The Howling Fantods

David Foster Wallace News and Resources Since March 97

  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size
Home News by Category The Pale King The Rich Literary Afterlife of David Foster Wallace

The Rich Literary Afterlife of David Foster Wallace

Another piece about DFW in the lead up to the release of The Pale King, The rich literary afterlife of David Foster Wallace by Tim Walker over at Independent Books:
 
Wallace battled depression for most of his life, and readers may find it troubling that his mental state was so entwined with the frustrations of the unfinished work. One early reviewer admits that “it’s hard not to wince at each of the many mentions of suicide.” Wallace left behind his last draft, neatly organised for others to find, but not every dying writer has done the same. Should some posthumous works remain unpublished? And can unfinished books really be considered alongside finished ones?
 
“It’s difficult to justify [posthumous publication] if a writer has said categorically they don’t want it published,” says Jamie Byng, the publisher at Canongate Books. “But if that’s truly the case, then they should probably destroy it. If you leave it so that someone could theoretically read or publish it, there’s a little part of you that thinks ‘actually, they do want it published.’”Vladimir Nabokov expressly ordered the destruction of his final, unfinished novel The Original of Laura before his death. When it was published by his son in 2009 the critical response was damning, of both the book and its publication. Yet among the many incomplete books to be posthumously printed are – to give just one example – the complete novels of Franz Kafka.
 
The few early reviews of Wallace’s last work are predictably glowing, and its publishers are confident that they have a critical hit in the offing, if not a commercial one. “I’ve heard that The Pale King is pretty extraordinary,” says Byng, “so I’m certain more good than harm will be done by its publication. Even if it’s not exactly as David Foster Wallace would have wanted it, potentially a brilliant book is about to appear.”
 
Share
Last Updated on Sunday, 20 March 2011 12:15  

The Howling Fantods