I tend to categorize the writers that I've read based mostly on what they make me think about. Gabriel Garcia Marquez makes me think about determinism and romanticism and how those things can become intertwined. Don Delillo makes me think mostly of death. Cormac McCarthy makes me think about despair and human nature. And so on.

All this is to say that, from what admittedly little that I've read of DFW - I've read Consider the Lobster and A Supposedly Fun Thing, but none of his fiction, unfortunately :( - he makes me think mostly about self-conciseness. Like, how much modern society pushes us to be self conscience, image conscience, etc. I mean, he writes about a buttload of other themes, but that's the one that always sticks with me. So, I find it sadly ironic that, as DFW became more and more famous, it kind of seems that he became more aware and accepting of the role that society pushed him towards: the misunderstood, tortured genius. Like, as the cameras were trained on him, he just defaulted to that.

I think the article does a real nice job of touching on that, and also talking about how that perception of him has only grown after his death. That quote where he says "I want to be on the other side of the camera" - i.e., on the side that isn't being watched - was particularly telling.

Cool read. I should really read Infinite Jest one of these days..