I'm incredibly sad about the recent suicide of David Foster Wallace — sad, but not totally surprised. There was a palpable madness about his genius. If you've ever tried to read Infinite Jest, and I have, you'll know what I'm talking about. Actually his fiction overwhelmed me. I really couldn't cope with it. I got maybe a third into Infinite Jest, agog at it and watching it go by, but I couldn't hang in there. Maybe I just didn't have the time and attention that it warranted. Broom of the System had the same problem. Too much graduate school and fancy dancing.
However, his nonfiction is so wonderful, and so much to be admired. It's INSANE. And yet, completely charming and compelling. My favorites? Well, you must read the title essay in "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again." You don't need to read the whole book, unless you're really interested in exercising your brain HARD. But the title essay, which is a description of a week on a cruise ship, will bring about seizures of laughter and revulsion at our dumb world. (I remember sitting on the couch rereading it through two if not three miscarriages and giggling irrepressibly.) "Consider the Lobster" is equally great– the title essay originally appeared I think in Gourmet Magazine or something like that. The thing is that he's so brilliant and [I should say he WAS] and so adept at spinning webs of words that when he turns his attention to the most mundane aspects of life– a faux-pirate walking through a parade saying "Ar"; an airport in Maine that was clearly recently a house, with the baggage claim in the pantry– it's a compelling contrast. Also, since reading it I have not eaten ANY lobster. I think I will swear off it forever. Luckily this doesn't come up too often.
Someone is drilling into the foundation of my house as we speak. There's been a glitch or two in the well process today, but I remain optimistic.
I will have to search the shelves around here and pull out some of my favorite DFW passages. On his game, he had no equal.