Some thoughts on DFW from a super fan

1. I feel bitterly sorry, maybe even afraid, that someone who had such a strong grasp on the emptiness of modern life decided, for whatever reason, to kill himself.

2. I feel aggrieved that my favourite author will now be dragged screaming into the canon of tragic heroes, along with Cobain, Plath, Hemingway, and Rothko. His work deserves more than to be read by maudlin teenagers. Infinite Jest in particular is going to be subject to misleading revisionism.

3. I feel compelled to start re-reading everything, and I really don’t have time to tackle ‘Jest again right now.

4. I didn’t think there was another great novel in the works after 12 years, but I would have settled for another incisive essay or a pithy destruction of contemporary peccadillos.

5. There is no-one to take on his role as our finest neologist. (qv heligobaline)