David Foster Wallace

[xnoybis]

David Foster Wallace hanged himself yesterday: he was 46. He was a writer I've read on occasion - I've found his writing frustrating and brilliant in equal parts, and I never managed to finish "Infinite Jest". But there's no doubt that he was someone who was very intent on communicating genuine experience with other people, and had examined his own

Comments

[silentinfinite]

Great speech.

[toddzombie]

It took me two months to finish Inf.Jest, but it was during a Winter I was feeling terribly, terribly depressed, so - in a sense - it *saved* me. One way to view it is as ... some latter-day Inferno where A.A. is the organizing principle rather than the Holy Roman Church.

but in retrospect, the guy had the inside scoop on depression. I have no idea where it is in the text, but the introduction of Kate Gompert, what *she's* feeling, is positively terrifying.

another spooky moment happens during the (a?) description of Madame Psychosis' radio program:

The thing it makes you see as she reads is something heavy swinging slowly at the end of a long rope.

as "big books" go, it's hardly perfect, but the book contains a variety of "heart" that may help some people in difficult times.