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David Foster Wallace Commits Suicide

Halfway through, and I can't wait to read it again. This book so much about me and the people I've known for the past 15 years.

Conundrum: one of the most consistent themes in IJ I've exptrapolated illustrates the utter absurdity of self-destruction, be it slow-and-recreational or swift-and-intentional. And then, when you remember that the author ultimately chose to take his own life, I am forced to question whether my analysis is correct.

Thoughts?
 
^ I don't think he's illustrating the utter absurdity of self-destruction as much as linking self-destructive habits (additions) to a deeper human issue: the desire to fill internal voids. In that way addiction is totally logical. I don't think he was so much commentating on how awful the substances that we choose to fill the void are but just that the void is there. I feel as though he ultimately doesn't have an agenda as I thought when I first started reading it. He's just eloquently reporting on what he sees as human. This is how we are, albeit depressing. I don't think he thought himself above that need to fill the void. After all, he too was human.
 
I got a new (used) copy of Infinite Jest a few weeks ago. I read it the first time like 10 yrs ago when I was stuck in bed after a car accident.

One of my favorite books, and for the last year I had been meaning to get another copy and attempt to read it again. I was checking our local thrift stores and our only used bookstore in town every now and then. When I read about his death, I finally got around to really looking for a copy, called around and found one at a used bookstore about 45 mins away.
 
I am perpetually kicking myself for not picking up a signed first edition hardcover i saw on ebay for 100 bucks a few years ago. I probably spent that cash on food or pot or something addictive. :\
 
candygram said:
I got a new (used) copy of Infinite Jest a few weeks ago. I read it the first time like 10 yrs ago when I was stuck in bed after a car accident.

One of my favorite books, and for the last year I had been meaning to get another copy and attempt to read it again. I was checking our local thrift stores and our only used bookstore in town every now and then. When I read about his death, I finally got around to really looking for a copy, called around and found one at a used bookstore about 45 mins away.
Click to expand...

you should have read "misery".

sorry, couldn't resist.
 
Indelible: "His death will probably be a catalyst causing others to read his books.": That is human nature though, the curiosity after the fact and greater willingness to recognise genius after it has passed us by, as if regret made it richer. I am always reminded about Kennedy and "Confederacy of Dunces." Had he not died when and as he did, it is most likely that we would have never known what could be the brightest satirist of the 20th Century.

I will not "front,": I have never read Wallace. I am not a native English speaker and I feel like an intellectual fraud to admit that when I saw the title of this thread I assumed it was for the American pop composter "David Foster" yet I can pat myself on the back for my anal retentive honesty.

I will try to pick up "Infinite Jest" on my next trip to the mainalnd (or EU or US). At least I now know the story behind BL's "Infinite Jest." I did like the Commencement Address posted here though.
 
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