Side-Lines

Modern consumerist society is less selfish than a man who kills himself and lets his wife be the first to find the body.

How did this man let himself get whipped into such a frenzy of hatred toward modern society? A serious lack of perspective (fed to him in propaganda waves by irresponsible children) did him in. Why wasn't he able to filter this stuff out, I wonder?

Don't be so quick to judge. Maybe she drove an SUV and had it coming.

I want to say, up front: I've neither evidence nor any particular belief that the quoted words had anything to do with the suicide. My comment is strictly about the words.

The words illustrate a key difference between left worldview and right worldview. If I am of the left, I believe something is very wrong with the world. If I am of the right, I believe something is very right with the world.

very sad.

he needed medical help and got none/not enough, but then sometimes no one can help people wioth this illness.

SURE: he was a idiot leftie who thought getting attacked now and them - like on 9/11 - was preferable to FISA etc.

YES: he was a dupe.

SEE: even really brilliant people like DFW can be duped.

too bad he won't live long enough to become wise.

very sad...

condolences to his F&F...

A GENIUS grant???

David Foster Wallace is (was? I can't believe he's dead!) one of the best writers of the current generation. He will be missed.

That he was a society-hating lefty is not surprising. That his leftist mindset may have contributed to his depressed and deranged mindset towards the end should be noted by other brilliant but equally delusional liberals out there. Or, more importantly, is there some truth to the observation that intelligent but depressed and deranged individuals gravitate to leftist utopian ideas?

I think it's bad form to try to make hay out this.
I mean, you could say that what drove him over the edge were the "default settings". I wouldn't have the faintest idea, though.

"If I am of the left, I believe something is very wrong with the world. If I am of the right, I believe something is very right with the world"

That's very true, but I also know lefties that see right with the world and righties that see wrong with the world. And to be honest, I haven't read any of his stuff other than an interview and some quotes, so what do I know. It's too bad.

Suicide is the ultimate "F&*k you! How nice for his family and friends left behind to bear that.

You all really should have read the whole speech before making such misinformed comments. IN CONTEXT he was talking about how people see the world, and how that is usually just because they're too lazy or used to seeing it that way instead of another. About how the things we worship often destroy us. About losing sight of the bigger picture and all that is truly human.

He WAS a genius. Perhaps the greatest writer of my generation, and a man who saw the soul clearly. Perhaps too clearly, and too closely for his own good. His death is a tremendous loss, and you are slighting him over a perceived "selfishness" that you see in his final act.

If you would like to get a better idea of how much his work meant to some people, as well as links to some of it, go here:

http://www.metafilter.com/74869/RIP-DFW#2256587

I disagree with the worldviews described above. This man, and much of the unhappy left, are more accurately described as idealists disappointed with the world as it is. Utopians gone cynical and bitter. Most conservatives believe that man is fallen (something wrong with humanity), but has intrinsic value as the pinnacle of God's creation made in His image (with knowledge of good and evil). Too bad Wallace didn't get the message.

Jason,

I agree it is bad form to make hay out of this tragedy, and that was not my intent. Suicide is always a tragedy, especially to the family and friends left behind.

My observation is based on my experience as a person who used to be politically left-of-center, who is increasingly moving even further to the right. As my politics changed, I found that my sense of well-being and happiness improved as well. I gave up on the anger toward society that did not, and could not, live up to the utopian visions of the Left.

In my experience, many of the beliefs on the Left are based on emotional calls to battle, supported by a reservoir of anger at the imperfect world. The anger is often based on increasing separation between the world that should be versus the world that is. I imagine this gulf would be especially broad for someone as observant and bright as David.

I don't think that those on the right think that everything is right with the world. Almost the opposite. Politically, since the Enlightenment, the western world has progressed steadily to the left, yet we are no closer to 'utopia' than we were at the beginning.

In the modern political spectrum you are considered on the right just by wanting to slow the 'progressive' march of society even further to the Left.

This man deserves no consideration. There are many ways to do this, but he preferred telling his wife to go fuck herself.
Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent, so anybody else's good intention do not count in this, unless you wish to be cruel to the survivors.

Your criticisms of "right with the world" have merit. It would've been more accurate for me to have said: "the right believes something is very right with the design of existence."

Another coward from the left gets what he deserves, and as usual, it is all about him, and to hell with the rest.