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Read “A supposedly fun thing I’ll never do again.” For my money, DFW’s nonfiction is way more approachable than infinite jest.
Same here. I generally try to avoid anything written about him, both good or bad, because he's one of those people where the fans and the haters are equally obnoxious and dumb.
He pushed himself, like, crazy hard at being this critically acclaimed postmodern author -- beneath his aw-shucks lawnmower mechanic vibe there was a guy who got off on flaunting his smarts -- and I think he succeeded. It's hard to deny that he
That's very bothersome too. His mathematical pretensions are embarrassing. He was a humanities guy who used shallow math for self-presentation. And he didn't seem to give a fuck about the actual thing. There were even errors in high school-level math in Infinite Jest. (I admittedly only read half of that novel.) I still won't deny that he was a very smart guy and easily my better by far in that regard. I still see him as a fraud. Not just when it comes to math. I enjoyed The Pale King. But I read it sort of negatively. As lessons from a spiritual failure. The guy's writing was always openly concerned with authenticity and sincerity. And he conned - in my opinion - people into believing him to be authentic and sincere and kind and generous. The guy was full of shit... He also stole a joke from Lost Highway in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. I noticed other instances of joke thievery but that one stuck with me. And, maybe less importantly, it's said that he used to stalk and beat up a woman. Nice male feminism, you dead faggot... He was a talented writer and I get that you enjoy his style. But his writing seems deeply inauthentic to me.
