wallace-l: passing it along

[Jason Kottke]

I was pulling some of Wallace's books off the shelf this evening when  
my son interrupted me. I'd sat down on the ottoman with Broom of the  
System, thumbing through it. Ollie grabbed it from me. He's 14 months  
old. He doesn't read or talk but he's very interested in books,  
whatever mom and dad are in to. He seemed intent on reading the book  
so we climbed into the chair together and sat wedged in side-by-side.  
As he leafed through the book, jabbering to himself, I told him about  
Wallace. How important he was to me, even though we'd never met or  
corresponded. How much I'd learned from his writing. I told him about  
the example Wallace had set about how to do creative work and deftly  
deal with the real-world consequences of the attention that comes with  
it. About how nice and genuine a person everyone says he was, one of  
the Good Ones. And how I hoped that when Ollie was old enough, we  
could read his books together.

We sat like that for more than 20 minutes, talking and reading, quite  
a long time for a 14 month-old to focus on one thing. What an evening.

-jason

ps. This list is wonderful. I spent yesterday afternoon reading all  
the remembrances posted here with watery eyes. Thanks to everyone for  
sharing.

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