David Foster Wallace: suicide

Published Sep 14 2008, 02:11 AM by Nina MacLaughlin

There are literary heroes, and he was one. On Friday, David Foster Wallace hung himself. He was 46 years old.

From the archives:

1996: The Phoenix's Anne Marie Donahue interviewed the then 36-year-old Wallace, in town to promote Infinite Jest, which made him a literary star. "The less I'm being watched, the more I can watch, and the better it is for me and for my work," he said then. "If people really want to know what I ate for lunch, I guess that's okay. But it's kind of toxic."
1997: Jordan Ellenberg reviews A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again.
1998: Tom Scocca interviewed Wallace about Supposedly Fun, Good Will Hunting (Wallace lived in Boston during the late '80s/early '90s), nonfiction tropes, and the difference between "fellatially" and "fellatically."
2004: Nina MacLaughlin reviews Oblivion, including the short story "Good Old Neon," in which a dissatisfied, unnamed yuppie narrator relates what led up to his suicide and what follows in the afterlife.

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9 Comments

Tim said:

Why couldn't we have heard that George Bush, Dick Cheney and other evil men like them, suddenly aware of their attrocious deeds, committed mass suicide, rather than a good human being and a great talent like David Foster Wallace? Suicide is not new but I try to grasp the idea of what our society values in human affairs and conclude that we are living in surreal military-idustrial-political times. The scum of the earth can amass riches and power without caring about the outcome of their actions and yet, for thinkers, it's the pain of their consciousness that often causes them to log out of this world for its seeming lack of meaning.

September 14, 2008 4:01 PM
Mike said:

Jesus Christ, he didn't hung himself, he hanged himself you illiterate fuck.

September 14, 2008 7:06 PM
Ike said:

Wow Mike, you showed them!

Anyway, R.I.P DFW : (

September 14, 2008 8:28 PM
Tim said:

Mike-bye the way 'didn't hung' ummm bad grammar and extremely disrespectful unlike David Foster Wallace. It's the ugly American (like you) that DFW writes about.

September 14, 2008 9:25 PM
Tim said:

Show respect when you correct a grammar mistake. The world thrives when people show mutual respect and that's why the world is not thriving now.

September 14, 2008 9:47 PM
Ryan Stewart said:

Sad news indeed.

September 14, 2008 9:50 PM
Shari said:

Tim's so right: It's the fuckers (and there are so damn many) who need to die - not the compassionate, intelligent, true heroes. What a loss, indeed!

September 14, 2008 11:05 PM
joe mccutchen said:

Thinking is painful, don't ask me how I know.

September 15, 2008 11:40 PM
anna marie said:

Existential angst? I've walked thru the rooms of my house saying literally "I choose life" in order to fend off the terrifying idea of suicide. Having life course thru one's body on its own rampage is similar to some constant violation. No surcease from its rampaging bump and no relief from the mind's constant effort to make it stop!

September 16, 2008 7:03 PM