just put it there. If you ate it, he'd probably give you another one.

 

[T Bell]

Well I for one think he was an outstanding Secretary of State at a critical time in our history.

 

[Gnat Berries]

Mark Morford says a few words about DFW.

Very well said, as always. Except one thing: A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again isn't his best essay. It's funny and brilliant, sure, but E Unibus Pluram is that rare essay that perfectly captures both the cultural and intellectual climate of its time (our time). I make a point of reading it at least once a year, if not more frequently.

 

[Klimtology]

I thought this was an insightful post from the Charlie Rose link:

'After reading the transcript of the commencement speach that he gave at Kenyon College (link) http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html I felt seriously cheated having not ever heard of this guy before. However, after thinking about the speech, perhaps rather than feeling cheated at not having heard of him before now, maybe I should consider the possibility that for whatever reason, he was in serious pain, and that he is now in a much better place (whereever that may be), and I should just choose to think of myself as lucky for coming across him right now'

Agreed.

 

[Klimtology]

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/ti...lace&st=cse

HTH

 

[Sigmund Bloom]

The Lost Years and Last Days of David Foster Wallace

 

[Jefferson the Caregiver]

The Lost Years and Last Days of David Foster Wallace

Great article.