I'm disappointed that David Foster Wallace is treated like such a joke around here, because I figure most people on 4chan are the same, and I also figure I'm like most people on 4chan, and he's quickly becoming a bit of a hero to me. Ever since I became shackled to my computer and stopped interacting with anyone outside of my mom and brother, and even when I do that it's mostly in a kind of baby talk that we kept up with after we grew out of childhood as a joke and has now become some kind of pre-post meta-apathetic "ironic" "joke", I've steadily felt worse and worse, and only in the last few months have I begun to put my finger on what issues are causing me to feel like that. When I found DFW, it's like my prayers were answered: the more of his work I read and the more interviews I listened to, the more my eyes were opened. Irony, sincerity, entertainment, the information age, depression, fear, boredom and why the society we were raised/are in made/makes us think that's so scary; everything that's been gnawing at the back of my mind for years and I didn't even know it, presented and explained and unpacked. Honestly, if I could bring back anyone I wanted to from the dead and talk to them for 15 minutes, DFW would be in second place right behind my father, and a strong second. I don't want this to seem like some crazy religious deal: I get that he was a goofy, screwed up son of a bitch who ended up offing himself, but some people take the jokes too far, and it just makes me sad sometimes.
>>7733254
If this is sincere, then you are not the only one here who really appreciates Wallace and wishes he weren't such a joke. Sadly it's the nature of the site to have that be part of the dialogue here; it's the other edge of the sword.
read the bible
>>7733254
You're a newfag. We love Wallace. Jokes are jokes.
>>7733254
>and he's quickly becoming a bit of a hero to me.
you meanAN hero... amirite? ;))
>>7733254
I actually agree. His sincerity in IJ resonated deeply with me.
He seems to make total sense about so many things and then you learn he voted Reagan.
Maybe it was the one time in his life he tried doing something ironically.
The only people who sincerely insult him are newfags from /mu/ trying too hard to fit in. Wallace became a meme because we loved him so much.
By the way, did anyone see the new episode of Fresh Meat last night? Infinite Jest got name dropped and sort of poked fun at.
>>7733254
You're writing like him, my man, but poorly.
I agree OP, but can we please stop having posts about dfw and infinte jest. I swear like 30% of the threads here are about one of those topics.
>>7733287
HAHA! Well Iron´d, mate.
>>7733254
I don't see how a nigger feeding by licking the sweat off gym goers is relevant at all, to be honest.
He's very good. But he's not good enough to fix your life.
>>7733254
You realize /lit/ IS an infinite jest right?
I'm one of the biggest DFW memers here, and a big fan of Wallace. I wouldn't say "I meme out of love," because that's kind of corny and not quite right. But I don't know, you can't explain these things. I don't have any ill will toward the guy. It's just fuckin' funny as hell to talk about David Foster Fucking Wallace and his book Endless Joke. Lmao.
>>7733515
Maybe not fix, but he does help patch a few leaks here and there!
>>7733515
It's naive to expect lit to 'fix' your life. The best it does is leaving you wrecked, exposed to the underlying shit of the society or your own problems. The agency is yours.
I agree, OP, DFW is an incredible author.
>>7733773
Lao Tzu and a few French philosophers actually fixed mine. I used to be /b/ bad. Of course, I had to do most of the work, but the root credit is to them, really.
>>7733796
which frenchies?
>>7733254
>entertainment, the information age, depression, fear, boredom
I haven't read IJ, but from what I did read, it seems like he misses the connections between all those, and how they're all a part of a single totality. All of them, on their own and as part of a system, and their increased prominence in the recent past can be traced to the prevailing mode of production, namely neoliberalistic global capitalism. Even though it is often presented the natural result of humanity's progress, it is actually the result of decisions made by people in power, so it's not inevitable or natural; the same goes for the society it produces. And contrary to the common belief, there are alternatives, though it doesn't really fit in with the contemporary worldview. (Hope that makes sense, it's kind of hard to articulate)
So it's sad to see good old Dave buying into all this capitalism realism bullshit and ultimately not seeing the bigger picture. Or did he actually write about this?
>>7733804
>I haven't read IJ
>>7733814
Not yet, not yet. You know how sometimes you put off something that's been said to be really good for no reason at all? That's what I've been doing.
>>7733804
>I haven't read IJ
couldn't get past this part... do you not have access to books? huh? wuh? you feelin ok, bud?
>>7733300
>and then you learn he voted Reagan.
is this a meme
>>7733834
nope, read the d.t. max bio
>>7733826
Not the whole thing anyway. Give me time.
>>7733254
Most people here don't have the capacity to actually discuss things, be it due to the fact that they don't read or they just don't have the energy. That's why at least 90% of the board is recycled garbage and memes and will never be good. Just give up and maybe go to reddit honestly
>>7734418
If you think reddit is better in any way you might legitimately have Down's Syndrome. /lit/ is terrible, but every other place is exponentially worse.
>>7733804
>there are alternatives
Which are?
inb4 some edgy teen starts droning on about Marx
>>7734785
anarcho-syndicalism :^)
>>7734810
>not monarchical feudalism
you tried
>>7734825
have fun with minimal shared resources and stunted scientific and economic growth you fucking cuck
>>7734887
>cuck
>implying I myself wouldn't be the monarch
I'm out to cuck the world, my man
>>7733437
Came here to say this.
>>7734922
admirable, honestly
I actually agree with you, OP. I didn't even like IJ, but I respect what DFW did for literature, and it bothers me how people can make fun of him as much as they do. That whole "using IJ as a bong" article pissed me off because it completely disregards who he was as a person, and instead treats him like some asshole who deserves to be mocked after death.
He's not Jeb Bush, he doesn't deserve what he's getting.
What is it that made his style so intimate and realistic?
I'm thinking its mostly run on sentences and over usage of conjunctions?
>muh sincerity
This moon-faced fagget memed you fools
>>7733300
literally nothing wrong with Reagan you socialist cunt
>>7735025
>voting republicans
>ever
Smh
>>7735027
>identity politics
>intelligence
Pick one
>>7735006
If Mira wasn't both irrelevant and incapable of being interesting, she'd have used a Quran.
>>7733254
I cried the first time I heard his "This is Water" speech.
I was right there with my post-ironic misanthropic attitude unironically crying at how genuine someone could be.
I hated optimism and sincerity with a passion.
I acted this way because I hurt. I didn't think there was any good in the world and it was no good to try and bring some in because things like "good" and "bad" were not real.
One the outside I was aloof, I had no friends and convinced myself I liked it better that way. On the inside I laughed at everyone who showed even the slightest sign of caring about anything.
I was exactly the person DFW was describing. I would be shopping and I would just constantly think about how stupid all these people were for showing any sign of emotion.
I like how he called that kind of think "the default setting" because it really is. I use to be more kind and compassionate then slowly drifted into that default setting after seeing how beng kind and compassionate got me nowhere.
I always thought I was smarter than all those other people because I understood that life was pointless and I knew they were all making fools of themselves for even trying. I read lots. I was easily able to dismiss anything against my world view using "logic" and anything that supported my view just made me worse.
DFW really hit me hard when I first heard that speech. It was against everything I was all about but somehow the message sunk in.
I'm literally tearing up writing this post. It means so much to me.
The one thing that I kept asking myself was how was he able to keep going. I didn't understand how someone who thought all that could continue to find the energy to hold those ideas.
Then I remember that he killed himself.
I feel like he committed suicide as an alternative to compromising his beliefs.
That is something that has meaning and transcends cynicism and nihilism.
He changed my way of thinking and is a constant source of inspiration for me.
Sorry for the blog post.
>>7735057
Enjoy your polish parliament and voter-betraying coalitions, kekold
>>7735057
have fun being invaded by barbarians in the next 5 years
>>7735111
>being racist
reddit to back
NOW
>>7735115
>wanting to keep barbarians out and wanting to preserve a future for your culture and race
>bad
back to cuckland with you, my genetic dead end friend
>>7735135
I'm baitin', muslims are animals.
>>7735027
>Voting based on party lines
Son, I am dissapoint
>>7733254
Fuck you.
Fuck your dreams.
Hope you end up just like him.
>>7733254
Yummy antipasto desu senpai
>>7735147
>voting in the first place
Top kuk
>>7735158
>Top kuk
I like this
Are you kikes serious about not finding something worthwhile. That chapter with the depressed girl at the start who tried to an hero was the most spot on description of the way serious depression feels. It was exactly how I felt in real life.
>>7735115
>implying reddit isn't where all these cancerous ``anti-racist`` retards are coming from
>>7735186
> It was exactly how I felt in real life
Daily reminder that nobody on /lit/ has ever finished Infinite Jest.
>>7733254
All memes come from a place of sincerity, that's why they're so powerful.
DFW (along with Pynchon and Joyce) are so prominent on this board, not because of any little aesthetic quirks or ironic separation from their works, but because they are, quite literally, the faces of sincere literary love and fulfilment.
Sure there will always be those unknowing disciples of Poe's law who post some ideological hodge-podge of fart jokes and buck toothed pepes in some attempt at establishing fraternity with board culture, but one must never forget that the reason these authors have become so prominent and carry such weight is because they speak to us on a level that transcends the semiotic nature of post-ironic language and banishes solipsism and death, across all expanses of space and time, with impunity.
DFW is an invaluable font of sincerity and genius whose losing battle with a sardonic depression is something I know many of us can relate to.
Pynchon is the ever grinning poster boy for hyper-lexical literary porn that has taken the majority of us by storm embodied in a genuine hermetic fanaticism that we all aspire to.
Joyce is, quite simply, a literary force of nature unto himself who transcends the high-low/good-bad dichotomy to grace the world with an oeuvre so masterfully complex yet playfully true to life that one can't help but stare in awe.
Never forget that these authors may be joked about because they are unassailable, because they are such fonts of literary love and sincerity that one cannot help but meme in an attempt to overcome the limitations of language.
I meme because I love, and my love is de-limited by my memes.
>>7733254
if you could bring anyone back, you'd bring back fucking DFW? not diogenes, or jesus, or homer, or shakespeare? you really need to expand your horizons. you sound a bit like IJ was the first real book you've read aside from Dragonlance or Dune. DFW wasn't sincere. he fucking killed himself, all right? he was a successful author, loved by many, with a family, who he betrayed because of his ego. his books reflect this, a smarmy college tone of superiority filled with bullshit. This is not a sincere man. You need to look to yourself for inspiration and purpose. You will never get out of your slump idolizing people like him.
>>7735304
you're wrong.
Can I skip the chapter with C, yrstruly, and Poor Tony?
This shit is horrendous.
>>7735389
why not skip the whole book and read something you actually want to read?
>>7735391
I've enjoyed every section before this one, even the Wardine one.
>>7735384
Nope.
>>7735304
>don't idolize this dead amalgam of ideology
>idolize MY dead amalgam of ideology
Spooked as a pseud can be t b h
>>7735407
no. he was the voice of a generation. he was a great man who only killed himself because of a life of soul crushing boredom. i think people like you are jealous of his impact, honestly.
>>7735425
Yeah, idolize the guy who fucking killed himself to get out of a slump of depression. i don't idolize shakespeare or diogenes or homer or jesus. they're just examples of other voices in history that were far far more significant. the guy is depressed and probably contemplates suicide to deal with his existential boredom. the last thing he needs is yet another voice compelling him to jump off a cliff.
>>7735425
>You need to look to yourself for inspiration and purpose.
He does not say to idolize anyone, and that the answer is within himself.
>>7735443
>implying life is inherently better than death
>implying suicide isn't always a viable answer
>implying you suggesting he read universally acclaimed authors isn't just an attempt to jack yourself off
>implying genuine love of DFW isn't infinitely more admirable than someone invoking the name of Shakespeare for social capital
>implying you aren't the pseudest of pseuds
>>7735052
I appreciate your post.
>>7733254
I agree, OP. I haven't gotten to IJ yet, but reading his short stories, listening to interviews/speeches, etc. made me realize how ironic and affected everyone was, including me. I got kinda disenchanted and angry at postmodernism for a bit because of the condition it's put us in, where we're so self-aware that we reflex to irony since we don't really know anything else to do. He said something once about how Dostoevsky was important because he taught moral values, and that good writers do that, and I think he accomplished that in his own writing/life, or at least tried to and succeeded with me. Thanks for this, by the way. You should respond more in the thread, it's nice to hear an authentic voice. Have a good day, OP.
>>7735052
>yfw you realize that, in a world so diametrically opposed to ones core beliefs, suicide is the only sincere act possible
>yfw you realize that David's suicide is no less ideologically charged than Mishima's
>yfw his magnum opus is his life
>>7735523
>is clearly not a christian
kill yourself. you're going to hell anyway.
>>7735563
The "Hypocritical Christian" is one of my favourite ideologically charged stereotypes
A classic example of how rhetoric can be enslaved to any purpose, no matter how paradoxical it may appear in logical terms
Well meme'd!
>>7735571
>says shit i'm not going to bother to parse
uhuh. kill yourself, heathen.
get thee hence.
>>7735443
The only reason he got to the point of suicide is because he fucked up with his medication. He stopped taking it, then got electroshock therapy, then tried going back on that medicine, which obviously didn't work anymore. I'll admit, the "How To Life, by A Guy Who Killed Himself" thing is the funniest DFW joke i've seen, but we shouldn't define him by his depression or his suicide. That's not fair
>>7735480
No spooks here.
What's with your hair, dude? Get a life.
>>7735671
have the one hot/cute picture of him
>>7735679
>bandanas
>hot/cute
no.
>>7735653
it's very fair. if we can judge shakespeare for being a black woman, then we can easily judge DFW for not being a black woman enough.
>>7735555
Quads confirm
>>7735401
It's not even that long. And it's a lot more important than it seems at first.
>>7735679
>the one
there were plenty
David was a handsome man, God rest his soul
>>7735967
What features make a man handsome? I believe it's mostly confidence desu.
>>7735304
Here's the thing. The issue is "someone you'd bring back from the dead to talk to for 15 minutes". All those others you named have been dead for so long that they'd know absolutely nothing about today's world, and would probably spend their 15 minutes shitting their pants at the fact that telephones exist. DFW, on the other hand, is well versed on the ailments of the modern man.
>>7736353
What do you think he would have to say, big Dave?
>>7734785
Oh shit, here we go again, another capitalism apologist. Doesn't fucking matter what it is, the point is that capitalism is bad for mankind and the earth.
>>7735013
>run on sentences
they're all perfectly grammatically correct anon. they're not 'run on' sententences; they're just long. and if you think his style consists only of long, perfectly grammatically correct sentences, that's not very unambiguous.
>>7735052
it's not a blog post senpai.
it's really nice. thanks.
>>7736033
a hard jawline
>>7735052
>That is something that has meaning and transcends cynicism and nihilism.
Anyone who sees nihilism as a bad thing doesn't understand the purpose of nihilism. Realizing that there's no inherent meaning to anything may be terrifying at first, but ultimately it's liberating in that you're no longer chained by the idea of having to discover some nebulous pre-existing meaning. At that point you're free to do or be whatever you want.
So there's like two fish right, and one fish says to the other "WATER!" or something. "IT'S ALL WATER!". Anyway, then I killed myself because I was depressed, or on medication for depression, or like, just a total downer man.
Anyway, what I was trying to say in my other post, is that I wish DFW talked more about IDEOLOGY, besides "this is water". Even then he seemed to be talking about just ideology in general, and not the current ideology of our time.
>>7733796
Which frenchies? Studying French and simultaneously trying to unfuck my life.
NO
O
DISCERNIBLE
I
S
C
E
R
N
I
B
L
E
TALENT
A
L
E
N
T
>>7735523
Death is nothing. Life isn't that bad you whiney knob.
DFW killed himself because he felt strong enough to wean himself off his meds, did, got depressed again, meds didn't work anymore, and he couldn't bear to go on like that. I think similar to Nietzsche, you should simply ignore the tail end of DFWs life and treat him as a "big brother" figure. He was literally mentally fucked up at the end, and not the same guy making IJ or This is water.
>>7736849
that line is so fucking hilarious.
it might be the funniest thing I've seen in my entire life.
>>7736869
Nietzsche isn't the same. His health was just terrible for his whole life and his breakdown is thought to either be the result of syphilis or mercury poisoning.
>>7736889
Nietzsche's breakdown was the result of him realizing Schopenhauer was right about life being terrible
