From reading these posts, it is obvious that it was not unusual. Given the demands on his time and for his attention, this thoughtful, funny little note to a complete stranger struck me as a surprising and generous thing. The lady said casual-the other three were overdressed.” In a postscript, he replied good-naturedly to my comment about his appearance. “These ‘writerly’ forums are a priori impossible to be honest at.” He used a small thank-you card (Expressions from Hallmark). I introduced myself and explained that I had just seen him “flamboyantly underdressed” at the Arts and Lectures event in Portland.Ī few weeks later, Dave wrote back. When I got home, I wrote Dave a note, passing this little story on. He mentioned this sotto voce to the eminence sitting on the dais beside him and this man told him, by way of reassurance, that he, KV, shouldn’t worry about it-nobody really cared anything about what he had to say they were just there because they wanted to see if he was an honest man. Vonnegut was giving a speech he was nervous about. Something Dave said about his nervousness and the peculiarity of the affair made me think of an old Kurt Vonnegut anecdote. There was little reading that night it was mostly a Q&A. He looked like a down-on-his-luck logger. He arrived wearing a pair of big blond work boots, ratty jeans, and some sort of long-sleeve, waffle-weave undershirt. Everyone onstage and in the audience was, to some degree, gussied up for the occasion-everyone except Dave, that is. It was held in one of those elaborately refurbished downtown movie palaces.

The event was a large one-probably 1,500 people.

He appeared with Sherman Alexie, Gish Jen, and Cristina García as part of a panel discussion on what it meant to be a young writer in America. I had a chance to see David Foster Wallace onstage at a Portland Arts and Lectures event about 10 years ago.

Barnes and noble red flags game