The self-inflicted death of author David Foster Wallace has left many scratching their heads and wondering “why?” over the weekend. The team at Very Short List uncovered this nugget from Infinite Jest that may explain DFW’s view of the matter - or not:
“The person in whom . . . agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise.”
Eulogies and memorials have been written in newspaper book sections and lit-blogs everywhere, but you can always count on Machiko Kakutani to provide a steely-eyed assessment of the author’s work that avoids sentimentality,
September 16th, 2008 at 8:29 am
I read the Kakutani eulogy and it actually brought me a moment of levity, after a Saturday night spent hitting refresh on ed champion’s blog waiting for some sort of confirmation or much-desire denial on the DFW suicide. She basically said “you know, I didn’t like his books, I didn’t really like him, but you probably did, poor plebeian, and I mourn for your loss.”