The Howling Fantods

I still struggle on this day.

 

But today has been filled with joy too. Watching my three year old son play with his (slightly) older cousins reminds me of the unusual and powerful bonds one sometimes forms with relatives that you don't see all that often.

 

As a result I'm left thinking about the strange, and comfortable, and exciting, and reassuring, and altogether rewarding experience of meeting other David Foster Wallace scholars and enthusiasts in New York last year.

 

That was the greatest distance I've travelled to meet with people who are not my family, and yet, many of the people I met felt most certainly like they could have been. You all know who you are.

 

David Foster Wallace's work seems to do that. It brings people together. It makes us consider others. It make us care.

 

So on this day I like to take some time out to and think about the impact his work has had on my life. And here's the thing, it's more like I've allowed his work have an impact on my life. There's a conscious and personal choice going on here - and that's a very good thing.

 

So today, remember David Foster Wallace...

 

...and maybe take the time to read a few of the pieces below. They are some of my fave pieces by and about him.

 

 

Nick Maniatis

 

 

• Matt Bucher's Fantods: David Foster Wallace, wallace-l, and Literary Fandom Online

• Kathleen Fitzpatrick Requiescat in Pace

• Adam Kelly's David Foster Wallace: the Death of the Author and the Birth of a Discipline

 

Interested in excellent critical essays about David Foster Wallace? Consider David Foster Wallace: Critical Essay