bad news

[lolaraincoat]

I was kind of lonely when Jasper Johns died, a few months ago, because his art just didn't matter to anyone in my life the way it mattered to me. Similarly, this probably won't mean to you what it means to me, but:

David Foster Wallace just died - hanged himself, says the Times - and that's even worse than when Jasper Johns died, because he was in the middle of life, he was only 46, and now there will be no more essays, no more novels, and I'm sad. His fiction after Infinite Jest didn't even appeal to me that much, I was waiting for him to do something else, and now - no more. Goddamnit.


...

Comments

[cordelia_v]

I am pretty sure that Jasper Johns mattered to Amelia, too. Just so you know.

But Wallace . . . I'm sorry, dear. What a waste, and a loss. How sad that he lost his struggle.

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Ah, that does help, in fact.

And yes, a sad waste. And infuriating, too: goddamnit, how could he take himself away from us?!

[norah.livejournal.com]

Holy shit. How very sad.

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Goddamnit.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

That's fucking awful, and so very sad.

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Yes it is.

[faramir-boromir.livejournal.com]

DFW???? My word. His essays in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again were iconic. *stunned*

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Yeah. And more recently he'd written some really precise fiction and non-fiction about depression. And I loved his big, baggy novels. And - well, hell.

[tinderblast.livejournal.com]

No, really? Was there a particular reason? His essay on being stuck on a cruise ship was hysterically funny and awful all at once. I wasn't wild about his fiction but his essays could be really amusing.

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

I dunno. Depression? He'd written with unbearable precision about depression relatively recently, but - I dunno.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

You aren't alone. It's a terrible day, terrible news. I can't believe there won't be any more brilliant, unwieldy, and ironically hopeful novels coming from that direction.

And I miss Jasper Johns too. :/

[laughingrat.livejournal.com]

Jasper Johns died and I had no idea. Great. :(