During one stay at the psychiatric unit of a hospital, “the doctors likely considered the possibility that he suffered from bipolar disorder, manic depression.” But they ended up putting him on Nardil, which treats atypical depression. He would stay on this drug until a year before he died.
.. Partly through his own experience of addiction, Wallace had come to see America as “a nation of addicts, unable to see that what looked like love freely given was really need neurotically and chronically unsatisfied.” However, rather than simply describe that addiction, Wallace said in an interview that the writer’s job was to give “CPR to those elements of what’s human and magical that still live and glow despite the times’ darkness.” Wallace noted that “American writers were still content to describe an ironic culture when they should be showing the way out.”
.. At the same time, he was happy with Green and decided to go off Nardil in 2007. Doctors tried different combinations of antidepressants and even electroconvulsive therapy, but on Sept. 12, 2008, Wallace hung himself at home
David Foster Wallace’s biographer: tackles author’s battle with depression
So much has been written about the link between mental illness and creative genius. Do you think he would have been uncomfortable with being seen as another example of that linkage?
He might have been. He was very frightened of the diagnosis of bipolar condition, which is the classic productive literary personality. He was very uncomfortable with it. He much preferred having a diagnosis of atypical depression. I think that may suggest that he didn’t want to identify with those people. If you think about the people he identified with – Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo – I don’t think there’s even a whiff of such a condition in those people. He identified with these straight arrows who produced every day.
.. The book is primarily a transcript of the interview, with some of Lipsky’s thoughts at the time added in, and a few notes about which bookstores were now defunct. It might have been a better book with more (some?) shaping. As it is, I felt sad, almost queasy, at those times when Wallace expressed his self-consciousness, his wish that he could edit the article before it ran. But Lipsky kept everything in. So we are voyeurs to this raw conversation between two young writers, accessories after the fact.
Amy Wallace speaks about her brother David Foster Wallace
He was very moody in high school
He would go through these periods where he would produce so much.. and then there would be periods when it would take a while. (23:00)
He had a number of wonderful, wonderful years (27:00)
David Foster Wallace uncut interview (03/1996)
David Foster Wallace’s interview with Leonard Lopate on WNYC.
Q. “Reading reviews, I mean, reviews aren’t for the writer. They’re a judge kind of telling a prospective buyer whether the book’s good or not. And reading them is rather like eavesdropping on two people talking. You know, it’s very tempting to do it, but you always end up getting your feelings hurt. And they’re not designed to help you. They’re not for you, they’re for potential buyers.”