David Rakoff, 1964-2012

David Rakoff, best known as a storyteller, author, and a regular contributor to the radio programs "This American Life" and "Fresh Air," has died of cancer. The news first appeared on the website Third Beat. Rakoff wrote beautifully about the experience of going through treatment here, in the New York Times.

Choire Sicha at the Awl:

David Rakoff—writer, aesthete, genius, New York devotee (the City was "the great love of my life," he wrote), exceptional reporter and observer, performer, director and incredibly kind person—died after a phenomenally unfair and incredibly prolonged series of medical travails, which rarely slowed his creative output or his deeply human black humor. In early 2009, a pinched nerve was discovered to be a malignant sarcoma, caused, he said, by the radiation treatments from the lymphoma he'd had two decades before. An incredibly complicated and ethical person, Rakoff channeled his anxieties both into crafts, making elaborate products in his incredibly organized home such as duct tape wallets, but also into a phenomenal amount of writing.

The New York Times Artbeat blog remembers him here. Writing in the Times about "the empathy broadcast," a thing that we who have cancer experience from some who mean well, Rakoff said:

We like to think that the empathy broadcast with the swooping, downward intonation of the “aaawwww” is an evolutionary comfort; something we are programmed to welcome and offer freely ourselves. As a comment on something that has already happened, it probably works. But as an anticipatory tool, it does not soften the blow, indeed it does the opposite. It leaves you exposed, like grabbing onto the trunk of a tree for support in a storm only to find the wood soaked through and punky and coming apart in your hands. The sweetest bedtime-story delivery is no help when the words it delivers are a version of “ . . . and behind this door is a tiger. Brace yourself.”

More at The Atlantic. * Photo by Don Denton.

• [greybird]

  oh no! What a wonderful performer he was. I loved his stories.

• [headcode]

  I will miss his appearances on TAL very much.  He had an entrancing voice and a fascinating way of looking at the world.

• [Zach McDowell]

  Just saw him on TAL Live, he delivered a beautiful essay memorializing his dancing (and other things), then danced beautifully. He will be missed my many.

• [Jason Carl]

  RIP.

• [Margaret]

  This is very sad.  My thoughts are with his loved ones as they grieve him.  We will all grieve this loss.  

• [mkultra]

  I’ll echo what others have said before me: an original voice, to be sorely missed. Thoughts to his friends and loved ones. Is there a charity he was involved with we can donate to?

• [jimh]

  RIP, David.
  Don’t get too comfortable. A lesson for us all.

• [erintheadvocate]

  what a remarkable man. 

• [RKTR ♫soundcloud.com/rktr]

  Heard you on NPR all the time.  Bummer, man.

• [MrMonkey]

  Farewell, Mr. Rakoff.  Christmas Freud was one of my favorite This American Life bits.

• [ldobe]

   ”I walk like a runway model, but I shake hands like a lumberjack”  -Mr. David Rakoff

• [mccrum]

  A tragic day in my library, that’s for certain.

• [giantasterisk]

   Ohhh, I didn’t know he was sick. Such sad news. He was wonderful.

• [Margaret Portillo]

  I adored David Rakoff. His  sarcasm,  pessimism and acerbic wit spoke truth to the human experience without ever beening mean. Not to mention his beatiful voice, He will be dearly missed in my household.

• [katkins]

  Aw, fuck.

• [taghag]

  oh, that’s bad news.  i loved his appearances on TAL and wiretap.  he had a wonderful way of putting life into words. :…(

• [benher]

  No. ………… Rest in Peace.