Dave Eggers (person)

"To gay men I am David."

It is hard for me to find a place to begin with this creative and funny individual. Much of what can be gathered about his life is located in his fictionalized memoirs, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. If I had full power of my abilities as an ASCII artist, I would include a picture of a stapler here for reference.

Dave Eggers' parents both died within five weeks of each other when he was 22 years old. They died from the cancer. His sister and little brother, Toph were left as orphans, trying to piece together a new life. He had grown up in Chicago, but after the death of his elders, he decided to move to the boom environment of early 1990s San Francisco.

I would like to include a passage from his book about he and his brother.

"Our best trick, though, is to pretend, for the benefit of the neighbors and whoever's around, that I'm beating Toph with a belt. This is how: with the back deck door open, we stand in the living room and then, with thte belt buckled into a circle, I yank it quickly on either end, snapping taut and making a sound not unlike that produced if I were striking Toph's bare legs at full force. When it cracks, Toph squeals like a pig.
    BELT: Whack!
    TOPH: (Squeal!)
    ME: How does that feel, kid?
    TOPH: I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'll never do it again!
    ME: Yeah? You'll never walk again!
    BELT: Whack!

It's great fun. We are attacking California, Toph and I, devouring what we can before the fall comes and hems us in, (we) drive down to Telegraph and look at the weirdos."

Besides being brothers, they are also master frisbee players. And on the randomness of this information, I introduce a concept and motion to further complete this node. Information from here forward will be seemingly chaotic. It is not easy to assemble information about such young, insane man and provide it in a conventional matter. I feel that in order to get to know Dave Eggers, you're going to just have to follow the next few paragraphs and the bits of random information located within.

For a short time Eggers published a small magazine called Might Magazine. There is now an anthology of articles for sale in bookstores. Might's claim to fame was the publication of a faked death of Adam Rich from Eight is Enough. They dedicated the entire issue to him, giving eulogies and in general fucked shit up. Their first choice was Crispin Glover. That would have been even cooler, but it wasn't in his density.

For a period of time Eggers wanted be on MTV's The Real World. He interviewed. A Heartbreaking... fictionalizes the interview and turns it into a confrontation with Eggers' own dark night in opposition to his soul. He claims to be five foot eleven. I don't know.

And then, more currently inside this universe a wonderous development occured. Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. Also called: McSweeney's, Gegenshein, The Starred Review, The Mixed Review, The Grim Ferryman, The Primitive, McSweeney's: Diamonds are Forever, and Conde Nast McSweeney's For Women." Once when asked whether he uses any pseudonyms he said: "Many of the people who write for McSweeney's...I haven't met. So I don't know...they may all be one guy." Which one can interpret any way they like. McSweeney's also recently published David Byrne's The New Sins which is great. He prints out of Iceland.

Eggers is an obsessive rewriter. He revises constantly. His book can now be found with a hilarious appendix, adding to what he did not include, clarifying the lines between fact and fiction. Not that it matters. Because with a guy like Dave Eggers, it really doesn't. When you are incredibly sexy, have an incredibly incredible brother, and a life with tragedy that lead you to deserve everything in the world in exchange, even the exposure of his best friends, his each and every thought--negative or positive, his reaffirmation of all things postmodern and its validity as form, function, state, and approach--nothing matters because everything matters.

Dave now lives in Brooklyn, New York and often still comes to San Francisco to give readings. He is known to take an entire bookstore full of people, load them onto buses and take tours of the city. He likes the Flaming Lips and has unnatural love/hate relationship with Beverly Hills, 90210 much like M. Doughty. That may be the most important fact about him.

The need
is doubted & scorned by
the Ego
which is stomped upon by
the Pain
which is funneled through
the Form
which can only
attempt, feebly
to approximate something like
the Truth
which is only valuable when
grotesque & leprous & desperate & drunk, belligerent even.