Karen Green–David Foster Wallace's widow–struggles to deal w his suicide(2011)

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/apr/10/karen-green-david-foster-wallace-interview

by bookofjoe • 7 years ago

16 10 7 years ago

dmoy• 7 years ago

Suicide is a pretty horrible thing for the people left behind. I wish in general we had better mental health support in the US and elsewhere. Here at least I suspect it would also help with random violence as well.

All this said, I still to this day cannot wade my way through infinite jest. I get about a third of the way through and it just feels too damn pretentious.

pmoriarty• 7 years ago

Yeah, DFW is just not a good writer, imo.

He just got big popularity boost due to his suicide, much like Nirvana did when Kurt Cobain killed himself.

If both of these people stayed alive, they'd likely just have faded in to obscurity.

anotherone16• 7 years ago

In some way they are still alive.

bingotips• 7 years ago

IJ was published in 1996 and DFW died in 2008, it was already popular long before he killed himself. And Nirvana was hugely popular after the release of Nevermind in 1991, Kurt died in 1994. What you're saying makes no sense.

magic_beans• 7 years ago

While I'm not a fan of DFW's fiction, his talent as an essayist is truly remarkable.

DoofusOfDeath• 7 years ago

Can you explain what you mean by "pretentious"?

I'm never clear just what people mean when they use it to describe a piece of literature or music. Sorry if my question is overly basic.

bilekas• 7 years ago

It can come accross a bit: 'you dont like it ? Thats because you dont"get" it'.

It has also been called metamodernist and hysterical realist.

The piece itself, I quite like, but I can definitely see why some people feel they're 'supposed' to like it, and for me, that certainly adds a whiff of pretentiousness.

Also, its no secret that the structure of the book itself, is just crazy.

blaser-waffle• 7 years ago

I'm glad I read the whole thing... but the dude needed an editor.

Several of his footnotes are essentially short stories and have their own tangents and footnotes. Sort of the literary equivalent to the "cut-away" phenomenon of the 2000s. Think Arrested Development or Family Guy or The Royal Tannebaums, where they made a joke and it flashes back to a mini-scene 15 years earlier. It breaks up the narrative and allows for deeper exploration of the joke or concept. Same idea with IJ, or other DFW works where he uses the footnotes.

susijdjdjxa• 7 years ago

Good question!

I think “pretentious” means “they are doing this to impress me, and it doesn’t seem authentic.”

Karen Green–David Foster Wallace's widow–struggles to deal w his suicide(2011)

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