RIP

DAVID FOSTER WALLACE, 1962-2008


"As I'm sure you guys know by now, it is extremely difficult to stay alert and attentive, instead of getting hypnotized by the constant monologue inside your own head (may be happening right now). Twenty years after my own graduation, I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed. Think of the old cliché about quote the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master.This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth. It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger"

Dopo aver scoperto Thomas Pynchon e Don De Lillo nel 1997/8, lessi su Pulp del nuovo capolavoro "post-moderno" della letteratura americana, Infinite Jest, scritto da David Foster Wallace. All'epoca non era ancora stato pubblicato in Italia, ma pochi mesi dopo, andando a Milano, comprai la meravigliosa raccolta "La ragazza dai capelli strani", pubblicata da Einaudi Stile Libero, se non ricordo male. Fu una rivelazione, paragonabile alla vertigine provata leggendo Infinite Jest due anni dopo. La notizia del suicidio mi ha sconvolto, anche perchè non sapevo dell'aggravarsi della sua depressione. Se amo così tanto gli Stati Uniti è anche perchè ho letto i libri di David Foster Wallace.