Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace by David Lipsky

In his introduction to “Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself,” Lipsky writes that when he pulled out these transcripts a year after Wallace’s death, “one thing kept touching me: We were both so young.” The text is studded with contemporary interjections noting that this independent bookstore has since shuttered, that literary publication has folded. The cultural apparatus that made the ascension of “Infinite Jest” possible no longer exists. All that’s left now are the words on the page — and on the pages of “Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself,” too, with the voices they conjure of two writers talking, talking, talking as they drive through the night. (via Salon)

Do you have any idea how excited I am about this? David Foster Wallace has influenced me in many different ways, in life and in writing, to the point where I’ve almost considered going to Pomona College (where he was teaching when he died.)

The younger Lipsky felt a little bit outgunned sometimes by the success and the teeming intellect of Wallace, though he gives as good as he gets; most of all, Lipsky has in spades the one thing that Wallace always valued most, that elusive thing he used to call “authenticity.” Both the young Lipsky and the older, wiser one who put the book together have it. He is never afraid to say just what’s on his mind, even when he knows it’s going to cost. I’m going out on a limb here, but I suspect that what was also going on was that Lipsky (stable, elegant, and confident as he appeared) never knew, maybe still doesn’t know, that Wallace must have been as jealous of him as he was of Wallace. As irritated at him for being smart, as annoyed at him for being handsome. (via The Awl)

If you have never read David Foster Wallace, I suggest doing so. Infinite Jest is a hell of a long book, but it’s brilliance (genius) is well worth the time it will take to read it. I’m currently re-reading it for the third time; I know, I’m a nerd.