wallace-l: Thoughts

[Mike Patrick]

I had an intense flash of deja vu yesterday.

When the guitar god Michael Hedges died years ago, I got the news via a nice
and tidy single paragraph in the entertainment section of USA Today, which I
only get when out of town on business.  Yesterday, out of town on business,
I get the news about DFW via a tidy single paragraph in USA Today.  Both
times, it just about knocked the wind out of me.  Two heroes, gone far too
soon, both summed up in three or four lines, which seemed totally unfitting
and dismissive.  I spent most of the day yesterday scrolling (on my
Blackberry, no less) through the absolute mass of thoughts that have already
accumulated online; you don't have to look any further for proof that DFW
was an extraordinary person and talent.

My wife, the most amazing person I've had the pleasure of knowing, is not a
'serious' reader and is far too practical to have heroes outside of the
people in her immediate surroundings, so it wasn't terribly surprising when
she said, 'Why are you so upset?  It's not like you knew him.'  Why, yes,
dear, I did know him - or at least what he was willing to share with me and
everyone else who reads him, and I think we're all in agreement that he
shared quite a lot.  He didn't pull Infinite Jest out of a hat, after all.
Which of course is just the most glaring example.

DFW was coming here to Butler University in February as part of their
visiting writers series.  I've met people I admire before, and I invariably
make a minor ass of myself, but wild horse wouldn't have held me back from
doing it again, if for no other reason than to be just one more fan whose
praise would have only made him uncomfortable.

In forty-one years, I've read countless books, but I've NEVER re-read one.
I'm going to change that tonight, by starting a re-read of Infinite Jest.
What else IS there to do, you know?
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