Backbone, or the story formerly known as The Boy

A couple of days ago, I began re-reading D.T. Max's New Yorker piece on David Foster Wallace. Someone had reposted it on 21 February, DFW's birthday.

Yesterday morning, I posted a link to the story on my Tumblr--after finishing the piece, I was enamored with this quote:

He wrote to DeLillo that he thought he knew what was missing to get his fiction moving forward: “I believe I want adult sanity, which seems to me the only unalloyed form of heroism available today.”

Coincidentally, yesterday was also the day that someone on Twitter alerted me (us) to the fact that DFW has a new story in the most recent New Yorker, and that the story is now available online. See:

Backbone

Now, if you're an Artificial Night reader, or a reader of 454 W 23rd St New York, NY 10011—2157, the story Backbone isn't new to you. As both of those hyperlinks prove, you know this story already as The Boy.

Apparently, the story has been edited, and is now officially being billed as an excerpt from The Pale King, which is due to be released on 15 April.

Being the awesome people that they are, 454 W 23rd St New York, NY 10011—2157 already has a document ready for us that highlights the additions/subtrations that make Backbone not The Boy.

It isn't a secret that DFW struggled to finish The Pale King, but the fact that Backbone--prose DFW had already written and was reading publicly in 2000--is part of the text really highlights the amount of time he spent with it.

15 April can't come soon enough.