David Foster Wallace an Apparent Suicide 232
snydeq passes along the news that David Foster Wallace was found dead Friday at his home in Claremont, California. Wallace's wife found her husband had hanged himself when she returned home at 9:30 PM Friday. The novelist, essayist, and humorist, best known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, was 46. Wallace had been awarded a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" in 1997.
Very Very sad (Score:1, Interesting)
RIP David Foster Wallace (Score:4, Interesting)
I had the opportunity to meet David at a book signing. He was an incredibly gracious and friendly individual who will be missed by many in the literary field as well as everywhere else.
Re:With great genius comes great madness (Score:3, Interesting)
it's well documented that great artists, writers, and people with other forms genius have a much higher incidence of mental disorders than the normal population.
generally speaking, creative/artistic individuals have a greater disposition for bipolarism. conversely, the children of mathematically gifted parents are more likely to develop autism or Asperger syndrome. that's why there's such a higher concentration of kids with Asperger syndrome in Silicon Valley.
This sucks (Score:2, Interesting)
I think it sucks(1) that he(2) died.(3)(4) We (5) need more (6) like him.(7)(8)
(1)Here, literally, I'm, of course, speaking metaphorically. I don't mean it literally sucked (like, say, the 500 dollar an hour prostitute sucked the republican hypocrites shriveled cock), but rather figuratively sucked (like, say, the republican hypocrites bill to put you in jail for the same prostitution related behavior). Incidentally, by "it", I can't tell if I mean the whole universe or his dying or if those might not be one and the same.
(2)David Foster Wallace, a brave writer who broke open peoples heads. Understood grammar structures and larger similar consciousness effect on conventions he altering did have.
(3) Due to concern for his family, I won't mention the obvious fact that a cover up of his botched murder is already underway by the CIA agents who killed him to stop him from publishing his new book, which would of liberated minds beyond the power of the narrow imaginations of the CIA to control.
(4) Did you ever notice how we always are sad people are dead, even though that obviously shows no empathy. Look, first of all, it's not like there was a David Foster Wallace. Any ego is an illusory construct, his was no exception. There may have been a self referential feedback pattern that thought it was David Foster Wallace, but that no more makes there a David Foster Wallace then David Foster Wallace thinking he is a blue potato makes him a blue potato.
Second of all, if he really wanted to die, and was in that much pain, who are we to judge. Can you imagine being David Foster Wallace and having to deal with idiots like you people all day, every day? Maybe we should be glad such a great mind is finally liberated from the pain of dealing with stupid dumb fucks like us (well, OK, just most of you) every day.
Third of all, if this was maybe an epic fail at autoerotic asphyxiation, as some scurrilous, borderline slanderous, and definitely inappropriately timed comments wryly have hinted at, we shouldn't think it's sad. The same perverted streak is probably what caused Grandpa Wallace to poke Grandma Wallace in the ass while she was butchering a pig. Without that perverted streak, the drop of cum his dad's dna was in would have never dripped out his grandmas dirty ass, and we would have never had him in the first place. It's misplaced to hate an aspect of nature that is responsible for the creation of things we like.
(5) I mean, again, you stupid fucks, who don't know how to use your brains.
(6) If certain theories about reincarnation are true, maybe DFW stepped out when he did because, at the magical, metalogical realms he walked in, he saw it as an optimal time to reincarnate to the best effect.
(7) In the sense of writing and thinking like he did.
(8) If we want more people that brilliant, we need to do a better job making the world not suck. People of the internet, it's not good enough to sit around reading about tech and science fiction while smoking pot and jacking off. If you don't use your brain right while your are reading science fiction, smoking pot, and jacking off to the same perverted porn that lead your parents to the sex act that made you, you might as well be in a church on your knees praying to a God that doesn't exist, or in a university fighting for biosurvival tickets, with which to do ridiculous rituals that have as much to do with truth as catholicism in many cases, with memetically sophisticated domesticated primates who fight over their ideas long after they have been rendered obsolete, or raising your kids to be as dogmatic as you are, for all the good it will do yourself, your world, and the nothingness you arise in and return to. What does it say about us and where we are headed in the 21st century that someone as brilliant as DFW wouldn't stick around and experience it? Can we do better than this?
Let me be the first to say... (Score:3, Interesting)
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!
If you don't want to leap into "Infinite Jest," start with "Girl With Curious Hair."
I prefer to think of it as tortured soul syndrome (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I prefer to think of it as tortured soul syndro (Score:1, Interesting)
"Almost like", nothing. I'm no genius, but I was a pretty decent writer when I was depressed. I managed to ride it out instead of offing myself, and actually got better--but I just haven't been able to hang a complete story together since.
Suicidal Hanging? (Score:3, Interesting)
If you want to kill yourself, fine, go right ahead. Your life, end it if you wish.
But why in the world would anyone commit suicide by hanging? There are plenty of other options to choose from. Especially when most suicidal hangings are done WRONG and end up taking loads more time to die than they had intended.
Don't do it. It's stupid. Pick something else.
Sometimes the finest minds resort to it. (Score:2, Interesting)
"No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun--for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax--This won't hurt" -- Hunter S. Thompson, suicide note.
Re:With great genius comes great madness (Score:2, Interesting)
if the high incidence of Asperger/Autism in Silicon Valley is strictly due to it being a more affluent neighborhood, then wouldn't similar increases in Autism be observed in other more affluent neighborhoods? and why Asperger/Autism in particular, and not other mental disorders like ADHD, bipolarism, anxiety disorders, etc.? Asperger Syndrome isn't called the "Geek Syndrome" for nothing.
and i think it should be noted that observational evidence is different from anecdotal evidence. any kind of hard science is going to rely on observational data, which, unlike anecdotal evidence, isn't skewed by subjective bias or small sample size.
i would encourage you to do some research into autism/Asperger and bipolar/manic-depression/suicide yourself. if you check on PubMed you can find a lot of relevant studies on this topic. this article [brynmawr.edu] may also be of interest.
Re:A brief personal narrative (in the style of . . (Score:1, Interesting)
(it is amusing to consider how much energy was expended on the subject of diary v. journal, only to have blog become the accepted appellation).
I'm sure, especially when you know that the words diary and journal come from the same root.
It reminds me of the satisfaction I once got (during a deposition) at a glimpse of the silliness of legal language. When asked how fast a car was going at the time of an accident, I said, "I guess about fifteen miles an hour." I got this horrified look and an admonition that this was serious business and I was not allowed merely to "guess".
So I asked what I was allowed to say. The answer: "I estimate ...."
Oh fun, especially when you know that the source of the word "estimate" is the Latin "aestimare", which, of course, means "to guess".
Lawyers -- paahhh.
Wrong (Score:2, Interesting)
1. Curiosity. What happens when you die? Is there life after death? Is there a supernatural expirience to death? Can I find a mechanism to kill myself temporarily then revive before brain damage and still find the above answers? Will my subjective expiriences of death counter those of other near death expiriences?
2. Politics. If I am extremely old and ill, should I go on a death mission (example, assissinate George W. Bush, whoops thats a echelon2 dictionary word) before I die, for a precieved good for society? Basically martarydom.
3. Finances. Find a way to get insurance to cover sucidal death (as a mental illness), then kill your self when your really old anyways so your grand kids can have additional money from the insurance agency.
4. Illness. Why deal with the pain? Best works when combined with number 3 and 2.
5. Art/Fame. I often considered how suicide could be used as an artwork to codify works in history.
6. Fun. Trying something you always wanted to do, but knew it would result in death. For example, playing paint ball in iraq while dressed as the al queda (damn another echelon keyword).
7. Revenge. I dont have anything against anyone I personally know, but revenge could also be a rationalized form of suicide. I.E. setting somone you didnt like up to make the crime scene look like a murder, when it was actually a suicide. Could be political. I.E. Creating a false scnario where it appears that a cop killed you with unjustified force to influence publics opinion on security and management of police forces.
The conclusion of my rationalisations? Makeveli's The Price answered it best, faking your death would just as easily work for all these scanrios other than physical ailments.
While sucide can be commited for rational reasons in special cases, a truly rationalized thought process should also include the possibilty of a fake suicide.