I am one of those whose world was changed when I stumbled on "Infinite Jest" in 1996. Before IJ, the only place I'd seen lengthy footnotes as text was in law review articles, and they were generally much less amusing. Also, in 1996 the idea that advertising would be everywhere, that even years would change from a numerical system to one of sponsorship(1), well, that seemed more fanciful than prophetic.
DFW covered topics from porn to tennis (as befits a Macarthur fellow) and I recommend "Consider the Lobster" to blogfish readers for its contemplation of the ethics of seafood eating. The book of the same name also contains "Up, Simba", DFW's story of travelling with McCain during his 2000 presidential bid, which you may also find a useful essay at this particular moment.
RIP, David Foster Wallace.
(1) Wherein years no longer have numbers, like 2006, but names like "The Year of the Trial Sized Dove Bar"
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1 comment:
Congrats on Blog of Note designation, quite understandable to me after looking through your recent posts. This one caught my eye because, ashamed to admit, I wasn't aware of this author. My friend in Austria featured a post at her blog after his death. If you visit mine, you can find a link to hers in my blogroll at Francessa's Thinking.
Great stuff. I'll return.
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