“Shipping Out”

By David Foster Wallace

David Foster Wallace in 2006 

On Tuesday, I posted David Foster Wallace’s 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College. His reputation by that time – secured primarily by his 1996 magnum opus Infinite Jest – made him, as David Olin said in the LA Times, “one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last 20 years.”

Shortly afterwards, I listened to an interview with Wallace’s sister after he committed suicide in 2008. One thing that she said surprised me: She never knew him as the gloomy, isolated, depressed, and sometimes abusive person he was said to be. In fact, she said, she knew him to be an easygoing person with a gentle sense of humor.

I wrote that off as a sibling trying to support her brother’s postmortem reputation. But then this morning I read this piece by Wallace that was published in Harper’s Magazine in 1996. It is very good. Impressively good. Just as smart and clever as I expected him to be, but also gently funny in a humble, almost self-effacing way.

See if you agree. Click here.