Jeez -- only two degrees of separation, and I never got to meet the guy. I couldn't finish Infinite Jest, but I loved Hideous Men. I also liked his ride with McCain, though it seemed unfinished. He championed the concept of copious footnotes in modern fiction. He played tennis and was good at math. And of course he was critically acclaimed as a great young writer (one nice thing about writing: you can be 'young' in your 40's, which is pointedly untrue for both tennis and math).
But mostly, he was a friend of a good friend (2nd piece: slate).
It's funny how the threads of people's lives intertwine. Fame makes that stranger, because you have wispy tendrils that go in one direction only. It seems to be a bad thing for some people. It's also different than it was; my son Braxton is morbidly afraid of "becoming famous", as if it's some sort of soul-consuming virus. Quite the juxtaposition with my desire to be as famous as the Beatles since I saw them on Ed Sullivan at 4 years of age.
I don't know what else to say, except that death is so damn final.
~~~Artiphys~~~
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1 comments:
"my son Braxton is morbidly afraid of "becoming famous", as if it's some sort of soul-consuming virus."
Well, in a way it is.
Many people just can't handle it.
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