I'm having trouble comprehending the vitriol that's thrown at (the memory of?) David Foster Wallace.
Since I see this mainly on Twitter, I assume it has something to do with Wallace's statements regarding the contemporary excess of irony, and its possible hazards.
I've read multiple interviews with DFW, and on this point, as well as most others, Wallace is quick to point out that he doesn't have "the answer." He makes it clear that he's confused, unsure. With regard to the subject of irony, he agreed that it has a value, but that perhaps it shouldn't completely overtake sincerity (or perhaps at least attempted sincerity).
But the way that people ridicule him suggests to me that people recognize in themselves the problem that Wallace was pointing towards. I've seen it in myself, I've felt total repulsion, I've deleted my accounts (always to come crawling back though, in a more degraded position every time), and I have to think these critics see it, too. They see it, and through their exaggerated responses, it seems they're entering into a fierce denial of the potentially poisonous legacy of The Life Ironic.
I would guess that people are also reacting to the role that the media put onto Wallace, the "voice of a generation" bit, which is just lazy journalism, not anything that Wallace himself decided on.
See, I liked DFW, then spun away and joined in the mockery, and now, after reflection, have moved back to the starting point.
Suicides have to stick together, after all.
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