God damn ... I remember reading that piece years ago and thinking to myself, "Man, DFW really knows what's up. Deep down, he's really got it together. There's a lot of fucked up shit in this world, and he's looked at it head on, and come to grips with it, and has the bravery and strength to move on."
And then he killed himself. The world is such a strange place.
This is easy to say now, but doesn't the piece come off as a suicide note? "I have been miserable my whole life, and the best solution I've come up with is to browbeat myself with an impossible standard of humility. Ecch."
The man was one of the greatest writers (the greatest? Seriously, if anyone knows a better or comparable writer of non-fiction I'd like to read him or her) of modern times but he also suffered from serious mental illness that overwhelmed him for the years. His death was not rational, as much as his writing sometimes make it seem like it.
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God damn ... I remember reading that piece years ago and thinking to myself, "Man, DFW really knows what's up. Deep down, he's really got it together. There's a lot of fucked up shit in this world, and he's looked at it head on, and come to grips with it, and has the bravery and strength to move on."
And then he killed himself. The world is such a strange place.
This is easy to say now, but doesn't the piece come off as a suicide note? "I have been miserable my whole life, and the best solution I've come up with is to browbeat myself with an impossible standard of humility. Ecch."
The man was one of the greatest writers (the greatest? Seriously, if anyone knows a better or comparable writer of non-fiction I'd like to read him or her) of modern times but he also suffered from serious mental illness that overwhelmed him for the years. His death was not rational, as much as his writing sometimes make it seem like it.