I was gutted to find out that my favorite living author, David Foster Wallace, committed suicide this past Friday. He was 46. This is a real tragedy and a serious loss. His gifts were enormous, perhaps even genius-level. It didn’t matter what subject caught his interest – tennis or cruise lines or depression or talk radio or addiction or math – he imbued them all with the same dazzling insight and wisdom and humor. I credit his book Infinite Jest with getting me through my year abroad in Vienna.
Everything he published is fantastic, but if you’re a newcomer, I suggest you start with his book of essays A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, then move on to the short story collection Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, and then attempt Infinite Jest. And stick with it – you won’t be sorry.
Here’s a small excerpt from an essay he wrote about Dostoevsky, found in the collection Consider The Lobster. It by no means does him justice, but it’s relevant:
“Is it possible really to love other people? If I’m lonely and in pain, everyone outside me is potential relief – I need them. But can you really love what you need so badly? Isn’t a big part of love caring more about what the other person needs? How am I supposed to subordinate my own overwhelming need to somebody else’s needs that I can’t even feel directly? And yet if I can’t do this, I’m damned to loneliness, which I definitely don’t want… so I’m back at trying to overcome my selfishness for self-interested reasons. Is there any way out of this bind?”
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5 responses to “David Foster Wallace, R.I.P.”
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that quotation is such a perfect, poignant expression of what we might call the “bound will” and “total depravity.” How sad that Mr. Wallace never discovered the only one who could release him from his captivity to himself. Then again, here’s hoping that we’ll be surprised…
I like what RJ said and I second it. I was reminded, by the quote you offered, about the difference between “eros” and “agape”. It sounds like Mr. Wallace was enraptured by the idea of “agape”–love flowing from within out, while entrenched with the demands of “eros”–love flowing in from without.
Such a bummer!
and from A Supposedly Fun Thing…, the title track, A Supposedly Fun Thing…, is the best to read first/period.
That quotation really sticks out in that essay. He never does that–he totally broke from his word play and difficult sentences and let those thoughts flow. It was a very weird place to be vulnerable, and yet he went with it with full confidence. And it makes me wonder!
This quote from DFW immediately brought to mind that quote from the Heidleberg Disputations with which Forde opens up "On Being a Theologian…". the one about "the thirst for righteousness, and extinguishing". Anyone have a copy handy?
Along the same lines as the quotation I'm referring to, here's everyone's favorite Mark Mattes, talking about the same issue re: the thought of Jungel and Luther:
"With Luther, he believes that the old being cannot be reformed, but only annihilated." (p. 50, The Role of Justification in Contemporary theology).
Lastly, check out the following amazing clip from DFW if you are wanting to get into his whole gig:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwS5pEfcQNk&eurl=http://johncampoxford.blogspot.com/