On...David Foster Wallace

This post is not about the recent debate that currently is the blogosphere's hot topic. It is about an author I was not aware of until his recent death. But since his death I have encounter numerous articles about him. [see below]And I'm intrigued. Perhaps it's his death or perhaps the high regard the articles lay about his fresh grave. The name did ring a bell, but that was it.

Again the amount of novels and films and music our culture produces is immense and continuous and much of it is sludge at the bottom of a contaminated lake. So ultimately I'm not surprised that I miss some of the good stuff, especially in the world of fiction, which I find the hardest area of the culture to really keep up with. This is doubly sad as I consider myself a writer and hopefully will be able to add to the cultural richness of American letters (and not the sludge part, though I guess that's not all bad either).

His defining novel (he only wrote 2), Infinite Jest, is huge (over 1000 pages) and since I haven't tackled Thomas Pynchon yet (except for the novella The Crying of Lot 49) I'm not sure I will be getting around to it any time soon. Though his collection of short stories is definitely on my target list. So little time to absorb the good stuff and create your own.

So what's the point of all this? I guess the point of this blog is simply recognition of a life, even an invisible life. Billions of people making a go at the good life. So few make a mark. It doesn't have to be writing or sports or any of the tangibles. And ultimately I don't know if Wallace achieved that, perhaps not. Suicides I feel are not posterchilds of the good life. But for others to "know thyself" we have to examine each of the dark corners of this world, even the invisible one's, which are certainly the hardest to breakdown. Maybe someone will find a lesson, no matter how small in looking at one man's work and struggle. So here's to spreading a little more knowledge about the invisible life in our quest to achieving the good life.

The Rest is Silence by Julian Gough from Prospect. She makes some interesting points, especially about the crippling embrace of academia and teaching in general.

Legacy by Entertainment Weekly, where I first discovered DFW.

Collection of Articles and Stories from Harper's to sample his prose.