I never made it through Infinite Jest. David Foster Wallace's lengthy tome sits in a daunting pile next to my bed, kept company by War and Peace, Underworld, Finnegan's Wake, and Gravity's Rainbow. These are all books that are on any English major's required life reading list, but are books that I have never quite mustered the courage nor the Ritalin prescription to delve into. My friend Kandee loves Infinite Jest so much, that she bought two copies (that's more than two thousand pages); one to keep in it's pristine form, and one that she could separate in half so that she could easily carry around, read and re-read the two parts without having to lift weights in preparation. Last fall I got a tattoo that took three hours to finish; Kandee showed up and sat with me the entire three hours, reading from Infinite Jest to take my mind off the pain (it worked).The world has lost one of the good ones. My dear friend Vanessa, who had at least a half a decade of correspondence with D.F.W, pays her respects beautifully and sublimely on her blog.
I think I will get to reading Infinite Jest now, although I dread feeling when I get to the end what so many others have felt over the last few days....that there will be no more.
2 comments:
I am ashamed to say I have not read anything by David Foster Wallace, however he apparently wrote Infinite Jest while living in Syracuse!
I have to check out his stuff for sure!
I liked A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and Girl With Curious Hair......good stuff..
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