Tayari's Blog: Depends on What You Mean By "Generation"

Posted by TayariJones on September 21, 2008 03:17 PM
Filed under Current Events

Did you see the (latest) remembrance of David Foster Wallace in the NYT today? I have to admit that I am suffering from DFW fatigue. At first, I couldn't figure out what it was that was sticking in my craw. Well, for Joy Castro, the NYT article "The Best Mind of His Generation" was the last straw. And she's not being quiet about it.

I must say that the NYT article got to me a little bit, although the tributes have been pushing my buttons all week-- at not just because the DFW tributes eclipsed the death of Reginald Shepherd, just a couple of days earlier. The loss of Wallace has got everybody talking about genius and talking about genius makes folks want to talk about geniuses and it has become clear that, for many people, genius has a demographic designation and it doesn't really include women and writers of color. The A.O. Scott piece in the NYT was just the latest example.

But I won't go on. Just go see what Joy says.

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There are 1 comments on "Depends on What You Mean By "Generation"". If you'd like to leave a comment, click here to jump down to the comments entry form.

Comment #1, by Michael Fischer [TypeKey Profile Page]

Damnnn, Joy Castro ripped it, lol; I agree with her, for the most part. I liked "IJ" and was certainly sad when DFW died, but the genius talk is a bit much (and problematic, to echo Joy's post).

As for the mental illness angle, I'm really interested in issues relating to mental illness (e.g, stigma, mental healthcare reform/parity, etc). While mental illness certainly afflicts people of all classes, it bothers me when it takes a rich famous person to kill himself for people to discuss the issue. Or, when the "mad genius" label is slapped on a famous artist who commits suicide. This romanticizes the mental illness experience; many mentally ill folks don't have access to the resources available to a celeb, and the implied label of celeb mad genius contributes to the very real stigma (intended or not) that the "invisible" mentally ill person has to deal with on a daily basis.

September 21, 2008 09:40 PM

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