David Foster Wallace. Dead at 46.
paul.kedrosky.com
David Foster Wallace. Dead at 46.
1–10 of 14 posts
Re: David Foster Wallace. Dead at 46.
#2Cheers to Kedrosky for saying "Dead" instead of "Passed' or something else equally infuriating or ambiguous.
Depression is a very serious problem and the US has one of the highest depression rates in the "first world." Rest in peace David Foster Wallace; I'm sad you weren't able to find it here.
Re: David Foster Wallace. Dead at 46.
#3His essay about descriptive and prescriptive approaches to dictionary writing changed my life.
If you read the essay, you'll see it's actually about much more than that.
Re: David Foster Wallace. Dead at 46.
#4His essay about descriptive and prescriptive approaches to dictionary writing changed my life. If you read the essay, you'll see it's actually about much more than that.
Could you please link to it (I tried finding it via google)?
Edit: I found this: http://is.gd/2CpH
Is that the one you were talking about?
Re: David Foster Wallace. Dead at 46.
#5If this isn't "Hacker News" to you, it will be soon: start with "Consider The Lobster" or "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again", two amazing essay collections. The audiobook for "Lobster" is narrated by DFW and footnoted in the audio.
Here's a DFW piece on the McCain 2000 campaign for Rolling Stone, which is especially resonant this year:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/18420304/the_weas...
Re: David Foster Wallace. Dead at 46.
#6Cheers to Kedrosky for saying "Dead" instead of "Passed' or something else equally infuriating or ambiguous. Depression is a very serious problem and the US has one of the highest depression rates in the "first world." Rest in peace David Foster Wallace; I'm sad you weren't able to find it here.
[deleted]
Re: David Foster Wallace. Dead at 46.
#7His essay about descriptive and prescriptive approaches to dictionary writing changed my life. If you read the essay, you'll see it's actually about much more than that.
Could you please link to it (I tried finding it via google)? Edit: I found this: http://is.gd/2CpH Is that the one you were talking about?
[edit] -- That's it. I think the version in "Consider the Lobster", which is called "Authority and American Usage" is a bit longer, though
It's my second favorite essay of all time -- after DFW's "E Unibus Pluram"[1], which is television and, more broadly, the modern life of spectation.
[1] From "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again"
Re: David Foster Wallace. Dead at 46.
#8And here's DFW's turn on Charlie Rose 11 years ago: http://www.charlierose.com/guests/david-wallace
And a great commencement speech from Kenyon U. three years ago: http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html
fwiw: "This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth. It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger.
And I submit that this is what the real, no bullshit value of your liberal arts education is supposed to be about: how to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone day in and day out. "
Re: David Foster Wallace. Dead at 46.
#9I think Wallace was the greatest writer of his generation. Period. This news breaks my heart.
Re: David Foster Wallace. Dead at 46.
#10Feeling slightly ashamed that I haven't heard of him earlier, I have a question to the HN crowd: How did you hear of him before?
It's a shame to hear of someone people respect this much post-mortem. I wonder if you can infer a body of work that's important today and published recently from a group of similar-minded people like HN.