The Infinite Jest

"[L]earning 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."

--David Foster Wallace

DFW, 46, author of The Infinite Jest and other defining works of early 21st century post-Pynchon literature killed himself over the weekend. If only his suicide was just some ingenious postmodernist ruse to demonstrate the bloodthirsty nature of the media or something.
Wallace was a well-known and respected figure when such entities in his business are increasingly rare. His prose was a huge and wild force that boldly attempted to bring the novel into the 21st century as an evolved art form, and through his unfailing artistic integrity he pushed the boundaries of American literature. It's a sad thing indeed when one of the world's finest minds can no longer exist within it.

His renowned 2005 commencement speech from Kenyon College is here.