Check out these David Foster Wallace books on Amazon! The Life of David Foster Wallace: geni.us/7xzix Conversations with David Foster Wallace: geni.us/HHYcGBe Infinite Jest: geni.us/RwhKG Join us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/ManufacturingIntellect Donate Crypto! commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/868d67d2-1628-44a8-b8dc-8f9616d62259 Share this video! Get Two Books FREE with a Free Audible Trial: amzn.to/313yfLe Checking out the affiliate links above helps me bring even more high quality videos to you by earning me a small commission on your purchase. If you have any suggestions for future content, make sure to subscribe on the Patreon page. Thank you for your support!
you must be very young if you don't know that both phones and "real internet" existed in 1996. 27 years from now some kid will say 2023 internet isnt real internet.
@@jim-kp5he I work in psychology with kids and young adults, even our books are separated between pre2000, 2000-2009 and 2009 onwards. If you were online in the 90s chatting up a storm good for you, it was the minority, since 2008/09 era every kid in class has had multiple apps to get validation or criticism for every outfit, joke, selfie and opinion they put out into the world. Even without phones, in the AIM/Myspace days of the 2000s that level of constant validation or criticism was far away, when you were at school you couldn't see the shit people were talking about you online.
absolute comedy gold in my opinion. the way wallace first looks at rose, than at franzen, and franzen catches his look and smiles. gotta love it. also the sentence "complicated ...even compared to the internet." is funny in itself
David Foster Wallace speaking to commercial art impacting us in deeper ways really hits home with the algorithm telling me to keep consuming and altering my consciousness.
@@pritishdas4366 Outstanding analysis...you've understood and nailed the distinctive difference between DFW and Jonathan Franzan that was clearly not known when Rose conducted this interview. Leyner was never in the same league as his contemporaries here and time has proved it...this video is classic in that it shows the early motivations behind Wallace's and Franzen's literary career's. I love the interplay between DFW and Jonathan, long-time friends...
@@thewizardssleeve119 yeah but he's afraid to read contemporary literature because he might be influenced by it. What is it with someone like that? Did the greats he read not have contemporaries that they enjoyed and were influenced by. They were obviously far greater writers than he so I don't know where he was coming from with that. It honestly sounds like all that laziness from his college years carried over and he was unwilling to put forth the effort to discover what was good in contemporary literature, instead choosing to rely on books that old men told him were great.
As ridiculous as it sounds, it made perfect sense for whatever reason. Probably because the internet is full of simple shit ad infinitum and no narratives on the internet were even on the scale of infinite jest.
Wallace had already thought deeply about and written essays about the relationship between popular culture and fiction writing, so he was better prepared for the question than the others. Dig up his essay "E Unibus Pluram".
I think that's one of the most important pieces of writing in the last 35 years. It is so insightful as to why people are self-conscious and insecure today.
I also sensed that there's a discrepancy between what he was advocating in his _This is water_ speech ( being well adjusted for one) and how he seemed to go along himself. Maybe his advice to the graduates was an advice to himself as well.
Theres that scene in End of The Tour where DFW is explaining that he's smart in a specific way, (being able to sit in an empty room and think of things), and implying that this does not necessarily translate into him being verbally articulate or smart in other ways.
@@Sapsche It is definitely directed towards himself, as he would tell all of us in the speech. It was also written almost ten years after this. I don’t know about you, but at 29, I’m not the same person I was two years ago, let alone ten.
He said this because much of this is brought on by Rose, and that all these writers are well aware you cannot pin your audience, just as you cannot determine what compels a greater society... it was probably an inside joke.
i dont think any of them thought i'd be able to download and listen to their books on a calculator sized rectangle that isn't even physically connected to the listening buds in my ears while i work. also i'm 7 hours into infinite jest and have no idea what is going on lol
Listening to the audiobook of Infinite jest is like watching foreign films dubbed in English. Not only will it be an adulterated version of the original work but also not even convey precisely what the creator wants you to experience. It’s like reading a detailed and 100% accurate description of a Van Gogh and saying you’ve seen it. And this is specifically true for Infinite Jest. His non fiction and short stories are much more suitable for audio listening. But not IJ
These three men were giants, but listening to DFW really makes you realize he was a bigger giant among giants. Whereas Franzen and Leyner speak quite linearly and directly, Wallace is fishing between the lines, looking at the paradoxes and contradictions that exist in simplistic notions. You can tell he was always obsessively questioning things with superhuman-like reductivity ... likely at the cost of his psyche. But it's here I think DFW's thinking is the most _human,_ especially with how prevalent media has become, how the bedrock of morality has crumbled, how easily inquisitive and intelligent the new generation is, and also how well-off they generally are to their parents. DFW reminds me a lot of Charlie Kaufman, a screenwriter considered great for just how finely between the lines he could see and observe. I feel like if DFW had kept working, he might have suffered the same artistic setback Charlie Kaufman had in creating a masterpiece so complex, human, and honest yet a commercial failure. I'm sure he'd have kept working, but these greats have their time in the sun when their honest works are misinterpreted as something else (like when Infinite Jest was consumed because people thought it was "funny" or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was consumed because people thought it was "quirky"). Charlie then ventured to his next film, Synecdoche, New York, a monument of cinematic genius that fell completely under the radar for most audiences.
That feelum beought tears to my eyes by the end. And not in a good way necessarily. Art like that is devouring, people as keenly observant as those two should have figured out that solipism isint the way DFW should have studied my dinner with andre a bit more perhaps
@mr_heckthey’re completely different forms, but you also hate Tarantino and PTA (and probably Wallace as well??) all while calling people “pseuds” in RUclips comment sections. It’s no shocker you can’t see a parallel between Wallace and Synecdoche, New York. You are unserious.
This channel is a gold mine I listened to a DFW radio interview about language and grammar, Garner cam on also. It was hosted by an English woman. This interview has now been seemingly wiped off the net. If anyone can find it it’s ‘Manufacturing consent.’ If you do, would appreciate a heads up.
I love this segment not just because of the content but I came for DFW but all of them had something to add and their perspectives were unique, and DFW listened to them intently he's not arrogant and obtuse he cares what they bring
Cut to 2020 and there are TVs on gas station pumps you cant turn off, fast food menus are TVs, and everybody has a TV in their pocket that offers instant access to any number of things that are infinitely more interesting than whatever is going on around you. You couldn't even have this same conversation today without forcing everyone present to turn off their pocket TVs. It's like we're in a some kind of PKD version of the future where instead of actual improvements in quality of life we just get the endless replication of TVs. We're totally fucked.
So funny and so sad at the same time. It's poignant and darkly humourous observations like this that make the fast approaching dystopia more bearable for me. Totally fucked 😂✌️
Terrifying isn’t it. I long for the day where all we had to worry about was catching smallpox or being eaten alive by wild animals, now I’m faced with whether to pick Netflix or Amazon Prime and suddenly Disney Plus comes into the picture. The burden of modern man
@@bl1398 - There was never a time where all you had to worry about were those things. Its a conservative fantasy of a world that never was. Life has always been complex, its part of the deal when dealing with human beings - all thats different now from 40 years ago, is that you have more in ways of a choice because the capitalist system has superheated and commodified everything that makes up you, your opinions, your attention, your fingerprints, your heartrate - all of that is converted into data and sold. And you might say "Well fuck this, Ill escape." But heres the kicker. You can't. You can never escape the drudgery of this existence because you are a human being and as a human being you only matter, when someone else can validate your existence. Nothing you do matters unless someone sees it and reacts to it - in a sense commentary tracks under these kinds of videos highlight the issue perfectly - its people longing for simplicity, yet buying into the great hunt for validation. We need not long for a simpler time, thats essentially the same as a junkie saying "Oh I wish I had never picked up the habit," - we need to take a page out of DFW's book and relearn sincerity and relearn to be contemplative, we need to learn to feel ourselves, truly feel ourselves - getting rid of our distractions doesn't fix the problem - we need to learn a new set of habits in this rapidly developing world and the reason why thats hard and why you feel lost, is because its a lot like riding an elevator that never sits still long enough for you to get off on your floor.
@@readwellwritewell I suppose I was thinking a little too simplistically. I had thought that with smallpox there is just one simple choice - either to succumb to the disease, or to survive. On further reflection maybe such a simple choice would have only been available to those folk who had access to a druid or medicine man. For those without such access, perhaps they must first barter with a local warlord for access to medicines, or employ the use of ritual magic, both of which I suppose may make the smallpox problem harder to deal with than the more modern problem of which streaming provider to go for.
Solace indeed! When you cant find the intellectual stimulation you need around you. After having leapt over my secretarial background, family paradigm, homemaker, late in life college student, I miss the coming across interesting insights when completing assignments. The deadlines. I was out of cinque with my own generation whose life journey was straight. My journey has had so many diverse wreckages to overcome, I read fiction to regain my stasis.
Watching the body language between the three reminded me of my publicist friend who said the literary world is fraught with ego--Franzen constantly looking for DFW's approval; Franzen addressing a point made by Mark without even giving him a glance; DFW taking subtle digs at both JF ML, etc.
I generally agree but didn’t take DFW’s remarks as subtle digs, but rather simply challenging their ideas, healthy debating or disagreeing. I don’t think the man’s a saint, he’s not, but I didn’t see THAT as a reflection of his ego, which isn’t to say that he doesn’t have an ego. He does, just seems to be less than most writers with his level of success.
DFW had major depression and was taking meds that made him psychotic - he's not avoiding eye contact because of "ego" but because he is plagued by anxiety and his intelligence. Seriously, don't listen to everything your friend says and think for yourself.
@@acidtears DFW has specifically referenced, in other interviews, the fact that he and Franzen enjoyed making fun of Lerner during this interview. Think for yourself, Marc, and read more into DFW than his Wikipedia page.
@@spacejesusadventure That would make a lot more sense... To me depression seemed to be the likeliest cause as I've indeed only read his wiki and saw 2-3 interviews of him. Thanks for pointing it out.
David’s comments about the minimization of influence due to technology/technique is very interesting. The study of something can influence the production of said thing enough to where the parameters that created that product are eventually replaced in the name of replication on behalf of efficiency.
People dissing Leyner clearly aren't paying attention; the points he makes about the writer in relation to his or her readership are thoughtful and perfectly legitimate. A lot of people seem blinded by their adulation of DFW, who, though (esp in his later work) a writer and observer of the first-rank, was no Lao-Tzu.
They all had really interesting points, but DFW DID seem to lay out the landscape deeper and with more breadth in the time he had to talk than the other two. Not that this is a competition...
Leyner couldn't even answer the question about the literary landscape 10 years earlier vs. then because he self admittedly didn't even read contemporary fiction. He was too busy catching up on classics he should have read in school. Honestly that alone renders all of his points invalid in a discussion about contemporary literature. His only point about the writer in relation to their readership is that he didn't think about it. woo very thoughtful
@@MrRoehre I agree. But Franzen did hold him to account for his contradictions somewhere in the middle of that interview. Leyner did course correct but someone on this thread did mention how Franzen's ego did not get much out of this interview: Poor introduction by Rose and then he had to deal with DFW.
@@MrRoehre oh man, a contemporary novelist responded to a question about the contemporary novel from the perspective of a contemporary novelist. How awful. Maybe you should write to Charlie Rose and complain that you would rather have heard from a market researcher instead.
Man, that must've been hard for Franzen by those days. Listen to Rose introducing DFW saying: "Whose novel Infinte jest has become the season most talked about book" and then simply saying: Jon Franzen, whose latest book is Strong motion. Period.
@@paulvoorhies8821 so when I said "(at least of the era)" what did you think that meant? The Corrections wasn't out for another five years after this video. With those reading comprehension skills, tsk tsk
@@yourfriendwill Franzen was a really good friend to Wallace and helped to keep him going. He had an entirely different ethics of fiction writing. This isn't sports, despite what Wallace may have imagined. These three are not direct competitors.
Public broadcasting. It was epiphanic for me when I lost all media a few years ago except basic cable. I would leave it on PBS and was suprised to see that it gave a remarkably complete educational experience. Rose was on there.
The irony here is DFW is trying to sound like Mr. Everyman but it’s Franzen and Leyner who come across as normal guys while Wallace always sounds professorial with that private liberal arts college lilt to his voice. I saw this interview before I ever read Infinite Jest and I couldn’t get that voice out of my head!
There was clearly something off with DFW as a person, besides the depression. Always seems to be performing in some way, in video footage. Too much like the characters he wrote about.
As you can see, most writers' are not used to any type of confrontation, they usually live inside their own heads. Although, not a fan of Wallace, he does shake things up, even if it is in a sort-of nerdy-bully way. I do appreciate the sprinkled mentions of philosophy. All three men had a good grasp of the history of writing and who came before them. I wonder if contemporary writers could do the same. They should've done a follow-up in 2006. It would've been interesting to see how they looked back on the interview.
@@camaples With my limited intelligence, I sometimes get impatience with some people aren't that bright. He must have been constantly trying not to talk down to people. Also, with that intelligence, comes great frustration and anxiety, I imagine. When you think so complexly, no answer or action is ever good enough.
Evan Fields there is something extremely enjoyable about the experience reading IJ that I can’t even articulate how or why it has that effect it’s straight up brilliant
2:00 if they only knew that we are now, in 2020, reaching the point of having saturated human attention capacity. There are no where left for capitalism to expand.
@@herpderpitypurple73 I guess it's easier to absorb someone else's ideas through tv after a drudging day at work than parse through your own. It's probably extremely rare to find someone these days that thinks about a single idea for even half an hour. Kant wrote an essay called "what is enlightenment" and it essentially made the claim that a person who only adopts ideas from exterior sources; whether it's tv, books, religion, political ideologues, is in a state of nonage and a dishonor to humanity. And believe me, I appreciate the irony of referencing someone else to make that point. tldr: npc meme
@@herpderpitypurple73 tbh I assumed you just didn't understand what irony was, we are on yt after all. I'd agree with you, I think the mysterious hands of various algorithms, recommended advertising and memetics have created bubble communities with vastly different views on fundamental ideals. Then you try and cram these fractured people into democratic systems that are supposed to speak for the majority and it all gets bungled. It's like a digital tower of babel mortared largely by corporate interest and foreign governments undermining each other. I think DFW said in an interview once that we've set ourselves up for fascism as we'll eventually get frustrated and long for someone to tell us what to do/think. We're the postmodern generation and confusion is our plight. It almost makes me want to become christian, or a spiritualist. At least there's more aesthetic beauty in those beliefs than as a materialists.
Wallace definitely knew what was coming, not in exact detail but he saw how bad things would continue to get. No different than aldous Huxley Bertrand Russell nikola tesla even Sagan knew.
he comes across much more vibrant and fluent here than all his interviews from roughly 1998 till near his death. he became very dour and self-effacing, even sometimes incoherent. he also has more inflection in his voice. hmm.
I'm always under the assumption that most people that read literary fiction are writers themselves. Your typical reader that reads for entertainment usually leans toward genre and mainstream type of work. Obviously, that's not always going to be the case, but it's probably closer to the truth than not.
en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/hellacious i.e. incredibly, extremely, hellishly... it's kind of a slang word that's of relatively recent origin - last 30 years, I would guess.
_hellacious_ was coined a lot longer ago than 30 years, but it's still arguably a neologism; it's a 1930's college slang word. it's derived from the word _hell_ and was possibly coined with the word _salacious_ in mind-at least, that's my best guess. a lot of sources conjecture that it may have been the word _bodacious_ that inspired the use of the _-acious_ suffix, but i think that's doubtful; _bodacious_ was coined around a century before _hellacious_ was, but it only became part of common parlance when it was popularized by a movie in the early 1980's: long after _hellacious_ was coined. in fact, in the 1930's, when _hellacious_ was coined, the word _salacious_ was well over 150 times more popular than the word _bodacious._ i think the only obvious link between the words _bodacious_ and _hellacious_ besides their shared suffix is that they are both slang words. _salacious,_ however, sounds identical to _hellacious_ except for their initial consonant sounds-which, to me, along with its much more widespread usage, makes it the more likely canditate of the two words to have inspired the coinage of _hellacious._ by the way, _hellacious_ has two modern definitions: _very good_ and _very bad._ david was using it in its pejorative sense
And its only gotten worse. We are surrounded by media almost everywhere we go now. I have to force myself to read a book, then again I am not always reading "page turners," mostly hard fiction. I think it's an important ability to be able to sit down with a book and imagine. Sadly that's being lost, the ability to imagine another world.
His genius was asking incredibly broad, simple questions which allowed the guests to talk pretty openly and easily about whatever they personally were interested in. It's why he actually does tend to get pretty good answers out of people, even if his vibe comes off as a little dumb or blunt.
All three of them look like they've seen the darkest places when they're introduced. Probably what it took to have them write the kind of fiction they did.
it's not fair to compare these other authors to dfw orbit, they are also brilliant and quite developed and almost vulnerable and we wonder and witness to the awe of it all. great men
Wallace is the only one who's thoughts all seem unified and interconnected on different levels. It seems the other two try but in the end they're just pretending to be insightful.
To me, DFW personified the word grace. Not a wrong word came out of his seemingly ego-less mouth (If that makes any sense.). He was the platonic ideal of the Freudian term "id." (If that makes any sense) Pure genius is what I guess I'm trying to say. He is sorely missed.
@@karlhungus5436 those were merely symptoms of his problem, mental illness and the drugs doctors were feeding him doesn’t make it ok, but was sick in his head for decades
oh I don't know, it could be 1996, the title says 1996, but you never know, media is tricky now, almost has its own brain of course, and will to power. So, it could be, but who knows. I'd still say 1996 though.
No body talks to each other anymore, it would be nice to sit across from a stranger and talk about a book or something, and really engage. I blame the gays, or the pope or video games or something.
@@SethMacLeod95 they were actually really good friends apparently, I heard DFW say he sent Franzen a fan letter and that’s how they met. I think. I hope I’m not wrong.
@@proskater141 They were friends. At the time, DFW was certainly seeing more success than Franzen with Infinite Jest so that may have contributed to any intimidation. Jonathan has written about him in a few different essays if you're interested.
It's a shame Foster Wallace didn't stick around. Sure he'd have been a great guest on something like Joe Rogan's podcast. Hours to develop his trains of thought, instead of minutes.
Didn’t really understand whatever they were talking about (books?) but was still entertained. Reminds me of modern intellectuals such as joe rogan and their podcasts. Peace ✌️
4000 books in a lifetime the average reader can get through. And it's easier today to get a book self printed....too much crap books going around today.
Does anyone think that the show "Joe Pera Talks with You" have some weird aliment with David Foster Wallaces's overall ethos? .. Before I went to bed last night the two mashed in my head and now it's all I can think about.. Nobody I know is aware of both enough to form any formal opinion about it, *HELP* !
Check out these David Foster Wallace books on Amazon!
The Life of David Foster Wallace: geni.us/7xzix
Conversations with David Foster Wallace: geni.us/HHYcGBe
Infinite Jest: geni.us/RwhKG
Join us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/ManufacturingIntellect
Donate Crypto! commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/868d67d2-1628-44a8-b8dc-8f9616d62259
Share this video!
Get Two Books FREE with a Free Audible Trial: amzn.to/313yfLe
Checking out the affiliate links above helps me bring even more high quality videos to you by earning me a small commission on your purchase. If you have any suggestions for future content, make sure to subscribe on the Patreon page. Thank you for your support!
Insane to have this conversation in 1996 before phones and tablets and 'real' internet
you must be very young if you don't know that both phones and "real internet" existed in 1996. 27 years from now some kid will say 2023 internet isnt real internet.
@@jim-kp5he I work in psychology with kids and young adults, even our books are separated between pre2000, 2000-2009 and 2009 onwards.
If you were online in the 90s chatting up a storm good for you, it was the minority, since 2008/09 era every kid in class has had multiple apps to get validation or criticism for every outfit, joke, selfie and opinion they put out into the world.
Even without phones, in the AIM/Myspace days of the 2000s that level of constant validation or criticism was far away, when you were at school you couldn't see the shit people were talking about you online.
What is real internet?
@@Batwal99onUtube How old are you? it will help me explain better based on when you were a teenager
@@ChichiNaka teenager in the mid 2000s
“...artistic snorkel to the Universe...”
This fucking guy. What I wouldn’t give to have him around today.
Yeah, he was brilliant.
I fell in love with that sentence too. Brilliant, yes. So sad that he suffered so much.
Agreed. I'd pay an obscene amount of money to hear or read his thoughts on modern culture, and especially social media.
I know right.
I think about that often. I wish he was here to share his thoughts about the world now
David Foster Wallace is able to see between the lines and insightful enough to elaborate on them, he changed my life.
Not just elaborate show you how to aswell
The same with me. Greetings from germany
Same here. He foresees where it's going.
"We are all pawns in the chess of life and he is the grandmaster who sees all moves"
12:26 The way Franzen and Wallace looked at each other when he said that, haha
Your comment is simple . . . and short . . . compared even to the . . . internet..
My favorite part of the interview.
Great catch
absolute comedy gold in my opinion. the way wallace first looks at rose, than at franzen, and franzen catches his look and smiles. gotta love it. also the sentence "complicated ...even compared to the internet." is funny in itself
Or editor rather..
David Foster Wallace speaking to commercial art impacting us in deeper ways really hits home with the algorithm telling me to keep consuming and altering my consciousness.
David Foster Wallace was such a pleasure to listen to. However these three writers are legendary.
Leyners gonna be forgotten because all his books rely on superficial postmodern cool instead of anything substantive
@@pritishdas4366 Outstanding analysis...you've understood and nailed the distinctive difference between DFW and Jonathan Franzan that was clearly not known when Rose conducted this interview. Leyner was never in the same league as his contemporaries here and time has proved it...this video is classic in that it shows the early motivations behind Wallace's and Franzen's literary career's. I love the interplay between DFW and Jonathan, long-time friends...
@@pritishdas4366 Franzen is a boring gas bag.
@@pritishdas4366 There's nothing more substantive than a good sense of humour and absurditity. Leyner has these in spades.
@@thewizardssleeve119 yeah but he's afraid to read contemporary literature because he might be influenced by it. What is it with someone like that? Did the greats he read not have contemporaries that they enjoyed and were influenced by. They were obviously far greater writers than he so I don't know where he was coming from with that. It honestly sounds like all that laziness from his college years carried over and he was unwilling to put forth the effort to discover what was good in contemporary literature, instead choosing to rely on books that old men told him were great.
Rose: "Your book is known to be very complicated, even compared to the... internet." hahahahahahahahahaha
The internet is very complicated and long..I'm still reading this thing and it is a roller coaster of a ride, two thumbs up!
As ridiculous as it sounds, it made perfect sense for whatever reason.
Probably because the internet is full of simple shit ad infinitum and no narratives on the internet were even on the scale of infinite jest.
I keep telling people the internet is gonna be huge
What the hell does that even mean
@@stolensentience Nah, Charlie Rose is an idiot. Maybe if he had said complicated and vast.
Miss David Foster Wallace. Incredible person. Simply remarkable.
Mr*
Wallace had already thought deeply about and written essays about the relationship between popular culture and fiction writing, so he was better prepared for the question than the others. Dig up his essay "E Unibus Pluram".
Read it and found it extremely interesting. Thank you for the tip stranger!
awesome reference thank you
I think that's one of the most important pieces of writing in the last 35 years. It is so insightful as to why people are self-conscious and insecure today.
Franzen's hair is amazing.
And DFW's isn't? WTF?
9:42 "Im *totally* with you about *50 per cent* of it"
that actually just makes sense
“It’s called sex panther! U know they say, 60% of the time it works every time…”
David Foster Wallace was a genius. He had such an extraordinary mind.
David was so brilliant, yet so tightly wound.
Probably what made him brilliant
I also sensed that there's a discrepancy between what he was advocating in his _This is water_ speech ( being well adjusted for one) and how he seemed to go along himself. Maybe his advice to the graduates was an advice to himself as well.
That might have something to do with being a stalker and a domestic abuser.
Theres that scene in End of The Tour where DFW is explaining that he's smart in a specific way, (being able to sit in an empty room and think of things), and implying that this does not necessarily translate into him being verbally articulate or smart in other ways.
@@Sapsche It is definitely directed towards himself, as he would tell all of us in the speech. It was also written almost ten years after this. I don’t know about you, but at 29, I’m not the same person I was two years ago, let alone ten.
0:18
I've never seen somehow hold back a smile with such intensity
ahahaha that sassy head bob at 11:46 "enlighTEn me"
Amanda W dfw going to work defending people who watch television.
His self-effacing are overshadowed by a combative tone when among his peers 😂
He sniffed that bs out real quick and got a really weak rebuttal
He said this because much of this is brought on by Rose, and that all these writers are well aware you cannot pin your audience, just as you cannot determine what compels a greater society... it was probably an inside joke.
i dont think any of them thought i'd be able to download and listen to their books on a calculator sized rectangle that isn't even physically connected to the listening buds in my ears while i work. also i'm 7 hours into infinite jest and have no idea what is going on lol
Much like the text, the audiobook performance is merely a companion to the story.
Listening to the audiobook of Infinite jest is like watching foreign films dubbed in English. Not only will it be an adulterated version of the original work but also not even convey precisely what the creator wants you to experience. It’s like reading a detailed and 100% accurate description of a Van Gogh and saying you’ve seen it. And this is specifically true for Infinite Jest. His non fiction and short stories are much more suitable for audio listening. But not IJ
Jonathan Franzen's haircut has a mind of its own
Don’t judge. I looked like that in 1992 !!!
He looks beautiful
These three men were giants, but listening to DFW really makes you realize he was a bigger giant among giants.
Whereas Franzen and Leyner speak quite linearly and directly, Wallace is fishing between the lines, looking at the paradoxes and contradictions that exist in simplistic notions. You can tell he was always obsessively questioning things with superhuman-like reductivity ... likely at the cost of his psyche.
But it's here I think DFW's thinking is the most _human,_ especially with how prevalent media has become, how the bedrock of morality has crumbled, how easily inquisitive and intelligent the new generation is, and also how well-off they generally are to their parents.
DFW reminds me a lot of Charlie Kaufman, a screenwriter considered great for just how finely between the lines he could see and observe. I feel like if DFW had kept working, he might have suffered the same artistic setback Charlie Kaufman had in creating a masterpiece so complex, human, and honest yet a commercial failure. I'm sure he'd have kept working, but these greats have their time in the sun when their honest works are misinterpreted as something else (like when Infinite Jest was consumed because people thought it was "funny" or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was consumed because people thought it was "quirky").
Charlie then ventured to his next film, Synecdoche, New York, a monument of cinematic genius that fell completely under the radar for most audiences.
That feelum beought tears to my eyes by the end. And not in a good way necessarily. Art like that is devouring, people as keenly observant as those two should have figured out that solipism isint the way
DFW should have studied my dinner with andre a bit more perhaps
@mr_heckthey’re completely different forms, but you also hate Tarantino and PTA (and probably Wallace as well??) all while calling people “pseuds” in RUclips comment sections. It’s no shocker you can’t see a parallel between Wallace and Synecdoche, New York. You are unserious.
Kaufman brought DFW up in his netflix movie too
I'm always happy to find a fellow Synecdoche, New York enjoyer. (my favorite movie of all time)
This channel is a gold mine
I listened to a DFW radio interview about language and grammar, Garner cam on also. It was hosted by an English woman.
This interview has now been seemingly wiped off the net.
If anyone can find it it’s ‘Manufacturing consent.’
If you do, would appreciate a heads up.
it's called manufacturing consent?
I love this segment not just because of the content but I came for DFW but all of them had something to add and their perspectives were unique, and DFW listened to them intently he's not arrogant and obtuse he cares what they bring
Cut to 2020 and there are TVs on gas station pumps you cant turn off, fast food menus are TVs, and everybody has a TV in their pocket that offers instant access to any number of things that are infinitely more interesting than whatever is going on around you. You couldn't even have this same conversation today without forcing everyone present to turn off their pocket TVs. It's like we're in a some kind of PKD version of the future where instead of actual improvements in quality of life we just get the endless replication of TVs. We're totally fucked.
So funny and so sad at the same time. It's poignant and darkly humourous observations like this that make the fast approaching dystopia more bearable for me. Totally fucked 😂✌️
Terrifying isn’t it. I long for the day where all we had to worry about was catching smallpox or being eaten alive by wild animals, now I’m faced with whether to pick Netflix or Amazon Prime and suddenly Disney Plus comes into the picture. The burden of modern man
@@bl1398 - There was never a time where all you had to worry about were those things. Its a conservative fantasy of a world that never was. Life has always been complex, its part of the deal when dealing with human beings - all thats different now from 40 years ago, is that you have more in ways of a choice because the capitalist system has superheated and commodified everything that makes up you, your opinions, your attention, your fingerprints, your heartrate - all of that is converted into data and sold.
And you might say "Well fuck this, Ill escape." But heres the kicker. You can't. You can never escape the drudgery of this existence because you are a human being and as a human being you only matter, when someone else can validate your existence. Nothing you do matters unless someone sees it and reacts to it - in a sense commentary tracks under these kinds of videos highlight the issue perfectly - its people longing for simplicity, yet buying into the great hunt for validation.
We need not long for a simpler time, thats essentially the same as a junkie saying "Oh I wish I had never picked up the habit," - we need to take a page out of DFW's book and relearn sincerity and relearn to be contemplative, we need to learn to feel ourselves, truly feel ourselves - getting rid of our distractions doesn't fix the problem - we need to learn a new set of habits in this rapidly developing world and the reason why thats hard and why you feel lost, is because its a lot like riding an elevator that never sits still long enough for you to get off on your floor.
@@readwellwritewell I suppose I was thinking a little too simplistically. I had thought that with smallpox there is just one simple choice - either to succumb to the disease, or to survive. On further reflection maybe such a simple choice would have only been available to those folk who had access to a druid or medicine man. For those without such access, perhaps they must first barter with a local warlord for access to medicines, or employ the use of ritual magic, both of which I suppose may make the smallpox problem harder to deal with than the more modern problem of which streaming provider to go for.
Most gas pumps will turn off the screen if you hit the top left button
Solace indeed! When you cant find the intellectual stimulation you need around you. After having leapt over my secretarial background, family paradigm, homemaker, late in life college student, I miss the coming across interesting insights when completing assignments. The deadlines. I was out of cinque with my own generation whose life journey was straight. My journey has had so many diverse wreckages to overcome, I read fiction to regain my stasis.
found the midwit
Mate. Just chill.
Hilarious at 12:34 “compared even to The internet” DFW looks shocked and Frazen cracks a quick smile
Tf did he mean by that??
S P nothing on the internet had the narrative scope of IJ
Watching the body language between the three reminded me of my publicist friend who said the literary world is fraught with ego--Franzen constantly looking for DFW's approval; Franzen addressing a point made by Mark without even giving him a glance; DFW taking subtle digs at both JF ML, etc.
@Mathieu Champagne Which would've been years after this interview, right?
I generally agree but didn’t take DFW’s remarks as subtle digs, but rather simply challenging their ideas, healthy debating or disagreeing. I don’t think the man’s a saint, he’s not, but I didn’t see THAT as a reflection of his ego, which isn’t to say that he doesn’t have an ego. He does, just seems to be less than most writers with his level of success.
DFW had major depression and was taking meds that made him psychotic - he's not avoiding eye contact because of "ego" but because he is plagued by anxiety and his intelligence. Seriously, don't listen to everything your friend says and think for yourself.
@@acidtears DFW has specifically referenced, in other interviews, the fact that he and Franzen enjoyed making fun of Lerner during this interview. Think for yourself, Marc, and read more into DFW than his Wikipedia page.
@@spacejesusadventure That would make a lot more sense... To me depression seemed to be the likeliest cause as I've indeed only read his wiki and saw 2-3 interviews of him. Thanks for pointing it out.
David Foster Wallace...you are missed. Why do the good ones always leave too soon?
Too good for this world.
David’s comments about the minimization of influence due to technology/technique is very interesting. The study of something can influence the production of said thing enough to where the parameters that created that product are eventually replaced in the name of replication on behalf of efficiency.
i was not ready to see johnathan franzen with that haircut
People dissing Leyner clearly aren't paying attention; the points he makes about the writer in relation to his or her readership are thoughtful and perfectly legitimate. A lot of people seem blinded by their adulation of DFW, who, though (esp in his later work) a writer and observer of the first-rank, was no Lao-Tzu.
They all had really interesting points, but DFW DID seem to lay out the landscape deeper and with more breadth in the time he had to talk than the other two. Not that this is a competition...
Leyner couldn't even answer the question about the literary landscape 10 years earlier vs. then because he self admittedly didn't even read contemporary fiction. He was too busy catching up on classics he should have read in school. Honestly that alone renders all of his points invalid in a discussion about contemporary literature. His only point about the writer in relation to their readership is that he didn't think about it. woo very thoughtful
@@MrRoehre I agree. But Franzen did hold him to account for his contradictions somewhere in the middle of that interview. Leyner did course correct but someone on this thread did mention how Franzen's ego did not get much out of this interview: Poor introduction by Rose and then he had to deal with DFW.
@@MrRoehre He was probably being coy/falsely modest about that, I'd wager he's read more of the classics than both of us combined.
@@MrRoehre oh man, a contemporary novelist responded to a question about the contemporary novel from the perspective of a contemporary novelist. How awful. Maybe you should write to Charlie Rose and complain that you would rather have heard from a market researcher instead.
Funny how he called them “interstitial zones” at 7:11 what is now popularly talked about and refrrred to as liminal spaces.
Man, that must've been hard for Franzen by those days. Listen to Rose introducing DFW saying: "Whose novel Infinte jest has become the season most talked about book" and then simply saying: Jon Franzen, whose latest book is Strong motion. Period.
I mean, I don't think Franzen (at least of the era) held a candle to DFW. Gotta feel for Leyner too, rather out of his league all around
@@yourfriendwill Oh, come on. Franzen is on par with Wallace. In fact, The Corrections is probably my favorite novel by either.
@@paulvoorhies8821 so when I said "(at least of the era)" what did you think that meant? The Corrections wasn't out for another five years after this video. With those reading comprehension skills, tsk tsk
@@yourfriendwill Franzen was a really good friend to Wallace and helped to keep him going. He had an entirely different ethics of fiction writing. This isn't sports, despite what Wallace may have imagined. These three are not direct competitors.
@Mr Heck they were both friends and competitors. They had been corresponding and spending time together for 10 years before this interview happened.
I like the topic of discussion, i guess interviews before were more interesting than now.
Talk shows were more real. They were real conversations. Now they are scripted and cheap entertainment.
That's why podcasts are beautiful
Thank you, metoo...
Public broadcasting. It was epiphanic for me when I lost all media a few years ago except basic cable. I would leave it on PBS and was suprised to see that it gave a remarkably complete educational experience. Rose was on there.
David Foster Wallace and Don Delillo, Thomas Pynchon. The Big Three.
The great American writers of their time.
Such a weird coincidence they’re all white men 🤷🏻♂️
@@dannyvanzandtmusicjust shut up
@@dannyvanzandtmusicRight? Toni Morrison easily compares to them, James Baldwin and DuBois are both nationally recognized American authors.
@@dannyvanzandtmusic for you. I like white peoples. Too bad bb.
Grow up. Not everything's about race.
If anyone was looking for the opposite to a game show intro, this is surely it.
The irony here is DFW is trying to sound like Mr. Everyman but it’s Franzen and Leyner who come across as normal guys while Wallace always sounds professorial with that private liberal arts college lilt to his voice. I saw this interview before I ever read Infinite Jest and I couldn’t get that voice out of my head!
There was clearly something off with DFW as a person, besides the depression. Always seems to be performing in some way, in video footage. Too much like the characters he wrote about.
@@jonobrow Oh, definetely. Read "Good old neon" by him.
In 2012, Leyner published his first novel in fourteen years, The Sugar Frosted Nutsack.
Franzen and DFW: more challenging interviewers than Rose ever was.
As you can see, most writers' are not used to any type of confrontation, they usually live inside their own heads. Although, not a fan of Wallace, he does shake things up, even if it is in a sort-of nerdy-bully way.
I do appreciate the sprinkled mentions of philosophy. All three men had a good grasp of the history of writing and who came before them. I wonder if contemporary writers could do the same.
They should've done a follow-up in 2006. It would've been interesting to see how they looked back on the interview.
Why do you assert that most writers' are not used to any type of confrontation?
I had to rewind and listen to DFWs first response 4 times to understand.
So guess about me. I'm italian.
Guy was literally too smart for his own good
@@camaples With my limited intelligence, I sometimes get impatience with some people aren't that bright. He must have been constantly trying not to talk down to people. Also, with that intelligence, comes great frustration and anxiety, I imagine. When you think so complexly, no answer or action is ever good enough.
@@GodsNode I think you have summed it up perfectly, my friend.
How many times do you have to re-read him before you understand? :P
Fuck I miss Wallace. His essays were the best. I still don't fully understand Infinite Jest but one day I hope to.
Evan Fields there is something extremely enjoyable about the experience reading IJ that I can’t even articulate how or why it has that effect it’s straight up brilliant
I'd give you props just for finishing it
Evan. What did it mean to you?
Infinite Jest seems to be a vehicle for DFW's stream of consciousness. It's probably much more than that as well, but that's how I read it.
Read the first chapter again
DFW was really impressive and had a clearer insight on tech than most "gurus" in 2023.
4:23 "have you ever had a dream..."
lol
Bro just gave up on that sentence 😅
2:00 if they only knew that we are now, in 2020, reaching the point of having saturated human attention capacity. There are no where left for capitalism to expand.
People spend more time on youtube and netflix than time thinking.
@@TheTheode ironic, isn't it.
@@herpderpitypurple73 I guess it's easier to absorb someone else's ideas through tv after a drudging day at work than parse through your own. It's probably extremely rare to find someone these days that thinks about a single idea for even half an hour.
Kant wrote an essay called "what is enlightenment" and it essentially made the claim that a person who only adopts ideas from exterior sources; whether it's tv, books, religion, political ideologues, is in a state of nonage and a dishonor to humanity. And believe me, I appreciate the irony of referencing someone else to make that point.
tldr: npc meme
@@herpderpitypurple73 tbh I assumed you just didn't understand what irony was, we are on yt after all.
I'd agree with you, I think the mysterious hands of various algorithms, recommended advertising and memetics have created bubble communities with vastly different views on fundamental ideals. Then you try and cram these fractured people into democratic systems that are supposed to speak for the majority and it all gets bungled. It's like a digital tower of babel mortared largely by corporate interest and foreign governments undermining each other. I think DFW said in an interview once that we've set ourselves up for fascism as we'll eventually get frustrated and long for someone to tell us what to do/think.
We're the postmodern generation and confusion is our plight. It almost makes me want to become christian, or a spiritualist. At least there's more aesthetic beauty in those beliefs than as a materialists.
They saturated our minds and now that there is no more room to expand in our heads they are sapping our hearts and souls nowm
I had no idea Paul Reubens and Rick Springfield were writers too!
Looked like Charlie heard the music at the end
Can you imagine there reaction, if we were to tell them how big the entertainment industry has become.
I think they would not be surprised, just disappointed and/or sad.
Wallace definitely knew what was coming, not in exact detail but he saw how bad things would continue to get. No different than aldous Huxley Bertrand Russell nikola tesla even Sagan knew.
That was great. Thanks for posting. This in 1996: Jonathan Franzen before he took on his one-word-titling.
Does anybody know what model of glasses David is wearing ?
“Pretentious 90’s bookish person” glasses
@@dm6801 nothing pretentious about his glasses at all 🙄
John Lennon '68.
Omg that paper shuffling was so distracting, to the point where I could tell it was tripping up whoever was speaking when Rose started shuffling.
he comes across much more vibrant and fluent here than all his interviews from roughly 1998 till near his death. he became very dour and self-effacing, even sometimes incoherent. he also has more inflection in his voice. hmm.
I'm wondering how much time Don Gately would give these guys?
I'm always under the assumption that most people that read literary fiction are writers themselves. Your typical reader that reads for entertainment usually leans toward genre and mainstream type of work. Obviously, that's not always going to be the case, but it's probably closer to the truth than not.
You just know everytime they say the years most talked about book, DFW is thinking "and less read"
What's the word David used @ 15:24? "Halatiously"? Please help.
"Hellaciously"
You can turn subtitles on, I'm not English and I didn't understand that word
en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/hellacious
i.e. incredibly, extremely, hellishly... it's kind of a slang word that's of relatively recent origin - last 30 years, I would guess.
_hellacious_ was coined a lot longer ago than 30 years, but it's still arguably a neologism; it's a 1930's college slang word. it's derived from the word _hell_ and was possibly coined with the word _salacious_ in mind-at least, that's my best guess. a lot of sources conjecture that it may have been the word _bodacious_ that inspired the use of the _-acious_ suffix, but i think that's doubtful; _bodacious_ was coined around a century before _hellacious_ was, but it only became part of common parlance when it was popularized by a movie in the early 1980's: long after _hellacious_ was coined. in fact, in the 1930's, when _hellacious_ was coined, the word _salacious_ was well over 150 times more popular than the word _bodacious._ i think the only obvious link between the words _bodacious_ and _hellacious_ besides their shared suffix is that they are both slang words. _salacious,_ however, sounds identical to _hellacious_ except for their initial consonant sounds-which, to me, along with its much more widespread usage, makes it the more likely canditate of the two words to have inspired the coinage of _hellacious._ by the way, _hellacious_ has two modern definitions: _very good_ and _very bad._ david was using it in its pejorative sense
pausebeforeviewtube exactly
DFW would later say that doing this interview was a mistake. I can't seem to figure out why
What I would give to see this very trio update their notions on the last refuge of literature being in "waiting for things" in the age of 5G…
It's interesting that out of the three of them Leyner's the one who experimented the most and pushed the boundaries of the novel.
i don’t really agree with this
He also seem semi literate. Less readers?
_this_is_bait_
@@JR-kn6rs Shit, man. Nobody took it.
Fewer. There, I took it! Long live king Stannis! @@JR-kn6rs
brain hurts yet is very stimulated listening to this this lol
And its only gotten worse. We are surrounded by media almost everywhere we go now. I have to force myself to read a book, then again I am not always reading "page turners," mostly hard fiction. I think it's an important ability to be able to sit down with a book and imagine. Sadly that's being lost, the ability to imagine another world.
Thanks for your sacrifice!
its insane how dfw just literally blows up the entire interview right at the end and showing it to be the wrong question entirely
Love Mark Leyner.
sure miss this quality of television
Did I just hear a writer say the words "less" readers?
DFW for the win
not sport
Not high school debating
Hahahaha I saw this back in the day, Jonathan Franzen's hair is a masterpiece
For the love of God Charlie Rose, let the man speak.
I swear Charlie Rose's whole spiel is just repeating everything that's said back but dumber
James Elias It’s so the less intelligent people watching can understand what’s being said.
His genius was asking incredibly broad, simple questions which allowed the guests to talk pretty openly and easily about whatever they personally were interested in. It's why he actually does tend to get pretty good answers out of people, even if his vibe comes off as a little dumb or blunt.
hes drunk the whole time. but i agree with patrick
very interesting observati0ns
All three of them look like they've seen the darkest places when they're introduced. Probably what it took to have them write the kind of fiction they did.
"I think you got the wrong man" Bob Dylan.
god that first :30 second line up camera angle on their credentials was painful to watch
franzen looks practically suicidal
@@andyz9793 made me jej
It’s like watching a tennis match between a pro and two infants.
not it's not, you silly fanboi.
@@alcoholya I agree
The Corrections is better than Jest
it's not fair to compare these other authors to dfw orbit, they are also brilliant and quite developed and almost vulnerable and we wonder and witness to the awe of it all. great men
Interesting.
However, there seems to be a lot of over complication and unnecessary meandering from the point.
anybody know outro music?
1996. "People have no down time from electronic media" oh my my was he right but that was nothing compared to now
Wallace is the only one who's thoughts all seem unified and interconnected on different levels. It seems the other two try but in the end they're just pretending to be insightful.
To me, DFW personified the word grace. Not a wrong word came out of his seemingly ego-less mouth (If that makes any sense.). He was the platonic ideal of the Freudian term "id." (If that makes any sense) Pure genius is what I guess I'm trying to say. He is sorely missed.
@@mggailitis7231 That was a gaseous way of saying he isn't very egotistic.
@@jaredm1755 Sure! Economy of language and all
So what are the thpughts on the current exam of DFW. I.e. abusive, egotistic, MAN.
@@karlhungus5436 those were merely symptoms of his problem, mental illness and the drugs doctors were feeding him
doesn’t make it ok, but was sick in his head for decades
You guys think TV is bad? Wait till you see what happens to humans with smartphones, internet, social media.
Please god strike me dead the minute I call a police station a "precinct house."
Buddy! I just laughed at that too.
What year was this filmed? Franzen looks very young, must be around 1996?
EDIT- Franzen states it's 1996. 😎
it's literally in the title
oh I don't know, it could be 1996, the title says 1996, but you never know, media is tricky now, almost has its own brain of course, and will to power. So, it could be, but who knows. I'd still say 1996 though.
No body talks to each other anymore, it would be nice to sit across from a stranger and talk about a book or something, and really engage. I blame the gays, or the pope or video games or something.
Blame Canada!
Gold
I had a feeling there was gonna be a lot of intelligent comments on this video lol.
franzen is me if i ever were in a room with dfw
I don't get it. Why?
@Manoelzinho Araújo Franzen is very intimidated by DFW and comes off as a fan lol
@@SethMacLeod95 they were actually really good friends apparently, I heard DFW say he sent Franzen a fan letter and that’s how they met. I think. I hope I’m not wrong.
@@proskater141 They were friends. At the time, DFW was certainly seeing more success than Franzen with Infinite Jest so that may have contributed to any intimidation. Jonathan has written about him in a few different essays if you're interested.
@@cyds.726 cool cool thank you
It's a shame Foster Wallace didn't stick around. Sure he'd have been a great guest on something like Joe Rogan's podcast. Hours to develop his trains of thought, instead of minutes.
I can only imagine DFW's response to Joe Rogan asking him if he thinks a gorilla or a bear would win in a fight.
Wallace would hate every second with Joe Rogan.
Jake Niedzwiecki would he hate that more than people assuming what he hated? Just saying 😂
omar velasco santiago yep
I'm peeing thats so hilarios haha. @@jacksonshaw2981
0:24 cheer up man
Franzen and Wallace kinda look alike
What if I told you they're both characters played by the same actor?
@@enkiea8322 yeah right, next you're going to tell me that Donald Glover is the same person as Childish Gambino just because they look alike.
@@UntitledNotes Nope, I wasn't. Whatever helps you sleep though.
@@enkiea8322 it's a common joke ahahah.
@@enkiea8322 I wasn't being sarcastic is what I was trying to say
Mark Leyner actually does a decent honest job here
I agree
He is trying but also struggling, puts in more effort than Franzen though.
Didn’t really understand whatever they were talking about (books?) but was still entertained. Reminds me of modern intellectuals such as joe rogan and their podcasts. Peace ✌️
bro, please tell me your being ironic/sarcastic saying Joe Rogan is a modern intellectual. please. PLEASE!!!
@@jacobbrewer6402 let us hope so.
still waiting for confirmation this was ironic
Lol
or
The world HAS gone to hell in a handbasket.
Joe Rogan is basically a caveman lol
I swear to God, Charlie Rose is high the entire time.
The real question is, was Charlie wearing pants during this interview?
I really wish that David foster Wallace was still alive, so I could kick his ass.
🤣🤣🤣 genius!
4000 books in a lifetime the average reader can get through. And it's easier today to get a book self printed....too much crap books going around today.
Does anyone think that the show "Joe Pera Talks with You" have some weird aliment with David Foster Wallaces's overall ethos? .. Before I went to bed last night the two mashed in my head and now it's all I can think about.. Nobody I know is aware of both enough to form any formal opinion about it, *HELP* !
I absolutely agree. Great comparison.
Does Charlie not know what a corndog is?
seriously!! wtf? a corndog compared to a hotdog on a stick
First response:
“Uhm; I don’t know.”
Not a crime
Why ignore the rest of his response, which was much more interesting?
@@aussiekevin I agree. I just found it very funny.
First question if the interview, Mark: “I don’t know…” - good start haha
if we dont recapture what is 'angard' we will soon fall back into our very own collective dystopian nightmare
5:46 LOL .
DFW. damnit i came late to the party, but now that im here... wheres the keg?