I wrote this post a couple weeks back about David Foster Wallace, somehow completely unaware of the accusations against him made by a former girlfriend. If I had known, I might have approached him differently but not his work. Two podcasts I listened to recently took him and his fans to task about his behaviour (which was horrible) but also seemed to delight in practically mocking his writing, and by extension his rabid fan base. Something about it rubbed me the wrong way - especially the millennial smugness about his earnestness and the difficulty of reading Infinite Jest. But obviously his actions are more important and extremely troubling. He has guru status among many people (mostly men) who will justify his actions or ignore them. Many women will rail against the structural misogyny that allows this type of thing to happen over and over again. Genius (if such a thing exists) doesn't excuse anything. Wallace may have been hypocritical in his personal life but his writing at least seemed to strive for an honesty that was rare and hard-earned. In that spirit we should try to evaluate his work without bias or illusion and do the same with what we know about who he was as a man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc2iLAubras
.jpeg)
Comments
Post a Comment