and but also

On Friday night, writers and readers congregated at the Granville Island Hotel for and but also - an evening of readings and reminicises in honour of writer David Foster Wallace, who committed suicide in September.

Throughout the night I approached several folks in attendance and asked them why they had come out. This lot included two friends who were the only ones in the room wearing bandanas, Wallace's trademark headwrap.

Zsuzsi Gartner started off the evening by talking about why she felt it was important to hold the tribute (organized by Zsuzsi, Deborah Campbell and Lee Henderson).

Lee Henderson prefaced his selection from The Girl With Curious Hair (1989) with a reflection on how his first reading of the story (and of Wallace) moved him to consider becoming a writer, excited as he was by the idea that writing could be "viable - that you could use any kind of mad voice you wanted to, any kind of language..."

For obvious copyright reasons I can't share the readings themselves, just the preambles.

Bruce Grierson recalled a public radio interview he heard years ago in which Wallace responded to a caller's "uncomfortably good question" (Wallace's words) about his story A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (1997). Grierson talked about the choices a non-fiction writer must make about when and if to "pull punches".

Just before the room cleared out, I spoke with Seattle-based DFW fan Ryan Niman about discovering Wallace's first published story, Planet Trillaphon, in an Amherst College journal. Ryan chanced upon the story during a visit to Maryland just a few weeks before Wallace's death.

All told it was a remarkable four hours. And but also a shitty thing that it had to happen at all.