wallace-l: Coverage of DFW

[Dan Scharf]

"Seriously---EVERY ONE this guy came in contact with has something good to say about him. That fact is slowly setting in with me. It's staggering."


I know, I've been thinking the same thing - - it's really remarkable.  I can't think of any public or semi-public person (esp an artist) who has generated such universal praise as a human being.

One thing I haven't heard/read much about is re DFW's method of writing.  Meaning, was he a huge outliner? did he do dozens of drafts? did he write his essays or short stories in quick bursts of energy, or methodically over time?  Just curious if there are articles or anecdotes out there that people know about.

-----Original Message-----
From: wallace-l-bounces at waste.org [mailto:wallace-l-bounces at waste.org] On Behalf Of Matt Bucher
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 12:07 PM
To: Mark Brawner
Cc: Wallace-l
Subject: Re: wallace-l: Coverage of DFW

Sooo many new ones up at McSweeneys: http://mcsweeneys.net/

This from Adrienne Miller:
"He could also be pissy. He could also be annoying. He could be mean.
He could be remote, and ruthless, and reckless. He was filled with
towering rages. He said that he believed he was 85 percent sincere and
15 percent full of shit. He lied, but then he would admit that he had
been lying, and would apologize for it, excessively. But he tried to
tell the truth. He tried to find the truth. He tried to be good, and
he was. He was good. He was better than all of us put together.

And he was-is-loved.

He is loved he is loved he is loved he is loved he is loved he is
loved he is loved he is loved he is loved he is loved he is loved he
is loved he is loved he is loved he is loved he is loved he is loved
he is loved he is loved he is loved he is loved he is loved he is
loved he is loved he is loved he is loved he is loved he is loved he
is loved he is loved he is loved he is loved he is loved he is loved
he is loved he is loved."

Seriously---EVERY ONE this guy came in contact with has something good
to say about him. That fact is slowly setting in with me. It's
staggering. To add to what Miller says above about him apologizing
excessively, my personal experiences with the man were framed around
him apologizing to me for a little meaningless exchange the first time
I met him. I had caught him on a bad day, at an event he didn't want
to attend, discussing business he'd rather not have bothered with. We
had a brief back and forth and he was somewhat rude to me, dismissive.
He did not know I was his Biggest Fan. I was crushed, confused. My
wife and my brother saw this happening and they could see the tears of
disillusionment creeping into my eyes, but I defended him! He's really
not like this! He's a nice guy, I swear! He later emailed me a
wonderful apology and sincerely felt bad for "snarling" at me. He sent
me a beautiful card for my wedding and again apologized and offered
heartfelt good will on the marriage. So, even when he was rude (and he
was human), he took responsibility for it, truly felt bad for it.

I loved him. He was my hero in every sense; I probably idealized him
excessively. And now I feel like I understand him better as a human
being, even though, for the most part, I don't believe it's necessary
or proper or dignified to be too interested in the life of the artist,
especially at the expense of the art. I can't help it, I needed to
know that his depression was really Bad Thing he'd fought for so so
long. And now I just feel so sad for him, reading all these anecdotes
about the minutiae of his life (I can't shake the image of him buying
peanut butter and white bread from a convenience store), which I'm
sure would horrify him.

When I discovered Wallace's writing and Infinite Jest, something
resonated in me unlike anything else before or after. I felt in his
work a consistent ringing of Truth, a Truth that marries a brilliant
postmodern intellect and sadness with heartfelt humanity and morality.
Now my heart is broken, but I take consolation in the fact that his
art will live on.


On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 1:40 PM, Mark Brawner <mark.brawner at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Matt Bucher offered:
>
> > Scott McLemee in Inside Higher Ed:
> > http://insidehighered.com/views/2008/09/17/mclemee
>
> I haven't really tried to keep up with much of this stuff (I'll
> probably go on "coverage" bender this weekend), but happened to read
> this one just now.  Well done, sez I.
> _______________________________________________
> Wallace-l mailing list
> Wallace-l at waste.org
> https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/wallace-l

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