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Comment by hiatus | Hacker News Reader

> Should people quote DFW as an authority given his suicide?

A very good writer who committed suicide is probably a great person from whose experience we might learn, especially since they expressed what might be their internal anguish so eloquently.

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He might only teach as a counter-example.

He may be advocating for highly dysfunctional irrational thinking patterns that leads to suicide. They might be convincing, seductive and dangerous and should only be responsibly presented with clear context and challenge.

He's trying to share what the experience is like to promote empathy, so that suicide can be better understood by those with less personal experience with it. He's not advocating for people to commit suicide, just for ways to engage with the problem that doesn't further isolate and other those who are suffering.

I don’t think he was advocating anything. I think that misses the point. He was just trying to state the matter in a form that would allow people to understand the suffering better and have empathy for those who are in that type of suffering. Personally, I think he nailed it, and for that I am thankful.

I like the idea that DFW is such a good writer that his words cause death. That would be a great plot device.

Throw in a tennis academy and some strange quasi-apocalyptic geopolitics and you might have yourself a book! :)

One of Hofstadter's books has a story about that.

this sounds like “don’t ever listen to anyone because they might be wrong”

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