BEDA 17-A Letter to David Foster Wallace

Dear Mr. David Foster Wallace,
Let me start off by saying that I know for a fact you are not someone who wants to be immortalized or seen as a kind of celebrity. You said that it was unnecessary for personalities such as authors to be considered something "above society" as a celebrity. Your insight on the subject leads me to assume that you would prefer this letter to be less formal and in a setting where it is intended to commemorate you. However, I must inform you, this is in fact my intention of this letter- to express my appreciation for your "existence" within my life. Notwithstanding, I will attempt to keep it based in reality and fantasize as little as possible.

Dear David,
It is with eagerness that I find myself writing to you today. While your writing is still fairly new to me, it has still created a lasting impact on my life. I was introduced to you last year when an online community I am involved in with some friends partly took place in "Infinite Summer", a recent program where a bunch of people get together to read Infinite Jest over a predetermined period of time. I did not wish to partake in this event because I had heard a few things about how monstrously enormous Infinite Jest is. Near the end of that year I was talking with a few of my friends who were nearly/newly finished with the book. I asked a simple question- "What is it about?" I received mixed answers; which now that I look back on it, an intriguing aspect of the novel was that the "plot" is sort of ambiguous.

The thing that kicked me into wanting to read the novel was that I was told it had lots of drug use and people with messed up personal problems. I'm still not sure why I am fascinated with literature that includes these things but that is when/why I decided to read Infinite Jest.
I finally ordered the book and began researching what I was about to get into. I grew more excited to read it over the weeks prior to starting.

I began reading Infinite Jest 21 January 2010-
http://dailybooth.com/PaulSaysThings/2787230

The first night I read through the second chapter. The second chapter of Infinite Jest is some of my most favorite writing ever. In the middle of reading it I almost screamed at how closely the events and emotions applied directly to my personal life. I later found that this feeling of connectedness through your writing is a reoccurring theme. In all of your different writings I always find at least one line that directly applies to something I have experienced.
I did not have to finish Infinite Jest before considering it one of my favorite novels of all time. I also did not have to wait until after I finished it before deciding that I was going to make it a personal goal to read all of your published works.

8 weeks later I finished Infinite Jest-
http://dailybooth.com/PaulSaysThings/3917227

I was so engrossed at the end of the book that I began to read up to 200 pages per day (with writing that tiny, that's quite impressive). When I finally finished the novel I placed it down, triumphantly, and sat there panting like a dog, in a daze, with my mouth hanging open. This continued for about 20 minutes before I regained consciousness.

I continued to my next steps- i ordered more of your books and began searching the internet for stuff about you. I became entranced with interviews, article, and audio about you as I began to read Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. By now the name David Foster Wallace became analogous with me to the extent that I received a birthday card in the shape of you-
http://dailybooth.com/PaulSaysThings/4205159

I can't remember becoming to rabidly infatuated with something/someone so quickly. This is the part where you might think that my praise of you has become too high and I hold you on a pedestal for irrational or unnecessary reasons. I am currently reading through Oblivion and only have Consider the Lobster left to attain and read through.

Let me explain this by saying that your work has empowered me in many respects.

You have first off written things of high intellectual requirement, however they are written in a way that they can still be understood.As you put it- assuming the reader is smarter than you/they think. This has enabled me to give my thoughts higher power and facilitated my mind to be used as a broader variety of tools.

You have explained things that apply to my personal life in ways that I could not fathom, and you have described things that I am/was too afraid to confront; making those skeletons in the closet come out to face me. Through these mechanisms I am able to re-evaluate aspects of my life and have found ways to embrace, let go, or change them.

You have opened my mind to new ways of thinking and unhinged new areas of my mind, through your way of explaining points of view and being very articulate about miniscule details. You have changed the way I perceive things on a vast scale.

For these reasons and for others that I have not yet grasped in a way that they can be explained through words and expressions I wish to explore ways to express my deep gratitude and affection of you, your mind, your perceptions, your faults, your triumphs, and your experiences, put forth for others to see through the act of writing. I wish to know your place of burial so that I could make a pilgrimage to it just to be in the presence of your remains and bask in the wonders of our sheer proximity. It is probably for this reason, among others, that the location of your grave is hidden, and I respect that.

With all of this I simply wish to say:

Thank you. For everything

Yours respectfully,
Paul D. Huber

(btw i went to http://iwl.me and you can enter something your wrote and it will tell you who you write like. i entered this and it said I write like David Foster Wallace. if that isnt the most perfect thing I dont know what is)
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6 days till school.
Reading in a bit here and definitely more tonight
Last song Scrobbled: "A Change of Seasons" Dream Theater