DFW

I've been thinking about David Foster Wallace a lot lately. I hope you know who I mean; when I finished Inifinite Jest I almost felt like I could never read another book again. His prose makes you feel like your mind is unraveling in a sinister way, and after having finished perusing a passage or two you could look up at everyone around you and feel convinced that something insane and secret has just happened to you. He committed suicide by hanging in 2008 at the age of 46; he could have been the next literary revolutionary of my generation. The more I learn about him, the more I feel like I miss him, like I missed him, like I wasn't paying enough attention to his writing while he was around. Isn't that nuts?

This is a commencement address he gave at Kenyon College in 2005, called "This is Water." I read it twice over and for some reason it made me want to cry. Here also is an interview with him and Dave Eggers for The Believer in 2003. I can never get enough of this guy.