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/lit/ - Literature

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2974313 No.2974313[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

Today, it's four years since the death of the most talented artist of our generation, David Foster Wallace.

Let's have a DFW appreciation thread. No haters allowed:3

>> No.2974316

DFW killed himself because he knew he hadn't any talent.

>> No.2974324
File: 7 KB, 400x300, candle.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2974324

Have you lit your candle for David today?

>> No.2974327

http://exiledonline.com/david-foster-wallace-portrait-of-an-infinitely-limited-mind/

>> No.2974372

>>2974327

>" No, Darren, it’s a fucking depressing heroin story! What kind of sick fuck would write a novel about a one-armed junkie? An Evangelical, that’s who."

yes, that's a very... good article you have there. congratulations.

>> No.2974378

>>2974372
Darren Arnofsky is even more indefensible than DFW.

Cautionary tales about drug addiction usually devolve into inane piety and platitudes. DFW is no exception. I prefer literature that treats me like an adult capable of making decisions about what substances I partake of.

>> No.2974379

>>2974378
Help! I am addicted to pot!

Haha. DFW is a joke.

>> No.2974384

>>2974379
That guy who liked to lock himself away for porn and weed binges, shutting himself out from society to rip as many bongs as possible, then felt disgusted with himself afterwards, was biographical.

>> No.2974387

>>2974378
>Cautionary tales about drug addiction usually devolve into inane piety and platitudes. DFW is no exception. I prefer literature that treats me like an adult capable of making decisions about what substances I partake of.


EDGY undergraduate detected.

Pro tip, kid: if you think you can partake addictive drugs 'responsibly', then you are not mature enough to do drugs or discuss drug use with adults.

/thread

>> No.2974389

>Pro tip, kid: if you think you can partake addictive drugs 'responsibly', then you are not mature enough to do drugs or discuss drug use with adults.

No I'm pretty sure most of western society partakes of addictive drugs on a regular basis and functions just fine. DFW himself was, in fact, addicted to the most popular of those substances. I can't even figure out the underlying reasoning here other than your condescending bluster.

>> No.2974399

>>2974327

Man I'm reading that article and it's making me realise what a god damn hipster I am. I want to die

>> No.2974409

>>2974399
http://qkme.me/3qvj3l

>> No.2974424

>>2974327

I'm starting to think the author of this shitty article is making DFW threads to then in turn link his shitty article to generate views.
Still haven't been over the fact that the comment section tears your article apart?

>> No.2974428

You know, I don’t want to be offensive. But Infinite Jest is just awful. It seems ridiculous to have to say it. He can’t think, he can’t write. There’s no discernible talent. Stephen King is Cervantes compared with David Foster Wallace.

>> No.2974429

>>2974389
> No I'm pretty sure most of western society partakes of addictive drugs on a regular basis and functions just fine.

'Functioning just fine' != acting responsibly.

The vast majority of Western society never acted responsibly in their lives.

>> No.2974434

>>2974379
Addicted to pot hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

>> No.2974451

>>2974434
> Smokes pot fifty times a day, every day
> Talks about nothing but pot
> All his 'friends' are united by a common interest in smoking pot all day, every day
> Can't communicate a coherent thought if his life depended on it
> Thinks being addicted to pot is impossible

>> No.2974463

apology for poor english

when were you when david willice dies

i was sat at home drinking brain fluid when fred ring

'dave is die'

'no'

and you?????????????

>> No.2974476

>>2974327
>Australian
>uses "retarded" in a publication
>doesn't understand Kafka
>doesn't understand Latin
>loves Hunter S Thompson

why did you show me this I have to take a shower

RIP in peace DFW :(

>> No.2974482
File: 168 KB, 600x940, infinitejest.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2974482

Just finished reading IJ a couple days ago.

2deep4me

>> No.2974484

>>2974451
>hundreds of experts saying coffee is more addictive than marijuana.
>help! I'm addicted to pot!

Ahahahahaha. Oh, God. Haha.

>> No.2974488

>>2974484

Stop being so ignorant. You're interpreting the word addictive wrong. Physically, it is not very addictive, but psychologically it can be. His entire life revolved around substance abuse and you are telling me thats okay?

>> No.2974491

>>2974484
It's possible to be addicted to virtually anything, especially for obsessively-compulsive inclined people. Addiction is a state just as mental as it is physical.

>> No.2974494

>>2974484
>substance A is more addictive than B
>therefore B can't be addictive

Nice.

>> No.2974498
File: 26 KB, 350x263, tumblr_m919nwZuHR1r4decw.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2974498

>>2974488
>Physically, it is not very addictive, but psychologically it can be.

No, I'm sorry. This is not to be taken seriously. You can say this about anything at all. There are people who are on Facebook 18 hours a day. If pot is "psychologically addictive" then so is Facebook and vidya and everything else people do for lengthy periods of time.

If it is addicting, it is a silly addiction nobody takes seriously.

>> No.2974500

>>2974491
>Addiction is a state just as mental as it is physical.
But physical addiction and mental addiction are completely different things.

>> No.2974511

>>2974327
I read a bit of Intestine Jest but since English is not my first language, I got the impression the form was a bit of a focal point I was missing, so I left it for later maybe.

>> No.2974514

>>2974484
sure is edgy 16 year old in here

why are dfw haters such invariably bad people?

>> No.2974520

>>2974514
Not that guy, but I think most of the "edgy 16 year olds" are the ones in favour of Wallace and taking pot addiction seriously.

>> No.2974521

>>2974429
>The vast majority of Western society never acted responsibly in their lives.

Nice try at a subtle shift of the goalposts here. If you think society consists of people who are still mentally children then I'm sure the pious horse shit DFW has to offer them makes a great deal of sense, however.

>> No.2974524

>>2974424
It's almost like this gets posted here to provoke a reaction and not contribute to a discussion. What's that called again?

>> No.2974531

>>2974520
anyone who think smoking weed or doing any kind of drug makes them cool is a sad little faggot. what i'm seeing in this thread is 420chan level spastication: "oh my godz dfw can't even handle weed what a nerd lel!" i'm actually embarrassed to inhabit the same small slice of the internet as them/you.

>> No.2974534

>>2974524
>What's that called again?

Shitposting? Ruining a once good board? Being a gigantic faggot?

>> No.2974535

>Reading The Pale King
>So much depressing stuff about his substance abuse
>420 fags ITT claiming that drugs r kewl

RIP, Dave.

>> No.2974542
File: 549 KB, 610x458, 1347214594263.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2974542

>>2974531

>> No.2974545

>>2974451
Nope i haven't smoked pot in 10 years because ITS NOT ADDICTIVE !!!!!

>> No.2974547

>>2974463
FASTER WALRUS YOU IGNORANT SLUT
WALRUS IS DIE

>> No.2974550

>>2974531
Cool has nothing to do with it. It has to do with the DARE scare-story-quality moralizing DFW engages in, as if his experience with life-threatening alcohol addiction weren't an exception.

A vast majority of human beings enjoy drugs and the fabric of society has not unraveled as a result. I am also aware that addiction is a terrible thing but I do not need someone attempting to frame a social commentary around how addiction is a spiritually or morally debasing experience due to the nature of the substance's effects on the body alone. The US is particularly punitive toward drug addicts because it considers addicts spiritually and morally debased, after all. So in reality, DFW is subtly going to bat for the same notions that are used to justify the monstrous ongoing crime against humanity that is the war on drugs.

>> No.2974558

>>2974550
>the monstrous ongoing crime against humanity that is the war on drugs.

lol

I don't see how a society of drug abusers could possibly be a positive thing.

>> No.2974561

>>2974558
I think some drug abuse is a good thing. You forget that alcohol and caffeine are drugs. Is it a bad thing to snort coke in the bathroom on your lunch break? Yes. Do a lot of respectable people smoke weed or drink alcohol to cope with their daily stress? Yes.

>> No.2974562

hey guys, you know what's really addictive? Fucking Bitches ! If you agree, buy my new book "Infinite Hardon". It's the touching true story of a man and his cock and the steps he takes to satisfy his one eyed dragon. IN BOOKSTORES NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

>> No.2974566

>>2974550
> life-threatening alcohol addiction weren't an exception.

All addicts are exactly the same. (The same fucked-up basketcases.)

> and the fabric of society has not unraveled as a result.

I don't think anybody could seriously claim that our society isn't (or has ever not been) fucked up and seriously broken. Perhaps that is one of the reasons.

Also, turdnugget: 'but everybody else is doing it' is not a valid excuse for anything. I thought most people learned this back in early childhood from bickering with their mom.

>> No.2974586

>>2974566
>I don't think anybody could seriously claim that our society isn't (or has ever not been) fucked up and seriously broken. Perhaps that is one of the reasons.

It isn't, but that's a political, economic and sociological discussion. Also the degree to which it ever was not fucked up and broken is also a can of worms that you probably should open sometime (crack a history book).

>All addicts are exactly the same. (The same fucked-up basketcases.)

My point was that the vast majority of people who do drugs do not become addicted. In fact, many people have *gasp* fun under the influence. It actually does make people's lives more enjoyable, which is ultimately what puritans like DFW come to have a problem with. People enjoying themselves in a way he couldn't without nearly killing himself with cirrhosis of the liver.

>> No.2974587

>>2974562
Ron McBalls pls go

>> No.2974591

>>2974587
I am, to fuck your MOM oh yeah !

>> No.2974607

>>2974558
I don't see how having 3% of the population of this country under the auspices of the criminal justice system is a positive thing., most of whom are in that predicament because of non-violent offenses.

>> No.2974630

I just /lit/ a candle for David. Goodnight sweet prince.

RIP IN PIECE.

>> No.2974634

>>2974630
>lighting a candle for a fraud
>2012

Idiot.

>> No.2974640
File: 19 KB, 464x538, _49735645_drugs_comparisons_464gr.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2974640

>>2974561
>You forget that alcohol and caffeine are drugs.

>> No.2974638

This thread is a disgrace to DFW's legacy.

>> No.2974645

If David Foster Wallace knew so much about why how to live and why "we" are unhappy (I don't know why he assumes everyone lives in a state of soul-crushing ennui), why did he kill himself?

>> No.2974650

>>2974645
Well shit, maybe it was his depression.

>> No.2974670

>>2974476
>uses "retarded" in a publication

Who cares?

>doesn't understand Kafka

How?

>doesn't understand Latin

No, he was right in his analysis of DFW's semantic pedantry.

>loves Hunter S Thompson

Thompson was responsible for one of the most important and influential developments in journalism of the 20th century. Even DFW's own journalism could be described as 'gonzo'. I don't see the problem.

>> No.2974675

>>2974650
Well shit, maybe he knew he was a fraud and that he hadn't any talent and so killed himself before people found out.

>> No.2974676

>>2974650
If he knows so much about how to live, why was he depressed?

>> No.2974678

What type of rope did DFW use? I want to autoerotic asphyxiate myself to nite and my penis demands sincerity.

>> No.2975163

>The extensive, substance-soaked wreckage of Wallace’s romantic life is, for one thing, detailed in horribly fascinating detail. Often, this is done in ways that illuminate Wallace’s work, or at least the background to it. (The real-life model for the protagonist of Wallace’s excruciatingly brilliant short story “The Depressed Person,” Max tells us, was Wurtzel.) More often, though, it’s just plain gruesome—and nowhere more than in Max’s detailing of Wallace’s relationship with the poet and novelist Mary Karr, who was married with a teenage son when he met her through a recovery program. He turns up at a pool party Karr is attending with her family, a bandage on his shoulder covering a fresh tattoo of her name. He contacts an ex-con fellow AA member looking to buy a gun to shoot Karr’s husband. He tries to push her from a moving car. During another fight, he throws—literally throws—a coffee table at her.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2012/09/d_t_max_s_david_foster_wallace_biography_every_love
_story_is_a_ghost_story_reviewed_.single.html

DFW was a huge fucking fraud. He rails against using obscure words and over-complicating speech, but look at his books. Thousands upon thousands of footnotes on obscure topics in science, mathematics, and facts which contribute absolutely nothing to the story. In fact, he commits the sin he rails about in his prose, look at his ridiculously long sentences and obscure words that he uses.

Also, on "sincerity," read above. How the fuck can I take he says about sincerity seriously when he tried to murder someone? When he had no qualms about sleeping with his friends' girlfriends, let alone some guy's wife? Maybe sincerity is something that modern society needs to work on, but DFW talking about sincerity is a fucking joke. I'm really fucking ashamed I ever thought this hipster asshole was a genius.

>> No.2975180

>>2975163

>Thousands upon thousands of footnotes on obscure topics in science, mathematics, and facts which contribute absolutely nothing to the story.

This sentence shows me that you are a raging retard who understands nothing.

>> No.2975187
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2975187

>Implying the most talented artists aren't in fantasy.

>> No.2975188

>>2975180

What the fuck are you talking about? Have you ever read Wallace and seen the nonstop gushing forth of diarrhea that does nothing to move forth the plot, but is simply there to make him look smart?

I bet you think he's a deep

>> No.2975267

>>2975163
>Dostoevsky murders an old woman with an ax just to prove he can, is a literary genius
>DFW doesn't even carry out his murder, is a fraud

>>2974670
Convenient how you left out "Australian," surely the most damning aspect of this article. If I can quote the author himself, "All Australians, see, are a mob of know-nothing pissheads with no hope of understanding what it means to be American after 9/11." I'm not going to address using "retarded" because I can't do much about a lack of standards, and the bit on Latin is itself pedantic (saying that prior means the same thing in Latin and English isn't wholly accurate), but I'm particularly prickled at the author's understanding of Kafka, so I'll respond to that. Someone who thinks you should sympathize with Samsa in Metamorphosis hasn't read The Hunger Artist or In the Penal Colony: these aren't heroes you can relate to. Kafka's characters are aliens in a rational world, however horrifying that world may be. It's not tragedy.

All I'm saying about Hunter S Thompson is that the author seems to look at Thompson's drug use as some sort of indication of honesty, which is silly. This borders on obsession when he goes out to detail every discrepancy on drugs in Infinite Jest, as though The Pale King would fall apart if you learned the motto of the IRS isn't really "alicui tamen faciendum est."

>> No.2975273

to see him walking through the Amherst campus as an undergraduate, remarking on the springtime “smell of cunt in the air.” LOL frat boy

>> No.2975297

>>2975267
>Dostoyevsky murders an old woman
You're being facetious, right?

>> No.2975345

What's the best way to get into DFW?

>> No.2975349

>>2974645

This is a very good point, and I happen to share this sentiment. I can't take DFW seriously as a thinker since he was so convinced of his mind-bending, uncontrollable depression. But many would argue that depressed mental states are the result of an inherent chemical imbalance of the brain, and ought to be medicated. But maybe the introduction of this idea is enough for one to submit to the mental state, even if it originated from a terrible life experience/happening/loss... interesting ideas for the relationship of the body to the mind.

>> No.2975362

>>2975345
"Oblivion" and/or "A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again".

>> No.2975404

DFW caused 9/11

>> No.2975439

>>2975404
I thought he was Protestant

>> No.2975444

>>2974327
He gets mad because supposedly DFW has no true convictions and calls him a hipster, but then he also gets mad and calls DFW an evangelical when DFW starts moralizing against drugs.
>>2975163
>How the fuck can I take he says about sincerity seriously when he tried to murder someone?

Are you implying that murder isn't sincere? Pro tip: it doesn't mean moral. That DFW was messed up and immoral, and that he knew his, shows in his fiction, which he used to criticize people like himself in characters like Orin and all the hideous men that were briefly interviewed.

>> No.2975516

>>2974379
I think that you are laboring under a misapprehension here. The specific form of entertainment or reality dulling/altering substance is irrelevant to the larger thematic narrative of Infinite Jest. The idea is that whatever your poison of choice is, whether it's marijuana. or painkillers, or alcohol, or television, or tennis, or the radio you are still at the heart of things attempting to escape from the persistent agony of reality. The "addiction to marijuana" is not saying "this particular substance has terrible physical properties and so one shouldn't utilize it". it's saying "the desire to escape what is a fundamentally hurtful and misery filled world is something that can it itself contribute to what makes that world miserable in the first place".

>> No.2975523

>>2974327
What I dislike about this article is that the author seems incapable of saying "I disagree with what I construe as the underlying ideology of the author, but I still like the book". Whether or not David Foster Wallace was absolutely 100% accurate w/r/t all possible factoids in the book is completely irrelevant to the larger thematic point of the work. The writer of this article seems to see an analysis of a text as equating to an ideological analysis of the author, with whether or not a book is good or not being really whether or not the author of the article holds the same viewpoints that the author does. Authorial sufficiency is hardly a workable analysis for a text in toto.

>> No.2975526

Part of me hopes Bret Easton Ellis is posting in this hate thread.

>> No.2975536

>>2974645
Only lion tamers get killed by lions.

>> No.2975542

>>2975516
I'm pretty sure tennis is part of reality. Like fiction in general, and all that stuff that's supposed to be so bad in the nonsensical world of David Foster Wallace. You can't think, you can't write, you have no discernible talent.

>> No.2975560

>>2975526
Part of me hopes BEE has killed himself and we'll hear about it tomorrow.

>> No.2975565

>>2975516
I think that you are laboring under a misapprehension here. Everything that you just outlined falls into the big Wal-Mart bin labeled "white people problems" that nobody can even begin to take seriously. Writing about a kid who is "addicted to pot" is just as idiotic as writing about someone who's addicted to TV or coffee. Nobody gives a shit, nor should they.

That DFW has to invent problems like pot addiction really just shows how horrible white people have become in their bids to have hardships. And that fanbois like you back him up just make people take it all the more less seriously.

>> No.2975573

>>2975565
>White people can't have hard lives

I never saw the actual addiction as being DFW's focus. More, the feeling that one gets when they're so withdrawn from society and are only living for a singular thing which is, itself, so utterly insignificant and knowing that it's insignificant but unable to break the habit.

It's like in The Pale King when all he did was watch As the World Turns. You could substitute that out for weed or Obetrol or any other thing.

>> No.2975576

>>2975573
>fuck you, TV addiction is REAL and makes life HARD! It ruins lives!

Go away, moron.

>> No.2975581

>>2975576
Again, it's the feeling of addiction - the drifting, shiftless, feckless, etc. feeling. Of feeling disconnected from the world and floating and only having something stupid, which you know is stupid, to anchor you down.

>> No.2975630

>>2975565
So basically white culture is superior to every other culture?

>> No.2975641

>>2975630
White culture is boring the shit out of everyone, including white people.

When the next great war comes, you will see all the men and women who will queue to be part of it simply because they already beat all the Call of Duty games, already.

>> No.2975645
File: 68 KB, 350x284, 1347209148500.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2975645

>>2975641

>white culture

>> No.2976318

>>2975523
He explains in the article why it's a bad book, how it's poorly written, poorly researched, how it exudes pampered white middle-class naivety. Read the whole goddamn thing.

>> No.2976645

>>2976318
Yes DFW was pampered and privileged, more than many whites in America. His own ego killed himself.

>> No.2976654

>>2976645
Help! I'm jonsing hard for some pot!

Hahahahaha. Ahahahahahahahaha. Oh God, Ahahahahahahaha.

>> No.2976665

Chocolate is more addictive than marijuana

>> No.2976707

>>2976654
ok, that made me laugh

>> No.2976746

I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .I am addicted to laughing at DFW .

>> No.2976757

tfw when bet friend is truly addicted to pot and it has ruined his life. not even trolling he's so lazy its sad. high 24/7

>> No.2976767

>>2976757
Pot didn't ruin his life. Laziness did.

Pot is just an excuse.