I read David Foster Wallace's short story "Incarnations of Burned Children" after reading about it in a blog entry (I think) by brilliant short story writer Kevin Wilson.
Wallace was clearly insanely talented and this story is one of those that tumbles rapidly downhill, taking you on a ride so fast and so relentless that you don't have time to see the surprise heart-wrenching twist near the end until it explodes in your chest.
Which is an apt metaphor, because today while sitting in traffic, for no reason at all it occurred to me that the plot of Wallace's story is essentially a retelling of the climactic scene in Catch-22 where Snowden spills his secret to Yossarian.
Which makes me wonder...is this story less brilliant because this widely known twist of plot is reused and reappropriated? Or is it enough that in the telling, Wallace makes it his own? And is Wallace's story brilliant simply because it is told in a new and exciting manner even though it largely leaves unaddressed Catch-22's moral message of the material nature of man and the value of following your survival instinct to ridiculous lengths?
Discuss. Or not. I have to catch a bus.
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