Your op on DFW

[Anonymous No.11678504]

What's your balanced and educated opinion on this man? I'm taking a seminar on him this fall.
>Inb4 /lit/ isn't here to do your homework
I just want to know your thoughts on him and his writing, generally.

[Anonymous No.11678511]

I will never not laugh at the greatly deserved ridicule of this hack fraud. DFW will be remembered by posterity as the most incompetent snake oil salesman western literature has ever produced.

The only sincere act of his life was when he kicked away the chair. His life was nothing but a series of ironies and lies predicated on the the joke that is new sincerity. The big punchline was the creaking of the rafter and the piss trickling down his leg to the floor.

his epiphany that the only viable thing for him to do was to kill himself was the best thing to happen to literature in 30 years since he began writing. Because behind all the self aware gimmicks and self help books and the drugs and the audience pussy there was no discernible tale

[Anonymous No.11678515]

>>11678504
Is this the guy that wrote infinite jest? I’ve only heard bad things about it

[Anonymous No.11678535]

>>11678511
When copying pasta, make sure you get the full thing

[Anonymous No.11678540]

>>11678504
An American classic who memed himself. The perception of his work would be judged much differently had he been a ghost like the predecessors he worshiped. Sometimes too campy and sentimental in an awkward affected way. I doubt anyone caught voice as well he did though, which is really the sole reason to read him.

[Anonymous No.11678550]

>>11678504
>dude television
Why should I take this guy seriously?

[Anonymous No.11678551]

>>11678535
maybe Candlejack got hi

[Anonymous No.11678558]

>>11678551
hi

[Anonymous No.11678565]

>>11678511
ok, op, we know you posted this, and maybe it is pasta, but it literally does not say a single thing, it literally is a dog barking at a mailman, it is only saying 'I think this and I cant explain why but if I say it enough I hope you will without thinking about anything take my word for it'

In short... make like dfw and write a great book yourself

[Anonymous No.11678593]

>>11678504
He had some interesting thoughts with a 90s twist on a concept already widely discussed before his time, i.e. technology, particularly television and its effects on American culture at a time when TV dominated the mainstream. In saying that he had some interesting thoughts, I think he had a hard time trying to relay those thoughts through his writing.

TL;DR - good thinker, shit writer. Unfortunately for him, he will always be remembered as the latter.

[Anonymous No.11678599]

>>11678593
>good thinker, shit writer
I think I would say the opposite is true. He was a talented writer but a brainlet with stupid ideas.

[Anonymous No.11678601]

at times overly intellectual and obtuse, but he's funny and occasionally portrays real emotions. when howard bloom said he had no discernable talent, he never read "forever overhead." the idea of rereading infinite jest is nauseating but i return to his short fiction and essays occasionally.

[Anonymous No.11678622]

>>11678601
>when howard bloom said he had no discernable talent
He said that because IJ threatens the integrity and safety of the canon

[Anonymous No.11678644]

>>11678504
Based on interviews i've seen I'll have to agree with this anon >>11678599
He was right about the dishonesty/irony in media but instead of writing honestly and gimmickless, he wrote: Footnote: The book.
For what I've read, IJ actually has a positive message in the end, but I wonder how much this positive message holds on after his suicide (the same happens with Hemingway and The old man and the sea, book that I've read), was he trying to convince himself or did he believe what he wrote and even despite that, went on and took his own life?
Im still on the fence about reading him, knowing the life/opinions of the author most of the time is what makes me read them, its why Im reading Mishima and about to start Bleeding Edge.
Is IJ worth it? Should I start somewhere else? why would you recommend DFW?

[Anonymous No.11678648]

>>11678504
I always enjoy his fiction. Some of his essays I have found particularly enjoyable. Overall, I think he is undeniably a great writer, even though it isn't for everyone (IJ especially). Also, I've listened to his speech on Kafka so many fucking times -- really helped me appreciate Kafka as a writer and enjoy his novels much much more (ESP the Castle, which I now adore.)

[Anonymous No.11678653]

>>11678644
>He was right about the dishonesty/irony in media but instead of writing honestly and gimmickless, he wrote: Footnote: The book.

>Im still on the fence about reading him...Is IJ worth it?

[Anonymous No.11678660]

>>11678653
Maybe Im wrong and IJ's unlinear reading is actually worth it

[Anonymous No.11678669]

>>11678660
You should just start reading it, but if you want to put it off, and from your impersonal opinion of it, are unsure, well this is probably bad advice because spoilers, but maybe google around for some in depth reviews of the book that arent from 4chan and reddit

[Anonymous No.11678674]

>>11678622
oh, that's a bit dramatic. i assume bloom is in favor of admitting pynchon into the canon too, and he's no less masturbatory. although frankly i think putting any books less than a hundred years old into the canon a little presumptuous.

[Anonymous No.11678692]

>>11678599
Disagree, he was a philosopher who wanted to be a fiction writer

[Anonymous No.11678704]

>>11678674
*bloom covering his cannon, protecting it*
"s-stand back IJ...y-you suck... d-dont speak to me or my son ever again."
*IJ struts up, muscles blazing*
"What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch?"
*bloom channeling Nabokov*
"f-foster wallace...talent; none"
*DFW whips a copy of his book out and spins around in the air in slow motion as the background turns into like an anime background when the anime person spins around in the air in slow motion about to attack*
*he tosses the book and it turns into infinite copies heading towards bloom and his cannon*
"nooo nooo it cant be! ... y-your book is not better than most of these!"
*infinite copies of IJ obliterate the canon*
*bloom is left sulking in tatters.
".. a-alas...poor.. yorick....grr err..it was the best of times...arschg...aeec... in the begging...was...the...wor..................

[Anonymous No.11678720]

>>11678692
I disagree, he was a writer poet philosopher sociologist psychologist who wanted to be a poetic philosophic psychologic sociological novelist

[Anonymous No.11678785]

People hate on Infinite Jest because it does not take you out to dinner, to a nice restaurant, rub your shoulders with sensual oils, massage your face, and bring its lips right up to your cheeks and neck and softly breathe and kiss, it doesnt not suck your dick, it does not for a long time continuously suck your dick and rub your legs and feet, it does not hug you from behind rubbing your back and stomach and arms and sensually kissing you and licking you and feeding you rich cakes, in ways it does, in ways it doesnt

[Anonymous No.11679001]

So the new Vice doc about DFW is out. It’s called “Unhinged Typists of the Northeast.” Here’s the intro:

>*Rainy street corner, man standing with hands in pockets talking to camera*
>“Wallace will be here any minute. Then…who the fuck knows?”
>*laughs fatalistically*
>*cut to black*
>Narrator: “In the 1990s, the supremacy of safe and palatable paperbacks caused a revolution in the literary underworld. A literary movement emerged that chose to abandon linear form and plot.”
>*Camera follows man jogging down the rainy NYC street*
>Narrator continues: “What emerged was a new form of writing: sweeping, meandering tomes of self-satisfied meditations on everything from the mundane to the esoteric; freestyle and formless, calculated yet irreverent, these works cast a new spotlight on a subset of nobodies who were convinced that intellectuals were missing the point of life, while blue-collar simpletons were the real geniuses. I met with a member of this group named Jonathan. He goes by J.F.”
>*J.F. stands outside a brownstone in the rain looking at the camera with a subdued desperation*
>Narrator: “Jonathan has led me to the home of the leader of this revolution. They call him Wallace. Jonathan told me that Wallace should be home any minute.”
>*J.F. thrusts his hands in his pockets nervously then peers beyond the cameraman*
>JF: “He’s here.”
>*camera suddenly swings around, revealing a figure standing in the rain below a streetlamp*
>Cameraman to J.F.: “Why does he wear the dew rag?”

You know this shit’s gonna be good.

[Anonymous No.11679027]

>>11678644
>hasn't even started reading the author
>already calls his work dishonest and gimmicky
you fucking chimp, why the fuck are you even posting on this thread

[Anonymous No.11679035]

>>11679027
>Wardine be cry
Not him, but I've read more than enough 2bh

[Anonymous No.11679064]

>>11678511
Not to mention, both his parents were rich professors with connections that basically opened all his doors in life.

[Anonymous No.11679198]

i really don't get why people talk so much about him and the flaws he had as a person and some minor meme stuff like "Wardine be cry"1 or his footnotes2.

First of, his essays are well written with interesting insights and perspectives. Fuck he actually managed to make me read 40 pages about usage, with joy.
And his essay on his experience on a luxury cruise gives insight into the mind of a flawed but reflected and social anxious, akward, half autistic person. All while being extremely entertaining to read.
Just to name two examples.
But most of his essays are of high quality and extremely fun to read, while still giving interesting input.

And i sincerely like infinite jest. Was it a fun and pleasant easy read? No, of course not. But was it worth it? Yes, for me it was.
It was hard labor because you cant just switch your brain off and float through the book. This is mainly due to the fact, that it takes quite a while until you can make sense of whats going on at all, because the structure of the different story lines and their relation doesn't become clear until after a couple hundred pages (if i remember correctly). This leaves you in an uncertain state when reading it for the first time, as there is nothing you can hold on to in order to try to structure and shelve the input with order.
But if you can accept that then it is rewarding. I liked how the plot unfolded and in me it evoked a strong emotional response to the human struggle portrayed in the book and the overall feeling he created.
So in any case i think it is a unique reading experience, that can be well worth your time if you are willing to read something with patience.


1which is also stupid in the assumption that "oh he is so white he can't write slang, how embarassing". Wallace being a language nerd and researching everything in depth was not that type of guy. There is even a big part of an essay focused on the differences between afroamerican English and the "white" English used in schools etc., which shows that he actually even analyzed the differences in spoken language between different groups in america. It is rather likely that he portrayed the language of someone with a mental illness which he might have encountered when he himself was in a clinic.

2 And maybe i am the only person that likes the footnotes. You don't have to follow them up every time you encounter one. So it doesn't distract the flow of reading if you just leave them out and want to move on with the main story. But if you wanna go deep then you can find sometimes pages of more in depth info, elaboration or explanation (both in his essays and infinite jest.

[Anonymous No.11679246]

He suffered a lot of anxiety from his imposter syndrome. His ego was based in the notion that he was a very intelligent individual, a genius, head and shoulders above the rest brains-wise.
Because he put himself out there as this super intelligent, sensitive, and creative, yet still relatable kind of guy, he felt compelled to continuously keep up the lie.
He never realized that he didn't have to be smart, that being smart isn't necessary to be happy.

The truth is that some of the smartest people in the world are actually the dumbest because if you're not happy, then you're a dumb idiot and a waste of life.

[Anonymous No.11679410]

>>11679198
The conceit of the usage essay is unbearable. A subject becomes elitest or esoteric for a number of reasons. What then makes it accessible is a lucid and honest introduction from the perspective of a writer who genuinely believes the reader can come to enjoy it in the same way they do. Wallace on the other hand seemed actually to think he was special because he happened to have a passing knowledge of linguistics, and uses the already established esotericism of the subject to sneer at his readers. 'Don't worry, it's normal to be ignorant about this - i'm the one who's different after all - but you can enjoy it vicariously anyway through me'
What people enjoy in the essay is they get to feel like they're wallace for 5 minutes, like they're also uniquely intellectual

[Anonymous No.11679425]

>>11678504
Troubled and a bit of a pseud, but a good writer

[Anonymous No.11679431]

>>11678551
ANON WHAT HAPPENED!?!?

[Anonymous No.11679440]

>>11678674
No, pynchon is just better

[Anonymous No.11680026]

>>11678785
>>11678704
guys....cmon

[Anonymous No.11680043]

>>11679198
>about usage
what essay is that, curious what you mean by usage

[Anonymous No.11680065]

>>11679246
you are so dumb that you cant comprehend that he didnt have a choice in being smart, but that the energies of the universe demanded it of him

[Anonymous No.11680075]

>>11679027
Ive heard him talk about his books and philosophy, and i know he said (on his own words) that art should be hard for it to be rewarding, so excuse me for having my doubts about reading his 1000+ novel, as maybe it will be unnecessarily hard (and at the end) not worth it.

[Anonymous No.11680371]

He is a more than decent, interesting writer. Not perfect, probably not a Genius in the tier of Pynchon. The St. David cult is annoying, but he wrote enjoyable, original, and thoughtful stories. Definitely one of the better writers of the past 25 years.

His "persona" or "celebrity" or "personality" is in someways more fascinating than his work, and think that bothered him a lot.

[Anonymous No.11680556]

>>11679064
Can you elaborate on how such connections facilitated his production of books?

[Anonymous No.11681351]

>>11680065
He wasn't smart because he had everything he needed to be happy and still killed himself.

[Anonymous No.11681424]

>>11680556
Not that guy but he was by his own admission accepted to an extremely prestigious, exclusive, competitive, expensive, and highly ranked liberal arts college almost entirely on the basis of his dad's alumni and faculty connections--they told him he was in right in the interview, which is extremely unusual. He literally only applied to that one college, Amherst, had mediocre SAT scores (his sister is on record as saying he lied about getting a better one to others), and probably had decent but not exceptional grades.

People without his family background and knowledge of academia probably would have attended a second tier state school or even community college. But he got lucky and took advantage of his luck to establish the beginnings of a literary career, which (it has to be said) not everybody who is afforded that opportunity is capable of.

[Anonymous No.11681438]

Highly overrated, hadn't any talent. He appeals to losers on 4chan because he reflects their nerdy cerebral sex-frustrated introverted limp dick little world. He was too whacked out on anti-depressants to feel any emotions, and going off them drove him to suicide. Clearly no role model or eternal superstar. Just an above average prose writer with a knack for clever observation. No discernible talent.

[Anonymous No.11681447]

he seems like he was a massive fag!

[Anonymous No.11681555]

>>11678704
kek

[Anonymous No.11682724]

Hard to believe John McCain outlived him.

[Anonymous No.11683211]

>>11680075
>not just reading it for yourself to determine whether or not reading it is worth it

if you don't like reading it the first time, you don't have to read it again.