The Great Concavity
David Foster Wallace, 46, has died.
I'm awfully sad tonight. Infinite Jest was the first hard book I ever loved; it infuriated and baffled me, and it was the funniest book I'd ever read. Infinite Jest introduced me to the idea that real people (he lived in Illinois!) were writing big and beautiful and brilliant novels.
I have been busy stealing from it ever since, of course, like so many other writers (particularly those of us who write about smart teenagers, which DFW did with such perfection).
posted by John Green @ Saturday, September 13, 2008
9 Comments
9 Comments:
I loved Infinite Jest, and when I received the email this afternoon that Wallace had died, it ruined my afternoon.
In all seriousness.
Next Vlogbrothers book club book? Even though it is long, it's worth it.
I let out a huge gasp when I heard. I love "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men". He wrote unlike anyone else - what a loss.
My whole family is heartbroken. He's my big brother's absolute favorite author, but we all love him. The last couple years, on long car trips or while we were all together in the kitchen cooking, we'd read his essays out loud to each other. I know for all of us it was reassuring to think that there existed a person with such fierce intelligence, with such a clear-sighted view of the reality of the world, who wasn't shutting himself away, he was reaching out to assemble a life that seemed happy.
And then to see this happen, it's just so tragic and so disheartening. As my brother put it, at 27 years old, he didn't think he had any more heroes to lose. But it turns out he did.
I was working in a college radio station when he came in to do an interview for a program we had about books. Before the interview began he pulled a kamikaze headband out of his bag and put it on.
"I'm ready now" he said.
"Consider the Lobster" was the first thing I read by DFW, followed by "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" (which is being made into a movie!). He's going to be missed. :(
Aww, man, how sad. D: He's so young.
He's one of those writers who has always been at the back of my mind as "someone who's work I need to look into sometime". I'm only sorry I didn't have a chance before he passed.
However, I feel I should definitely pick up "Infinite Jest" as soon as possible to give me a little inspiration for the book I'm working on (as well as your work and the Blurbing Book Club, which has helped me greatly in recent months).
I love DFW's work. In the back of my mind, when I read AOK I felt that you had been influenced by his books. Your repeated use of the word "feral," your use of footnotes, and the fact that you had exchanges between Lindsay and Colin that went like this:
"..."
"..."
Yep, all DFW's influence. I'm so glad you said you've acknowledged you've "stolen" from him; I was prepared to hate you if you hadn't.
I'm so sorry he's gone. He was such a talent, and while those at that level of success could become arrogant, he was such a gentle spirit.
RIP DFW.
I hadn't read David Wallace until today when I was sitting in my doctor's office waiting for the doc who was 45 minutes late. I managed to find my way to the last page of the WSJ which had this amazing commencement speech he had given. If you haven't read it, here's the link:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178211966454607.html
I have now discovered a new author. There is both the joy of discovery and the sadness of knowing he is no longer with us.
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