A review by wulfus
Both Flesh and Not: Essays by David Foster Wallace

3.0

With each passing year, my reverence for David Foster Wallace wanes, and I'm unsure if it's because my migrating politics or the fact that Infinite Jest came at certain time of my life. It seems as though Infinite Jest beckons for the sad, self-loathing, middle-class white kid that demands answers (answers I have found better answered among my leftist comrades [maybe the lack of answers provided from reading Infinite Jest is itself an indictment])1. Both Flesh and Not shines at best as an example of DFW's ability to write, every essay reading like butter to my Midwestern ears. But at worst his politics shine through as middling centrist (a long diatribe about the word "Biased" in "Deciderization 2007") or noncommittally reactionary (any footnote/endnote about the carnal excesses that lead to a sense of emptiness, particularly the essay about AIDS that has far too many incel/men's rights talking points to make me comfortable). Despite it all, Wallace does write with an empathy that echoes my own, straight, white male thought process, and it still reads as literary comfort food to me. And for that, salute.

1 Hey, that was pretty post-modern, huh?