Remember, Remember the Tenth of December

Remember, Remember the Tenth of December

David Foster Wallace once said, “The person I’m highest on right now is George Saunders.”

At twenty-nine years old with no steady income other than the .10 cents a word I get from my freelancing gigs, I am shocked that I am able to afford a better drugdealer than the late David Foster Wallace’s.

Don’t let my bad pun fool you. George Saunders is indeed worthy of a good high. Just this past summer he gave the commencement speech for the Syracuse University class of 2013 where he famously said: “So here’s something I know to be true, although it’s a little corny, and I don’t quite know what to do with it: What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded…sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly. I’d say as a goal in life, you could do worse than: Try to be kinder.”

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Jack Black's ' You Can’t Win'

Jack Black's ' You Can’t Win'

Jack Black was a late 19th-century writer and self-proclaimed hobo and professional burglar who lived in the final days of the Wild West. He was dishonest, conniving, but also a guy with a lot of heart. It’s funny to say, but he had the best intentions when it came down to it, even when he was stealing from people.

Black ultimately gained fame through his friendship with William S. Burroughs. And though he didn’t write any other novels, Black’s influence echos throughout the beats’ writing and serves as a basis for some of their strongest “live-free” philosophies. If you love the beats, his writing is definitely worth checking out.

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