Consider The Sister | Defector

"“Watching television with David was an interactive experience,” Amy says. The two children weren't content with what was on offer. Often, they would invent new dialogue for the characters extemporaneously. “That was one of our hobbies,” Amy says. “We just thought, whoever's writing this, it could be so much more interesting.”"

"David identified as the Road Runner and told Amy she was his Wile E. Coyote. He had the speed, the tools-and the upper hand. She was left with only her wits to try to keep up with him, but of course she never could. The lot of Wile E. Coyote was to follow the Road Runner hopelessly, never to catch up."

"More than 50 years later, Amy is still haunted by the sensory experience of that couch. It was pea-green and scratchy, yet she dutifully-and gladly-sat there as part of their sibling ritual. Their mother, Sally Foster, described the scene this way: Amy spent her mornings watching David watch TV. But that's not quite right."

"It was hard work being David Foster Wallace's little sister. It still is. The job of preserving the memory of her brother as a complex, vibrant, often joyful person has fallen to her. It's been nearly 20 years since his death by suicide, and while the legend of DFW the writer has grown, the story of the human has been flattened to the stereotype of a tortured artist who came to a tragic end."

Early Saturday mornings in Urbana, Illinois, Amy Wallace was pulled from bed by her brother David to watch cartoons. They positioned themselves in front of the television, waited for the color bars, and then settled into a ritual on the couch and carpet. Amy remembers the couch as pea-green and scratchy, while also describing the experience as more than passive viewing. She and David treated television as interactive, inventing new dialogue for characters on the spot. David played the Road Runner and assigned Amy the role of Wile E. Coyote, creating a playful dynamic of speed and tools versus her wits. After David’s death, Amy has worked to preserve his full, joyful complexity against a flattened tortured-artist stereotype.

Read at Defector