David Foster Wallace, My Idol, is Dead
Sep 14th, 2008 by Nut
I just heard the news that David Foster Wallace, my favorite writer of all time, was found dead in his home in an apparent suicide. His wife found him and it looks as if he hung himself to death. I’m horrified.
I’ve written about DFW’s influence before. How a book he wrote made me want to become a writer and about his essay on John McCain that has become popular now that he’s running for office.
This is awful.
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I saw David many times. In and out of a favorite hangout called The Coffeehouse in Normal, Illinois where he taught. I’d see him in Barnes and Noble and just could never get the courage up to go up to him and say,”you are a frigging genius”. There was something that stopped me and I wish it hadn’t. I did sense a very private person in him and being a private person myself, I understood. Leave him alone.
You owe him that, he needs it.
Our paths crossed so often, one would think it was kismet. Yet, I just couldn’t bring myself to interrupt his world. I wish I had.
I was, however, privileged enough to hear him read parts of Infinite Jest to a small, local crowd. The immensity of it, both in thought and sheer size, struck me hard. He had captured my thoughts. He had captured his own thoughts, at least for a time.
He was shy to do a formal reading and yet, his reading of the excerpts put so much life into words already sprouting a new generation of more words.
I felt I’d lost a kindred spirit on Friday. Forget the genius stuff and all that. He was an artist who “got it” and we mortals can only tread lightly where he walked.
My supreme condolences to his wife and family.
I heard this on NPR and immediately thought of you. Thankful that through reading your site I was introduced to DFW, but saddened by the very real loss to the writer’s community. We will miss you DFW, but through your writing, you have left your mark on us.
Thanks for the comments and it’s nice to hear that you got to him through me. I’m still just really shocked at the whole thing.
[...] know I already mentioned the passing of DFW and how big of a deal itis to me, but I still have this running through my head. [...]
This was sad news, for sure. I felt this way when Randy Pausch died, as I had followed his story since he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and so enjoyed his motivational speeches and writing.