Charlie Rose

andymathey  04/02/2010 02:32 AM Report

#1 Paradox-a-life: It is impossible to experience another persons reality. Yet we desperately thirst for understanding by others.

This is a painful aspect of life.

Perhaps the wisest thing would be to surrender this control; to stop comparison. His life was singular, like mine and yours. The only true similarity we have is that we are each treading a unique path.

David clearly had tremendous self-awareness and intellectual prowess. Cerebral dexterity and artistic expression are separate functions, true? David happened to be a very intelligent artist, and like most people living close to the flame, he appeared to be trying to make sense of life. I only wish that he had stayed longer. I suspect that he would have had much more to discuss.

Rest-In-Peace, friend.

Parent33w  04/10/2009 04:20 PM Report

Must admit I have not read a great deal of his work; must also admit I have been blown away by what I have. Took time out of reading IJ and some other things to read This is Water. Wow; some might say it is only the obvious, even those who consider themselves intellectuals. I related to evything he wrote, but still thought, "Wow, this water". Despite thinking simialrly, the challenge to have actually wrote what he did the way he did seems to be what made him who he was. What a terrible loss. This is Water made me all the more saddened to know he ended his own life. What you think and how you think. Everything else is easy, yet that is the world, especially America. He was sincere, introspective, caring, and thought-provoking. We all make easy choices; I don't think he did. I think he believed he had done all he could and those that should have been concerned were not; maybe that ate him alive. I would hope it wasn't something ridiculous like whether he had truly succeeded or whether he had made the most of the wonderful abilities he had. He was a true source of reflective catharsis; something that tugs on mankind's heartstrings seemingly less and less the more "civilized" it becomes. He was a man that had something to offer everyone in a truly great society.

JDean  03/01/2009 12:26 PM Report

Those who have it will understand.

Those who don't won't.

Grisha  01/01/2009 12:44 AM Report

The somewhat disorganized response of one anonymous DFW reader to some of the comments here:

As somewhat of an aside, I'm not sure I'd characterize DFW as a postermodern writer. Granted, on a superficial level, his writing may have appeared to espouse many of the outward tendencies of postmodernism (i.e., stylistic excess evinced by the, profusion of literary tropes, the juxtaposition of euphuistic prose style with passages of intentionally inelegant vernacular english, use of interior monologue, etc.), but it was also marked by a distinct lack of (even an aversion to) irony or the use of

metafictional devices, which are elements that I personally see as imperative to the postmodern approach. DFW was deeply concerned with the direct significance and influence of entertainment (read: literature), as well as its discursive implications, and its capacity to do something beyond merely occupying and diverting the entertainee for a while. Evidently, for DFW, this meant literature's ability to convey truth and (perhaps in the synonymous Keatsian sense) beauty. Since irony is anathema to honesty and authenticity, DFW saw it as inimical and antithetical to his goals, and avoided it in both his writing and, as far as I can tell, his everyday life and discourse. In the opinion of myself and – as evidenced by the deluge of responses here and in many other public forums – numerous others, DFW succeeded in earnestly illuminating the human condition and in edifying and entertaining many readers. The temptation to couch his suicide in terms of some sort of broad ideological disappointment – to phrase it as anything other than the reaction of a deeply tormented man to intimate agony and despair – is either misguided or disingenuous, and the result in either case is grotesque. To paraphrase the late, great Kurt Vonnegut: It is done, he did not like it here. So it goes. He will be missed.

.toby.  11/03/2008 05:30 AM Report

I just heard about his death today. I read IJ during the summer of '98. I was depressed & suicidal. IJ helped. Moving back home & getting my shit together over a period of 6 years did to, but it was so hard. Grace, etc. got me through, I suppose. He really seemed guilt-ridden didn't he? The constant pre-emptive apologizing. Tact is good, but he just seemed so tentative & (needlessly, if well-intentionedly) cautious. Now I read he hanged himself. Guilt is so pointless, yet what can one do? When you feel guilty you don't just will yourself out of it. "Rise Above!" goes the bullshit slogan. 6 Years ago, after seeing an interview of Leonard Cohen, I started reading "Consciousness Speaks" by Ramesh S. Balsekar. Another of his books is called "Sin & Guilt: Monstrosities of the Mind". His teaching is that All is as it must be, for better or worse does not matter. As such, no one is actually guilty of anything. It's a very tough pill to swallow...letting go of anger & guilt towards yourself or others. Even letting go of your inability to let go, i.e. just accepting you feel guilty for the moment & not trying to fight it. The Mind makes the problem, the Mind creates a solution; if we like it we give ourselves credit, if not? Blame. But all the while, it was just the natural functioning of the Mind--not us. IJ was a great book. Enormous heart, huge laughs, massive invention; hopefully it will continue to help others make sense of things that trouble human beings in this or any time, be it postmodern or fill-in-the-blank. Rest in Peace, DFW. .+.

Michael Hughes  10/28/2008 03:38 AM Report

After only viewing this interview, posted now as a memorial, and reading the transcript to his commencement speech for Kenyon College's class of '05 I am now pouring over my take on the general mental situation of David Wallace prior to his death; his philosophical positions and beliefs. I have never heard of him until this night and I am instantly obsessed. The more I read, the more I relate sentiments of my own. The amount of similarity between myself and this man, perhaps not in authorship talent but his mode of thinking, is astonishing, I get around on the internet and have never stumbled upon one such as this. The intellectualizing of everything possible, understanding simply THE only way to go about human life in our time, with the only comfort in sight being the expression of one's thoughts and feelings so as to relate them to another's. Continually, more and more and more, I feel that the end result, what behavior, what action is taken as a result of whatever line of thinking/feeling, is the only means by which we can value what lead up to it. Hindsight is 20/20. I'm by no means a logical positivist nor a psychological behaviorist, but the end result, what is actually achieved or put forth into the world seems to me all that matters. This isn't to say that because he eventually committed suicide the result somehow affects the worthwhile nature of his pursuits during life - but more a question of unhealthy habits and addictions, that so often are apparent in many culturally-acclaimed artists' lives, that feel (from the inward perspective) necessary to deal with and function alongside one's realized predicament, despite them marring one's health, mental and/or otherwise. David Foster Wallace may have chosen to put forth a resignation or perhaps simply a desire to unconditionally cease, but up until then he labored and labored to express himself as truly and articulately as he did (not to mention helping others achieve this through teaching). With me being 21 and feeling my life tilt slowly towards addictions, apathy, and a profound sense of emptiness.. I wonder what choices I will make. Only this interview and one speech of his has me writing this comment in response - out of a feeling of obligation, it feels right and in my nature - something which I almost never do. I thank Charlie Rose for the memorial as well as the usual candor, acceptance, and genuine empathy he openly shows. If only those that knew the man could have sat down to have a talk with him before he made his decision - not only to dissuade on humanistic grounds (i.e. his sheer value to other people both symbolically as well as his still-great potential value), but perhaps a line of reasoning contrary enough, uncommon enough to appeal to a mind as sharp as his (he reminds me of God Emperor Leto II from the Dune works who, after becoming such a behemoth of intellectual prowess, valued sentient spontaneity over all else for its contrast to the cold machine of the universe). An argument maybe not footnoted and a thousand pages long, but perhaps pragmatic enough to save -the rest- of his life.. I am saddened, but can't help to think, of what drugs or other health problems may have been involved in the circumstances surrounding his death. I have not been inspired to write this much about anything in quite some time. As a college philosophy major drop out, technically and we'll see if temporarily, I am inspired by this man.

J.D. Finch  10/02/2008 01:42 AM Report

Everybody tells you you're great -- the standard bearer for your generation. Your friends treat you with deference because you're a "genius." You try to keep your ego in check and you succeed. But do you?

If what you turn out after your big splash isn't utterly fabulous the critics descend upon you like a pack of wild dogs. Those who think postmodernism is garbage treat you like a pariah.

Notice how Wallace apologized for being "mean" when he voiced the slightest criticisms of anything. How he moves his head around like a gun-shy dog when he speaks. How he says he doesn't want to talk about his situation because it is boring and "average." Didn't he realize that when you reach the level of fame he did that you can't be a "nice guy" anymore? There are way too many sharks in those waters to just dive in and assume you'll be able to make nice with whatever swims up to you. Here's a boring and average expression it's a shame he didn't remember: "Nice guys finish last." What a tragedy he didn't remember that. Here's another one: "Hell is other people."

What a heartbreaking interview. (Though kudos to Charlie whose sensitivity was stunning.)

cgb  09/29/2008 03:29 AM Report

Saw this when it aired originally in 97. Went out and bought Infinite Jest the next day. Spent the summer on a couch enjoying the hell out of having to flip back and check the footnotes, and footnotes of footnotes.

Moved to Kyrgyzstan the next year and made some of the best friends of my life while discussing this novel. Had a good leg up in the talks because I had seen the interview and knew about his conversational tics.

Too bad he's gone.

midwest  09/27/2008 11:02 PM Report

Suicide from the pain of absorbing life's inadequacies and disappointments, passions and ideas is nothing post-anything. Angst - existential or spiritual or romantic...death because life was bigger than the poet..this is the world we have known since words have rested upon paper. To not suffer from living, one must either deny that "better" doesn't exist, that life isn't progressive toward anything but death anyway, or one embraces death as a love affair with time. This is not our post-modern dilemma. Artists, philosophers, and the heartbroken have no monopoly on suicide. We do not know why. Please do not call him selfish.

Danny  09/25/2008 08:38 AM Report

Incredibly sad in the light of his death. Prescient in his final unbelievably

revealing comment that he is "not getting ready to jump off a bridge."

I find myself mining clips of him, studying the slightest nervous tick, trying to understand as someone who is creative and who has suffered from depression and alcohol abuse as well, how someone with such an adroit mind can come to this... I know there is no answer. You feel kindred and horrified at feeling that kindred connection. Could I ever snap?

Brother t  09/24/2008 04:40 PM Report

Thank you, Thomas Braun, for your thoughtful response to DFW and his passing. The ignorance and stupidity in the world is made all the more noxious when someone like David FW leaves us. I'm sure he would want the rest of us to fight on, as long as we're here. A wonderful writer whose books, and readers, feel like friends.

steve scanlan  09/24/2008 01:39 AM Report

I'll preface my commments by saying that DFW (I think he would approve of the use of the acronym, a device he often played with) was,is without a doubt my favorite writer ever, the only person coming close and distant second is Bill Shakespeare. I was completely devastated by the news of his hanging and still can not understand it. As I grow older I am continually humbled by all that I do not know and will never comprehend, and for all my worship of DFW's written words I had no idea who he was as a person and how much he must have suffered with his depression. It disturbs me to think one of my idols would commit suicide, for it feels like a part of me, since he was able to voice so eloquently so many truths i also intuitively knew at least that is the illusion when you read a writer who writes the way you wish you could if you weren't so lazy and preoccupied, has also given up. That's how it feels to me, like he gave up. I have very strong feelings based on my own personal logic that suicide is not an option in life and to have the voice of my generation (atleast one of the the most truth seeking and conscietious) hang himself it feels personal. Obviously I am not grieving on the level of his wife and family and close friends, and i wish them all the sympathy in the world, its just that I can't shake the feeling of loss, bewilderment and sadness when someone so intent on pusrsuing the truth, DFW was a warrior for the truth, demaps himself. DFW had an immense reserve ofempathyfor his fellow man and as insightful and observant he was in his writing he came across as having a huge heart and seemed very non-judgemental of even the the most gruesome and hideous human behavior. He will be missed for as long as I'm alive because I looked to him for both insight and confirmation of what was happening around me. Unfortunately the sadness he so keenly described as the undercurrent of modern existence, took him out with the tide. This is further proof to me that we have no idea how deeply some of our fellow men and women on earth are truelly suffering during these difficult times. I for one vow to extend some sympathy to others as well as myself. A noble truth seeking kind hearted gifted artistic soul has left the earth and the loss is real.

Spitzer  09/23/2008 10:59 PM Report

Ferris,

He wasn't trying to solve his problems.....He was just trying to end them.....

JS  09/22/2008 10:05 PM Report

I liked DFW's style. That bandana took guts. Funny how all these comments say, "I've never read him before, but I wish I had known him." Yes, I wish I had known Kurt Cobain, we could then have played our Fender guitars together. Sorry about the angsty grunge reference. Funny how John W Douchebag knows the key to happiness in life and is an expert at suicide prevention. If you've never been depressed or suicidal, how would you know what you are talking about, man? Also, douchebag, you think a man who wrote a 1,000+ page novel, didn't know the meaning of hard work? You would think DFW would be too self-conscious for suicide. I mean this sh@# is embarassing. I hope he is getting a laugh out of this.

max  09/22/2008 09:45 AM Report

The guy just wants a hug. Damn, see what literary theory will do to you? This is the son of a philosophy nut, and it's the same thing as always...father and son relationship....sad.

If insanity were a major, he would be brilliant at it.

John W. Ferris  09/22/2008 09:44 AM Report

Aside from severe chemical imbalances in the brain (the majority of which is the invention of shrinks and drug companies), there is but a single explanation for any suicide: pure self-centeredness! Expect to witness suicides in pandemic numbers as "touchy, feely" liberals find out that it requires much more than feelings to alter shitty situations. Sorry, folks, but self-respect, discipline, and hard work is the only recipe for even half-way solving your own personal concerns. There never has been, nor will there ever be a magical pill to engineer a society wherein all think exactly the same. Been attempted countless times and never came close to working out. Life is short. Enjoy all aspects of each day. If your belly's full, you're clothed, and ambulatory, give thanks for possessing more than most earthlings have. Life is its own reward!

sock puppet  09/19/2008 05:22 PM Report

Think DFW would approve. Populating current conversations with this comment at risk of irritating some, which for those (types) so inclined my profit will compound. This is another (wildly) vivid case for regulation. Even Kosher meat processing is dishonored. Religions don't temper our baser instincts - from carnage to egregious greed. Corporate greed via their lobbying pimps and Congressional venal whores promote the human debasement depicted in the video cited below. Corporate greed to maximize profits dehumanize employees (they of necessity have to overcompensate with an anger at their dumb victims) abuse, torture the dumbest yet the most innocent amongst us. Other earthlings. All slaughter houses need regulating and oversight - particularly corporate ones. They mock Kosher proceedings, but most of all they mock and dishonor common decency. Please pass it on. Why hell if we would do this to dumb animals we might even justify torture of humans, err I mean water-boarding err sensory deprivation err . . . . I repeat, please pass it on. A kernel of humanity towards the humbler (but nobler?) among us might help transfer similar sentiments to ourselves. (A variation of Pogo's revelation.) The link: (it ain't pretty - largely because our values are refracting (magnified) right back at us.) Thanks for your time. N.B.: It's important! _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1282796533661048967&hl=en _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ Attribution and kudos to "Marilyn!"

oopsygirl  09/18/2008 10:08 AM Report

i never claimed to be an intellectual, but this dear soul seems to be a huge brain. I can say that my reaction to McCain's decision to peg Sarah Palin as his choice for vice-president was so totally out of the park as to cause me to question who we are as a nation. While I was conflicted as to how I felt about Obama as a really dedicated democrat, McCain's pick of Palin cemented my choice as a definite democratic voter. She's a complete and totally assinine choice for McCain. More of the same (Bush), more of the same damn same. Shame on you, dumb choice. If McCain's choice was somehow part of Wallace's exit, I, in my twisted way, somehow understand that. There is a quote - Abandon all hope, ye who enter here... Sweetie, I get it...I get it.

CB  09/17/2008 11:34 PM Report

Boy, some people. As I (an I that I'd italicize for comic effect if I could after wading through posts on this and other related websites) come to grips with the death of a man who was easily my favroite writer, I notice a stong tendency among the tributes I've seen to assume that the emotional/intellectual ideas presented in his work were a direct cause of his death: "This miserable world was too much for him", and the age old battle on the validity of suicide.

Fact is, accounts of the period leading up to his death suggest that he was suffering from a clinical depression, not merely bum mood, even though one was probably with him near the end (or not). I'm not aware of accounts of the last few months of his life--i.e., the kind of side effects he was experiencing, the results of the electroshock, etc.. But the obits suggest a physical and psychic pain (clinical depression) that would annhilate any possible benefits of existence. No shame in that as far as I'm concerned. Everybody dies in some fashion. And grief aside, anyone who thinks that another person should be forced or expected to continue living beyond his or her will to do so should have murder as their own unique mode of death IMHO, but anyways...

So yeah, reading DFW suggests that he held humanity accountable for way more than most of us are willing to be conscious of and yeah, suicide creeps into a lot of his work, which may have been something he was always dealing with, but I don't think that suicide was intrinsic to his creative gift, anymore than it was for van Gogh.

All that aside, I am saddened that he will no longer light the future for me as he illumiated so many presents in my past.

tom  09/17/2008 09:57 PM Report

Sorry. Good guy.

not joyce.

chris  09/17/2008 07:48 PM Report

My god this is a great interview. Charlie Rose is just fantastic. I've never read Wallace before I heard about his death, but I am going to now.

Eric Matthews  09/16/2008 03:31 PM Report

After reading the transcript of the commencement speach that he gave at Kenyon College (link) http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html

I felt seriously cheated having not ever heard of this guy before. However, after thinking about the speach, perhaps rather than feeling cheated at not having heard of him before now, maybe I should consider the possibility that for whatever reason, he was in serious pain, and that he is now in a much better place (whereever that may be), and I should just choose to think of myself as lucky for coming across him right now.

Preston  09/16/2008 01:25 PM Report

My favorite song of his was, Sweet Child of Mine... "Whoa Ohh! Sweet Chye-auld of my-yine!"... I think drug abuse had something to do with it. At least more so than the economy, politics, terrorism and war.

Paula  09/16/2008 09:40 AM Report

Merci, Evelyne for putting a name to the condition I know I share with DFW. Life is hard for those of us who feel things so deeply, who observe and empathize so completely and constantly with the pain of the world. It's impossible to turn it off, and the impulse is to build a fortress around yourself for protection. I see that from this interview and Terry Gross's that DFW refused to do that. I respect him immensely him for allowing himself to be so vulnerable. I am so sorry the pain overwhelmed him.

dan   09/16/2008 03:20 AM Report

Did not no much about Mr. Wallace, but after watching this interview, what struck me the most was this sense of his self-critcalness and perfectionism that he seemed to be burdened with, not so much with his words but rather his facial expressions and body language(especially in regards to his own words). He seemed to be extremely hard on himself and hyper sensitive to his surroundings, which I imagine contributed toward his disallusionment of the world as it is...not just in 2008(already forshadowing his own suicide in this interview- 1997 Clinton years), but rather how it always has been. Depression? Anxiety? The Human Condition? Does it really matter? He lived, loved, accomplished and left...hope he is at peace... condolences to his wife and family

John M McCarthy  09/16/2008 12:24 AM Report

Having never even heard of Dave Wallace before seeing a piece in the Monday, Sept. 15 Chicago Tribune of his demise, I'm not a qualified commentator.

Having spent some time lately with Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp, (Protect & Defend), and with Tyler Derden's evil hillbilly cousin Rant Casey, ("Rant", by Chuck Pahlaniuk), I'll now be focusing on Wallace's work.

Anyone who can be called a genius and a literary giant for writing a 1000 page novel in these times must've been brilliant.

Most people would've called it crazy.

john priest  09/16/2008 12:20 AM Report

I never heard of David Foster Wallace until tonight. I was sitting in my car listening to NPR.

The interview caught my ear. Since I am an avid tennis player and simply love the game, Mr. Wallace made a rebuttal to the interviewer's comment that he was a "tennis champion." without a moment's hesitation, mr wallace corrected her and announced with great candor and humility, "no, I wasn't a champion; in the competitive tennis world, I considered myself a decent competitor."

"Now that was solid".I thought to myself. "more balls than a can of tennis." who is this guy? I would have really enjoyed knowing this man. It appears now, that I must do so through his writing. To have heard a man speak for such a brief period of time and to have felt such a strong connection speaks volumes.

Paul  09/15/2008 07:57 PM Report

You shared all the angst more intimately and more knowledgeably than I ever thought anyone else ever would. You crushed my self indulgence and in the pieces...I can't believe this is the answer you decided to give. I will always "reference" you and those boots will always feature in my memories. I do care about how I look, and thank you for pointing it out in your own banal way.

How can this be?

Doc Waller  09/15/2008 07:30 PM Report

I'm not sure if I can handle this interview ending with DFW reassuring us he's not about to commit suicide.

Too strange...

Luke  09/15/2008 06:48 PM Report

Carol in a fit of remarkable stupidity writes:

"Do not give into the dangerous tendency to find larger philosophical reasons for an artists suicide"

My response to Carol is "and if our most beautiful and majestic sea creatures start beaching from oil suffocation and immobility, we shouldn't be non-productive and go looking for the Exxon Valdez."

What about the writers work itself? Does looking at and analyzing the writers work itself represent "dangerous philosophical reasoning?"

Much of Wallace's work was an implication of a sick individualist culture and his voice, at times, comes across with all the desperation and significance of a howling wolf. Was Wallace writing his stories in a void? Let's pretend Wallace was in a smoky bar and started coughing something terrible from all the shitty air, would Carol have everybody start to doubt the condition of that air and instead say "come on everybody, face it, Wallace just had bad lungs."

Carol's attempt to individualize depression is a thought that obviously is an expression of the mainspring of sickness in the culture itself. Looking at depression in an individual way is what the sociologists might call an argument pro-agency. Pro-agency arguments are the lube of capitalism, meaning they are everywhere. Wallace articulated some of the problem nodes in his essay "The Host." In "The Host" he puts his finger on many cultural problems and goes into footnote detail about the repeal of The Fairness Doctrine in 1987. Wallace made the stunning connection that maybe the reason the media has shifted so far to the right is because before 1987, media outlets had to make a concerted effort to give equal representation to the two allowed ideologies.

To just say "Wallace was seriously depressed" does not give full coverage to the full spirit of Wallace and his life work. Opinions called ideas that have been influenced heavily by business preferences, like those belonging to the Carol of this web-comment page, likely ain't so interested in giving full-coverage to many stories anyway.

Evelyne  09/15/2008 02:09 PM Report

Carole, I don't agree that suicide happens only from depression (or that depression is the only cause of suicide).

Some people are so lucid and have such sensitive perception of life, that at some stage it can become unbearable and, once perceived, it can never go away. It is called "Le mal de vivre"*. And this is NOT depression.

I am over 65 and I have experienced depression in my life. I also know the "Mal de vivre", and they have nothing in common. The latter hurts your soul a lot more than depression, because you know what causes the hurt, something external, in the human condition, that really exists and that you can do nothing about.

Depression is a chemical imbalance that makes you perceive things as they are not.There is treatment (pills) for depression. None for the "mal de vivre" (except maybe the Buddhist philosophy of "Abandoning Hope" and live in the moment, which I practice)

* (My translation of "Mal de vivre" would be "the ache brought by humanity's condition, ie Life")

Rob D  09/15/2008 02:03 PM Report

Since the moment i first picked up infinite jest, i felt a connection to DFW that i've never experienced with any other writer. He had a unique ability to, as he put it, make one 'feel human and unalone.' I heard this morning that he'd hung himself, and i still feel like i've been punched in the gut. I don't have words to describe it really, but i can't imagine this tremendous sense of loss going away.. He was too young, too insightful, too brilliant to go out this way.. I will miss him..

Rob D  09/15/2008 02:03 PM Report

Since the moment i first picked up infinite jest, i felt a connection to DFW that i've never experienced with any other writer. He had a unique ability to, as he put it, make one 'feel human and unalone.' I heard this morning that he'd hung himself, and i still feel like i've been punched in the gut. I don't have words to describe it really, but i can't imagine this tremendous sense of loss going away.. He was too young, too insightful, too brilliant to go out this way.. I will miss him..

thomas braun  09/15/2008 01:52 PM Report

When a person like Sarah Palin is a serious US VP candidate, and when all the bullshit continues to be piled higher and higher, and when the charm of life is broken away and smashed by morons on the world stage, in our governments at all levels and in the Universities, this lovely man, I guess, had to move on. Love you, David

Carol  09/15/2008 01:06 PM Report

Please do not give in to the dangerous tendency to find a larger philosophical reason for an artist's suicide. Suicide is the result of untreated/undertreated severe depression. Despite what the person committing suicide may say in a note or to others, severe depression is almost always the reason (except in certain cases such as a suicide bomber). To give grand cultural reasons (postmodernism, political landscape, human condition) is to romanticize a preventable act.

Scott  09/15/2008 04:07 AM Report

I had the good fortune to have Wallace as my instructor one spring at Illinois State University. He opened my eyes and mind and I never had the chance to thank him for it however awkward that conversation may have been. With Wallace's suicide the world has gotten a lot less interesting. Here's to hoping that there are red pens, painter's pants, chewing tobacco and bandannas in the afterlife.

Brett Robbins  09/15/2008 03:45 AM Report

He discovered, before the rest of us, the futility of ego-worship. We all chase what he was no longer after. He got it and it didn't unlock the door to contentment. He went through the motions for awhile, but the damage was done. He was ready for the One.

Luke  09/15/2008 02:44 AM Report

My thought is that the last thing that David Foster Wallace was concerned with was something called "The human condition." I think Wallace was concerned with more mundane realities, such as economic realities. My evidence for this is his story "A supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" and his roundtable discussion on Charlie Rose with the writers Leyner and Franzen where Leyner asks "Why doesn't anybody read anymore?" Wallace is quick to respond to Leyner's question, "Because people have jobs." Wallace supplemented many of his texts with often factual footnotes and at least these footnotes can heighten perspective, adding fine details to what is already a usually a well-developed story. Considering Wallace's footnote fetish along with the countless astute observations in every story I've ready by him betrays a detail oriented person who has very wide perceptives and the human condition is essentially another nebulous, non-empirical middle-class term. A term which I suspect Wallace would have furrowed his eyebrows at and then tried to scratch his hair through his doo-rag.

Pudgins  09/15/2008 01:17 AM Report

Please read this. Full of insight into the human condition and the struggles of everyday life.

http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html

Jeff Johns  09/15/2008 01:06 AM Report

"Comment by Lindsey Randal Potts on Sunday, Sep 14 at 09:05 AM Can you blame a man like Wallace for committing suicide in the midst of this anti-intellectual atmosphere in which we now live? Lindsey, I could not agree more." I, also. I just learned about Mr. Wallace in the past two days and after reading about him and watching this interview I found myself thinking that many of our friends, family and co-workers would be so uncomfortable with an intelligent, self-effacing soul that they would dismiss a man who has scaled the heights of awareness without a second (indeed, barely a first) thought. And all I can do is sigh.

jahfurry  09/14/2008 11:24 PM Report

To take a middle ground between the below 2 posts, i bet politics had nothing to do with his decision, but what does it mean when one of the smartest most talented people on earth commits suicide?? In an age of irony, DFW dared to be earnest (and ironic) + In this age of stupidity, he proudly waved the smarts flag... there's something sickeningly symbolic about this suicide as we watch the ascendance of the ulitmate avatar of imbecility on the nation's stage. so sad. And i only tied the 2 because i learned of the tragedy seconds after finishng the NY TImes cover expose on Palin. the symbolic resonance was accidental, but i felt it hard.

david bradford  09/14/2008 10:38 PM Report

wow thomas, why not use something entirely unrelated to the hole America has democratically dug itself over the past years to deliver one more neo-liberal hyperbolic comment, thus perpetuating the stereotype most "left" leaning people try to undo. A man decides to die, surely one of the greatest writers of his generation, but most importantly an individual... maybe politics has nothing to do with it? maybe you're just soap-boxing? maybe it's a little beside the actual point and, like, disrespectful...?

Louise  09/14/2008 08:05 PM Report

Nice interview. One of Charlie's best ever.

Spitzer  09/14/2008 05:35 PM Report

I had never heard of David until this news. Then last night I started researching him and listened to his Rose interview...He struck me as a tortured individual not really so much by what he said but how he said it. I sense that more than anything David felt alone in this world, that his viewpoints and emotions were lost on the rest of us. Not so much because of our lack of intellect but simply because so many of us just don't care. That we're too preoccupied and self-absorbed. It's unfortunate that it took his death to help me learn about him. I look forward now to learning about his work. I think those of us who choose this path do feel alone, very alone. If we didn't this life would likely be tolerable under the most dire of circumstances.

Mark  09/14/2008 04:36 PM Report

Comment by Lindsey Randal Potts on Sunday, Sep 14 at 09:05 AM

Can you blame a man like Wallace for committing suicide in the midst of this anti-intellectual atmosphere in which we now live?

Lindsey,

I could not agree more. Ours is a society in which intelligence is scorned, in which one's social talents, family connections, and/or religious ties far exceed one's intellect, integrity, direct nature, and compassion for community and society as a whole.

David Foster Wallace epitomized these characteristics and so very much more. Sadly these facts matter so little to mankind. Look no further than Charlie's guest on Monday night: Anna Wintour, the living embodiment of self-absorption, banality, and raw greed that now dominate our world.

Hogue  09/14/2008 04:31 PM Report

Peace?

But, I don't think he'd want it.

Monito  09/14/2008 03:51 PM Report

I have never read Mr. Walllace's work, but can only feel by looking at the video clip that he was a bright, sensitive and emotional child. His dialogue alone displayed the sensitivity inside of him and his ablity to convey his thoughts appeared sincere and torturous at the same time. Why he lacked the anchor necessary to continue in his earthly life is the tragic thing.

J  09/14/2008 03:45 PM Report

smart and a wimp. life takes cojones and he opted to check out instead of confronting the tedium of teaching and the loneliness of being a writer.

Leyva J...  09/14/2008 03:32 PM Report

Genius is not taken from us, it is lost.

You are more than someone that will be googled.

Kyle  09/14/2008 01:58 PM Report

I heard the news this morning and am devastated. I never had anybody close to me die before, except a great-grandparent. Whenever another celebrity dies I think, "who cares?." Wallace is the first person to die where I'm actually feeling it. I feel like he was a brother, his writing, his childlike sense of amusement and curiosity could turn generic events into brand new things. Reading contemporary writing beside Wallace is work and his death is shattering because there will be only work from here on out.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that this was an auto-erotic thing gone awry

Anybody who would call Wallace a postmodern writer is dumb to the shit of postmodernism.