Died by hanging himself. Shit.
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"At some point, you’re just an elitist fuck."
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4 comments:
I'm not much of a "reader" in general - and especially not of fiction. Yet, DFW's death - by suicide! - really hit me hard this a.m. I remember an article he'd written for Harper's, back in April 2001: "Tense Present - Democracy, English, and the Wars over Usage". It was inventive, erudite, and so fucking witty I tore it out and saved it, and purchased "A Dictionary of Modern American Usage" due to its reference therein. (Which, truth be told, I cracked open for the first time only recently, having uncovered its location in one of "the piles".) Perhaps I've read bits of his other essays, but the impact of this one was indelible.
So anyway, if this genius couldn't handle life, what does that portend for the rest of us?
I think we'll be all right, Feral Boy, as long as we don't fucking kill ourselves.
I agree with Stoner’s post, but the news still saddened me more than expected. I read the same essay that FB cites and also bought the American Usage book because of it. Although I had trouble reading DFW’s fiction, I’ve read most of his essays. What comes across in his essays is a person who is bewildered by other people and his failure (most of the time) to connect with his subjects. In a few of his essays (e.g., about a state fair, taking a cruise, the porn industry), there is a nagging question of why all these people are having fun; he certainly didn’t find it fun. I think his writing, which is often witty and humorous, was his way of trying to make it fun. But life isn’t art or vice-versa. Whatever. Hearing about his death was like hearing about the death of someone I knew personally.
For the record, I don't mean to be coarse or flippant about his death. It's a terrible thing.
All of his Harper's essays are currently available as free downloads in .pdf format here:
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/09/hbc-90003557
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