We at This Side of Paradise are stunned. Reports coming from California tell us that David Foster Wallace is gone (an apparent suicide). We remember being first amazed by David Foster Wallace's prose in his collection of stories, Girl With Curious Hair. We remember thinking that when David Foster Wallace received a Genius Grant, somebody got it right.
There is nothing more to be said, except that the almost-full moon seems all out of sorts tonight. And we are, too. Eleanor is in The Spirit House and refuses to speak. We need to get our thoughts straight. Yes, we need to think.
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"The interesting thing is why we're so desperate for this anesthetic against loneliness."
-- David Foster Wallace
"As I'm sure you guys know by now, it is extremely difficult to stay alert and attentive, instead of getting hypnotized by the constant monologue inside your own head (may be happening right now). Twenty years after my own graduation, I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed."
-- David Foster Wallace, from his Commencement Address at Kenyon College, May 2005
2 comments:
I believe the desperate person who takes his own life obviously aspires to annihilation: his suicide, instigated by desire, will not omit him from fruition, and he will have to partake of the fruit of his action. In the case of the ordinary man, suicide is a folly and does not achieve the intended aim. Now then...how are we to define "ordinary"? And how are we to tell a person what they are to do with their own "soul". Damn. I think we can only wish peace and joy and moondust for our Brothers and Sisters who choose to "step on through to the other side".
I'm not sure that all suicides are the result of desperation. Perhaps there's a sense of being "worn out." Just plain tired. The act speaks of desperation, but regardless of what one believes will happen to the "soul," or the displacement of energy, maybe there's a single moment of release, and in that moment is also peace.
I don't know how to define "ordinary" either, Dale. It's a fascinating discussion -- and also a sad one. Thanks for your thoughts. -- Geoff
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