34 Comments

1. September 8th, 2012 / 1:14 pm Erik Stinson—

   it’s a funny and smart romp

2. September 8th, 2012 / 1:20 pm Michael Fischer—

   What do I think? That we shouldn’t take anything he Tweets seriously; he’s a troll. Nothing he says is genuinely provocative (unlike Giraldi’s recent review). He’s incredibly immature, insecure, juvenile, and has nothing to say, because his Tweets are never part of larger conversations he’s having elsewhere–they’re just random pot shots.

3. September 8th, 2012 / 2:08 pm Don—

   I think he is wrong.

4. September 8th, 2012 / 2:21 pm Amelia—

   A relevant statement from a relevant author

5. September 8th, 2012 / 2:25 pm Amelia—

   jk

6. September 8th, 2012 / 3:24 pm A D Jameson—

   DFW once asked a bunch of us who our favorite writers were. One guy said BEE.

   DFW was not pleased.

7. September 8th, 2012 / 3:25 pm Guest—

   What kind of idiot would vote this comment down? Ellis is the 50 Cent of Literature. He just jabs to jab. There’s no substance behind any of it.

8. September 8th, 2012 / 5:31 pm wmtwalsh—

   These tweets don’t change the reputation of either man.

   http://www.salon.com/2012/09/07/i_know_why_bret_easton_ellis_hates_david_foster_wallace/

9. September 8th, 2012 / 5:35 pm Matt Tyler—

   the kind of person who thinks disagreeing on an opinion of taste doesn’t have any correlation with intelligence

10. September 8th, 2012 / 6:00 pm Guest—

    Not sure what you’re saying. The topic is his Tweets, not the mere fact that he has particular tastes or is smart/stupid.

11. September 8th, 2012 / 6:32 pm Matt Tyler—

    I was answering your question re: what kind of idiot votes down your comment

12. September 8th, 2012 / 6:44 pm shaun gannon—

    i think he seems like quite the douche! who woulda thunk it

13. September 8th, 2012 / 6:54 pm Bobby Dixon—

    Re twitter, I think Mary Kate has more insight on dfw than the bee

14. September 8th, 2012 / 7:25 pm Ethan—

    Thanks for posting that Salon piece, I hadn’t seen that. Must have been cool to have edited both DFW and BEE. That story “Girl With Curious Hair” is my favorite thing DFW wrote (especially that long sentence with more and more parenthetical asides that ends like “?!?!?!?!?!)))))).”, that cracked me up) and I never realized it might have been a parody of BEE.

15. September 8th, 2012 / 7:29 pm Ethan—

    I like both those writers. Or more accurately: I like their work. Hemingway was a dick, but I still like his work.

    No doubt, BEE is an attention-seeking jerk. But he’s also a provocateur. If he wasn’t, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

    It seems like Ellis is expressing some jealousy over Saint Wallace’s literary legacy. Ellis has received both film adaptions and death threats for his work, and that kind of response doesn’t come easily. But DFW’s work is revered as literature, whereas BEE’s work is confined to the pulpy splatterpunk genre ghetto.

    The fact that BEE attacks not just DFW but his fans as well is kind of a genius move. “Anyone who finds David Foster Wallace a literary genius has got to be included in the Literary Doucebag-Fools Pantheon…” It’s like saying “Anyone who feels differently than me is an idiot.”

    I’m probably a doucebag idiot for still liking Ellis despite the fact that he’s a jerk.

16. September 8th, 2012 / 9:17 pm Andrew Worthington—

    lol

17. September 8th, 2012 / 9:22 pm Golgonooza—

    The idea that BEE is jealous is bullshit. And as regards to DFW, I find it quite disturbing to learn such unflattering personal details about an artist, even though I know we’re supposed to be able to separate and artist from his or her work.

18. September 8th, 2012 / 9:30 pm Golgonooza—

    Not sure I agree with your assessment that “BEE’s work is confined to the pulpy splatterpunk genre ghetto.” American Psycho is highly regarded in some literary circles (Larry McCaffery included it in his “20th Century’s Greatest Hits,” for example), not just among gorehounds.

19. September 8th, 2012 / 9:45 pm Matt Rowan—

    I liked the Salon article on the subject:
    http://www.salon.com/2012/09/07/i_know_why_bret_easton_ellis_hates_david_foster_wallace/
    I remember reading some choice dismissive comments David Foster Wallace made about Ellis. I can’t remember where or why. I’m in the camp of liking both writer’s writing. I tend to think as human beings I’d like DFW a little bit more. But that’s just me.

20. September 8th, 2012 / 10:45 pm Ethan—

    “We learn about DFW’s womanizing, about his book-tour fondness for “audience pussy,” and that he once wondered aloud to Franzen about whether his only purpose in life was “to put my penis in as many vaginas as possible.””

    http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2012/09/d_t_max_s_david_foster_wallace_biography_every_love_story_is_a_ghost_story_reviewed_.html

21. September 8th, 2012 / 10:52 pm jane lane—

    why is salon so hideous

22. September 8th, 2012 / 11:45 pm Matt Rowan—

    I don’t know!!! Good articles, though.

23. September 8th, 2012 / 11:47 pm Matt Rowan—

    I didn’t realize he was quite the sex addict he apparently was, at least ostensibly.

24. September 9th, 2012 / 12:55 am Paul Jessup—

    Oh it’s even worse than that. I just finished reading the biography- he bought a filed off gun from an excon so he could murder this woman’s husband he was crazy infatuated with (he later changed his mind and didn’t shoot him) & he would also go into violent fits of rage and break shit and throw things. It was always women he would go into these rages around.

    Nobody seems to mention these things in the reviews I’ve read. So I plan on mentioning them in a review of the book I’m doing for Zouch Magazine. I’m not focusing on these negatives, but it seems odd that people would just gloss over a lot of them…

    I’m thinking of calling the review “Sex & Guns & Semiotics”

25. September 9th, 2012 / 1:28 am Trey—

    50 Cent goes hard god damn it

26. September 9th, 2012 / 1:32 am Trey—

    lol I was like about to write an unnecessarily hostile comment about how of course those facts haven’t come up in reviews because they have nothing to do with DFW’s writing, and then I realized you meant *reviews of the biography*

    I think it’s important to point out these moments of not flying off the handle in a comment, these moments of personal growth

    carry on

27. September 9th, 2012 / 2:28 pm Nick Antosca—

    DFW is smarter and infinitely more technically skilled as a writer. And I like American Psycho more than anything he ever wrote.

28. September 9th, 2012 / 2:47 pm Nick Antosca—

    Meanwhile, Lunar Park is one of the worst novels I’ve ever read.

29. September 9th, 2012 / 6:53 pm marshall mallicoat—

    who is the dfw of rap?

30. September 9th, 2012 / 11:02 pm Taylor Napolsky—

    He screams out for attention on twitter all the time. I don’t think he’s jealous—I’m sure he genuinely dislikes DFW’s writing—but more than anything I think he wants more popularity, which is why he’s so indiscreet.

    Poor guy, he wanted to write the screenplay for 50 Shades soo bad and didn’t get it. I actually felt sorry for him.

31. September 10th, 2012 / 12:13 am deadgod—

    Some of Ellis’s Wallace tweets would make interesting section headings for a Selected of Wallace’s short fiction and essays.

    –and Ellis would make a fabulous commencement addressor. It’s something that Wallace cared about doing well that Ellis could actually be better at doing.

32. September 10th, 2012 / 4:42 am Flavors—

    lil b

33. September 10th, 2012 / 12:29 pm Richard Grayson—

    Sigh.

34. September 15th, 2012 / 12:24 pm Joan Markson—

    I’m being such a geek now, but those convoluted parenthetical asides probably come from Cortazar’s ‘News about Funes’. DFW loved Cortazar.