REDUNDANCY

After reading the book review section of the NY times a couple of Sundays ago, I ordered the Pale Horse by David Foster Wallace from the local Library. Novels are not usually on my selection list but I was drawn to this review because it led with the story of his suicide by hanging.  

When I picked up the book, I immediately read the cover flaps to remind myself what I had ordered as I usually forget. Seeing again a description of the author’s death, I read on with something close to voyeurism.

The book itself, about boredom, did not sound interesting but did remind me of something that I often say, maybe for its shock value, that the leading cause of death is boredom.

Seeing it now, in the context of someone’s work, who would eventually commit suicide, I wonder if boredom really is a terminal disease.

 If life seems redundant, which maybe it did for Andrew, does it turn to hopelessness and then to suicide?  If  Andrew experienced redundancy it may have had to do with the unrelenting and emotionally exhausting symptoms that he felt ruled his life and kept him from achieving what he wanted.