[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] It's a dark day, I guess...

This has never happened to me before...

I can't honestly think of one instance in my years as a reader where I began a book while the author was alive, only to have that author die before that book is finished.

It's a very strange feeling that ground itself into my chest when I learned that David Foster Wallace has killed himself.

For twelve years, I've wrestled with reading Wallace's massive novel Infinite Jest, but I have found it tedious and difficult to negotiate. In fact, more than once I have cast it aside in frustration. Inevitably, though, I would return to pick away at it as though I were pulling on a scab. It's a horrible book, but it's a wonderful book.

Anyway, Infinite Jest came to me in the mail one day in 1996. It was a fucking heavy box. And, I opened it to find this comically large book inside, and with a giggle, I set it on my "to read" shelf where it sat like a threat for several weeks.

During that time, I asked one of my English instructors about this David Foster Wallace character, and as it turns out, he was either his friend or his roommate (I can't remember exactly) while they were students at Arizona. So, needless to say, now whenever I approach that book, the image of one of my favorite teachers inevitably leaps to mind, and I still feel as though it's an assignment than anything I'm supposed to enjoy.

Nonetheless, I am sad that he is gone. I can't say that David Foster Wallace was one of my favorite writers or authors, but as it is with every other human being on the planet, there are things he's done that I do enjoy, and I believe I can say without a doubt that he was certainly a genius and an immense talent, and the world is going to be a worse place without his words.

It's a shame to lose someone like him.

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 9/13/2008 08:44:00 PM