Outside of his IJ interview with Michael Silverblatt this is my favourite interview, he’s just so comfortable, the audience get the tone and the humour, the interviewer is so cordial and knows how to progress the dialogue with ease. Having DFW be not only the writer he was but also the orator he was is such an immense gift to us.
I actually listened to DFW before I read him and his writing voice to me is 100% his "real" voice in my head, and I love it. His writing tone is so consistent that it's really easy to do that. I can't think of any other author I can really "hear" in their work like that.
So true.. I would say who comes to immediate mind is -Bukowski. Theres a thread of honesty and caution (with delivery) that is with the words spoken by masters of SELF .. critical personal opinion... an embrace of relative experience which is exudes with ease by thought, and is delivered through a variably thin barrier caution... some are more, or less careful about how they are perceived aren't they? At least they have a point of view that is. How treasurable for the work to translate 1 to 1 by way of vocal delivery and written word
@@rivv4902 wow, I was just going to comment about Alan Watts. The first time I read him it was a Norwegian translation of The Way of Zen (just because that was what the book store had) and while I got through it, it was strange to read a translation, knowing his voice and cadence so well.
right? when DFW does that whole "i dunno, how would you answer that question?" gag, dude immediately fires back a good answer to his own question. Really amusing to listen to
Wonderful! This was so incredible... truly remarkable interview. DFW is so comfortable, and forthcoming and unguarded here... it was a true window into his mind. Thank you so much for posting this. xo
@@majestycrush I just looked it up. Ouch. He was a very disturbed and very disturbing individual, it seems. Not somebody one wants to associate with under any circumstance. There was, obviously, no genius there, only madness.
@@schmetterling4477 Genius too. I won't defend the wife-beating, the stalking, or the predatory nature of some of his alleged relationships; those are all dreadful things. I do believe he was an incredibly gifted writer though, and I still like listening to his interviews and reading his works.
I find him to be inarticulate. I think he feels that way about himself too --- all the time he reveals that he's making stuff up in response to questions.
Too brilliant for this screwed up world. I heard an interview with his sister Amy not long after his death and I was moved to tears when she spoke of how brave he was facing his depression. Rest in everlasting peace, David.
@@SuperGuanine You can do your own internet search, can't you? It's up to you to glorify the man after you learn the truth about him, of course. Nobody can stop you from such religious practices.
It's been 3 years since I read Infinite Jest and I still think about it every now and then. Most other books I read I forget about 2 weeks later. When I finished IJ my first reaction was anger. I spent more than 2 months reading it everyday and the ending was like a punch to the face. But then I reflected, and continued to reflect, and it's probably one of the best books I'll ever read. RIP.
Good observation. He middles everything. He's articulate and smart, but the closest he comes to offering a take is to state one and then contradict it with "it's weird .." This kind of uncertainty is a more accurate way of viewing the world but it also paves the way to depression and perceived pointlessness.
@@ocan1033 i know some of the context, and didn't want to ridicule it. a wink was rather for this youtubey "smooth conversation with a one-year break in the middle" motive. in the meantime... my concern diminished...
odolany Thank you, then. Stuck in the middle with RUclips, as Bob opined. It’s all a simulation anyway. Had to give it another year to confirm that one.
I tried IJ three or four times, got up to about page 200. Then I read his nonfiction for a couple of years and returned to Infinite Jest. To date I’ve read it four times and am sure I’ll read it a few more times. I’ve read pretty much all of his work now, except for the literary criticism and mathematical stuff, which I can’t understand.
I just finished "Consider the Lobster", it was the first book of his that I have read and I was overwhelmed by the guy. Next, I'll read "In Infinite Jest" and I mourn his passing.
Infinite Jest is pretty depressing but ultimately super complex, in order ro understand it you should probably read Aaron Schwartzes explanation after finishing it.
Def his lobster is wayyyy more interesting and fulfilling that Jordan Peterson's. I own IJ and read its first 200 pages. So? Did you? Did you read it? All of it? Got a review?
I am guessing what people appreciated about him was that he was this smart guy with a child like fresh view of things, that he hadn't lost that core unlike many of us.
I always laughed with him regarding the sentence length and had nothing but envy of him for being able to be the intellect the hat pulled off what I/some of us always wanted to do but couldn't.
Thank you for the upload... "I don't know that there is anything wrong with self-consciousness, the trick with students is to make them realize that the consciousness they are conscious of is simultaneously less and more interesting than they think it is"
the breathless run on(with grammar) is employed experimentally throughout the entirety of Baron Wenckheims Homecoming, and I enjoyed every last letter of the novel. Take a peek for yourself sometime, you might just enjoy it.
Thanks for uploading. Haven't heard this talk before, either. There's something reminiscent of David Foster Wallace's writing about hearing new words from him years after his death.
Though just as easily and justifiably valid to Not say this: that the loss of David Foster Wallace, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Anthony Bourdain, Robin Williams in such a terribly short time ... has me feeling that a species of sensitive person who "sang the body electric", of late; wherein our toxic, louder world drowns the poet and the song. ... To struggle, to go on with an irremediable, dolorous solitude crowding one's heart from the fight. How to keep the shades in check? How to accept the giant good that has occurred in spite of the lurking void? What tool or trick in the mind would have one break the glass, extract the ax, and break out of the burning house? What miscommunication with the poet have we failed to express? Perhaps this chosen exit is the brief, utterly final balancing weight against the bright, burning light of engagement and forceful embrace of some of the gifted ones.
I've recently become a fan of D.F.W. by way of comparison in how I enjoy writing. A friend of mine that is into advant-guard artistic expression commented "you should read D.F.W.". I will never view writing through the same lens again!
I've recently been introduced to him through a comment made by Justin Roiland. I've been very inspired and I just ordered "infinite jest"; I can't wait to read it.
38:04 is poignant and relatable,. The convo preceding it is interesting for the discussion of style in films or writing and whether it is possible to employ a large amount of it without crowding out the emotional aspects. The interviewer then notes that David seems to focus on the emotional resonance of sadness as opposed to the other emotions and presses him for some insight, to which David acknowledges his outlook might be a bit distorted. Poor soul, he'll be missed.
@@chesscomposer_ I read the first three lines of Infinity Jest, or so, then I threw up and that was pretty much the entirety of my infatuation with David Foster Wallace. Listening to his interviews made it only worse.
Excellent discussion here; Wallace's self-deprecating demeanor and sense of humor is very endearing. The audio track comes across as slightly accelerated, giving his and the interviewer's voices a somewhat not normal higher pitch.
I listened to an interview @ ruclips.net/video/qm_u3YoL8s8/видео.html, and I thought I caught a vocal glitch, stutter, or something when DFW was speaking. Interesting. Thanks for sharing?
The end bit where he mentioned that there was no men of stature comparable to Joyce or Kafka in our time was heartbreaking. He was heading to being that man, and he would still be him today.
But he's Right on!(Quentin Tarantino '-"Theres Nobody walking around Like Actors..Re;Lee Marvin.. Charles Bronson.'Now'!&He Adds That Charlise Theron'_"Would Be As Close to that.")&I get it its just a fact.(Evolution '!?)😅😊
The most profound writer and speaker I have come across in my 50+ years. His pain is so obvious to us all now. Very sad but that sadness needed to happen for us all for some reason I guess.
Sadness is a response to an external event. He isn't sad. He is depressed. Depression is an internal state that is almost entirely independent of external influences. Not sure why you think that he is a profound writer, either. His English prose is that of a hack. There is no beauty in it, he merely tries his hardest to avoid all the sentences that others have written before him. Not sure why he had to rip off a Monte Python sketch, though. Now that is just sad.
@@Bilbus7 It got your mind going, even though it only moved a tenth of an inch. It was totally worth it. With a few more posts and plenty of WD-40, even your mind will, one day, be flexible. :-)
Oh God that part at the end about vicious political journalism. The more and more I learn about Wallace the more I realize that he would have been living in an absolute nightmare were he still alive. Everything he worried about JUST GOT WORSE.
What got worse? Political journalism? There is almost no political journalism in the US. There is only infotainment and that hasn't changed in decades.
@@cinci-rp7bw the guy was clinically depressed and went off his meds. Don't go claiming he was just some self obsessed egomaniac who loved and hated himself so much he ended himself.
The part about sitting in a quiet room and concentrating on something for a long time made me think of myself reading IJ, which is ironic because IJ is about entertainment and addiction to such, and commenting on media-saturation and distraction.
Another thing: the very fact that a book about entertainment requires such a long attention span to read and process is clever, and I hope intentional.
I am by no means a genius or an intellectual like DFW but I totally get him, or maybe he gets me! I would love to have been friends with him and been able to just hang out on the porch late at night talking about cool and deep stuff.
@@breh9243 I read enough to know that it's some of the worst English prose ever written. You will excuse that I don't waste my time on a depressed person's version of "It was a dark and stormy night...".
One thing for sure, although he left us earlier than would seem appropriate, by no means did he not leave us without sufficient mental chewing gum to ponder and consider. As painfully and comically self-aware as DFW was, his burden of high intelligence and alienation meant the escape of literature he relished and offered as a writer only was in the final sense, one more task that must have exhausted his spirit. Thinking about one’s own thinking finally can lead us into a dervish dance first of fascination and finally, world weariness. We all perhaps find ourselves immersed in music, literature, and different forms of media perhaps as an antidote to boredom or loneliness, but ultimately we still have reading about love as a consolation for a lack of it in our lives. We finally must feel the magic only works when we don’t understand how the illusion is accomplished. His brilliance was he could step back and see his place in the world of distractions, was a rare thing, but ultimately it must be still lonely at the top of any mountain. He was seen and known perhaps, but still removed from the joy of the achievement or successes.
@@schmetterling4477 - Thanks for your feedback. Let me know where I can read your prose so you can show how true writing is done. Otherwise, your feedback is just as worthless as my attempt.
@@owenwilberforce6138 I only like to do things that I do well. Why drown the world in the regurgitated swill of yet another amateur? If you are not gifted at writing, don't write. There are so many other worthwhile things to do.
@@schmetterling4477 - That’s cool. I just feel like shitting on others sometimes just means you’re full of it. No offense but why tear things down just to seem like you are sitting on a throne of judgment? If you have anything to say, say it. Anyone can be a critic, few venture to put things out because of the critics who lie in wait. But tearing other people down doesn’t prove anything.
@@owenwilberforce6138 Don't produce garbage and I won't tell you that you are producing garbage. Fair? Did you read David Foster Wallace, by any chance? It's a swill of teenage depression packaged into a hack of English. Does teenage depression appeal to people who never grew up? Of course it does. That's why he is popular. Does popularity make him a great writer? No. Am I allowed to say that? Yes. You are free to explain to all of us why I am wrong. Good luck with that.
jeez this was kind of surreal, i was that lonely kid dfw. I first read IJ when i was 16 and it resonated with me unlike anything else i've ever experienced
what joke does DFW make at the 38:53 count? mr. kipen says "i could certainly talk to you all day, but i bet there's other people who are, are…" english is not my first language :D
Around 11:00 the interview mentions his short story "Good Old Neon" and asks where readers should start to get "the hang" of him. I got chills. I got chills so bad because that story is entirely about suicide. It almost seemed like NLP to some extent. Oh my god.
"Full Body Wince".. it speaks to you. We all know the brief, almost nqrcisdiistic self consciousness from looking at ones self in the mirror they were bit wholly anticipating.
Yeah the whole tortured artist thing bit of a cliche and explored in shows like House or orther ones or stories like that, often there is a situation where the genius has to give up drugs or go to therapy and doesn't want to do it because he'll lose his talent or his edge of course in that case it's probably just them trying to avoid doing the work. Anyway it could definetly be argued that depression fuels very deep thougt, or that in order to even achieve what DFW did you have to be kind of traumatized. Ultimately I would probably say depression isn't necesseraly required for great art but it can definetly inspire it.
IMO it’s not the depression itself but the isolation that depression is often paired with that allows the mind to have space to wander in places too offensive or uncommon than it would go normally.
I think many people with depression, myself included, have trouble with ruminating too much. He probably was cought between ruminating in a negative sense while also gaining great insight through the same thought-doors and pathways that depression gives you. A heightened sensitivity to a world around him that had a productive/destructive duality to it. I am making way too many assumtions and I'm probably wrong about most of what I said. However, I do think that great insight and inward spiraling thinking, which often leads to psychological unraveling, can often be very close to one another for many people.
@@fifaworld2 It may just be the recording sped up a slight bit and nothing romantic like mania or whatever (even though the latter would be more interesting, but not necessarily true).
yes glad u said that.. it seems so different from other interviews i’ve heard. His speech is faster, his thoughts aren’t as fluid and connected.. also laughing fans kind of always freak me out lol bc they just adore him so much everything is amusing to them.. anyway, not a definitive way to diagnose anything but there is a stark difference in the way he’s communicating.
Outside of his IJ interview with Michael Silverblatt this is my favourite interview, he’s just so comfortable, the audience get the tone and the humour, the interviewer is so cordial and knows how to progress the dialogue with ease. Having DFW be not only the writer he was but also the orator he was is such an immense gift to us.
I actually listened to DFW before I read him and his writing voice to me is 100% his "real" voice in my head, and I love it. His writing tone is so consistent that it's really easy to do that. I can't think of any other author I can really "hear" in their work like that.
Try Charles Bukowski
So true.. I would say who comes to immediate mind is -Bukowski. Theres a thread of honesty and caution (with delivery) that is with the words spoken by masters of SELF .. critical personal opinion... an embrace of relative experience which is exudes with ease by thought, and is delivered through a variably thin barrier caution... some are more, or less careful about how they are perceived aren't they? At least they have a point of view that is. How treasurable for the work to translate 1 to 1 by way of vocal delivery and written word
Alan Watts' voice always protrubes the page when I read him. Though his writings that I've read are mostly based on his talks.
@@rivv4902 wow, I was just going to comment about Alan Watts. The first time I read him it was a Norwegian translation of The Way of Zen (just because that was what the book store had) and while I got through it, it was strange to read a translation, knowing his voice and cadence so well.
I agree!
fantastic interviewer, jesus
right? when DFW does that whole "i dunno, how would you answer that question?" gag, dude immediately fires back a good answer to his own question. Really amusing to listen to
yeah, he was great, especially compared to the other interviewers.
Took the words right out of my mouth. Best I've ever heard, other than the immortal Silverblatt, of course.
Chris lydon was good once he got passed the whole "why was the book so long?"
TRIBAL BY NATURE , his parents were atheists. He was not raised in any religious faith group.
Wonderful! This was so incredible... truly remarkable interview. DFW is so comfortable, and forthcoming and unguarded here... it was a true window into his mind. Thank you so much for posting this. xo
In all these interviews, he cones across as the nicest, most genuine person.
Turning off after the first three questions are just awful. Such a waste of one's time with genius.
Which is sad considering that he ended up being an emotionally abusive wife beater too.
@@majestycrush I just looked it up. Ouch. He was a very disturbed and very disturbing individual, it seems. Not somebody one wants to associate with under any circumstance. There was, obviously, no genius there, only madness.
@@majestycrush ???? what is the evidence for your view of DFW.
@@schmetterling4477 Genius too. I won't defend the wife-beating, the stalking, or the predatory nature of some of his alleged relationships; those are all dreadful things. I do believe he was an incredibly gifted writer though, and I still like listening to his interviews and reading his works.
That is the best interviewer I have ever heard, and I listen to interviews all day.
care to share any other great interviews?
@@tableo.plenty7317 ruclips.net/video/6Tm4uFLF9eI/видео.html
Some of the worst interviewers i've heard. still a great interview
Love how articulate he is. While he meanders quite a bit, he always has just the right word for what he's trying to express. RIP. :(
Guy like this shoulda been a writer.
I find him to be inarticulate. I think he feels that way about himself too --- all the time he reveals that he's making stuff up in response to questions.
This is definitely the best interviewer I’ve heard talk to this guy
Too brilliant for this screwed up world. I heard an interview with his sister Amy not long after his death and I was moved to tears when she spoke of how brave he was facing his depression. Rest in everlasting peace, David.
I hope you also looked at his stalking and domestic abuse record. He was clearly out of control.
@@schmetterling4477 I'm sorry to learn about this. I only know him from his "good side" (which was one of despair)
@@schmetterling4477 please let me know about this alleged side of DFW.
@@SuperGuanine You can do your own internet search, can't you? It's up to you to glorify the man after you learn the truth about him, of course. Nobody can stop you from such religious practices.
@@schmetterling4477 he wasn’t perfect like you
It's been 3 years since I read Infinite Jest and I still think about it every now and then. Most other books I read I forget about 2 weeks later. When I finished IJ my first reaction was anger. I spent more than 2 months reading it everyday and the ending was like a punch to the face. But then I reflected, and continued to reflect, and it's probably one of the best books I'll ever read. RIP.
Thanks for the upload! I've never heard this one before. Never tire of listening to him.
What a wonderful agile mind and adorable sense of humor. I wish I had gotten a chance to meet him
Sometimes it's really sad to meet or know people who die early and wonder if you could have helped them more in some way.
Thank you for uploading this - by far my favorite author, and always appreciate getting to hear more of his thoughts and perspective.
Every question is posed to him as "this" or "that," and he always replies in the center.
Good observation. He middles everything. He's articulate and smart, but the closest he comes to offering a take is to state one and then contradict it with "it's weird .." This kind of uncertainty is a more accurate way of viewing the world but it also paves the way to depression and perceived pointlessness.
@@ocan1033 I'm quite concerned by the contents of this comment, the depression part - do you still remember what you meant? ;)
@@odolany Yeah I do, but your wink-emoji at the end makes me think you understood the context too.
@@ocan1033 i know some of the context, and didn't want to ridicule it.
a wink was rather for this youtubey "smooth conversation with a one-year break in the middle" motive.
in the meantime... my concern diminished...
odolany Thank you, then. Stuck in the middle with RUclips, as Bob opined. It’s all a simulation anyway. Had to give it another year to confirm that one.
Always amazed at DFW's ability to give fascinating answers to uninteresting questions
I tried IJ three or four times, got up to about page 200. Then I read his nonfiction for a couple of years and returned to Infinite Jest. To date I’ve read it four times and am sure I’ll read it a few more times. I’ve read pretty much all of his work now, except for the literary criticism and mathematical stuff, which I can’t understand.
Why are you telling us that you are a masochist? :-)
I’ve tried it twice and currently on my third. I have to finish it this time. I love his nonfiction and his interviews.
I just finished "Consider the Lobster", it was the first book of his that I have read and I was overwhelmed by the guy. Next, I'll read "In Infinite Jest" and I mourn his passing.
Infinite Jest is pretty depressing but ultimately super complex, in order ro understand it you should probably read Aaron Schwartzes explanation after finishing it.
Def his lobster is wayyyy more interesting and fulfilling that Jordan Peterson's. I own IJ and read its first 200 pages. So? Did you? Did you read it? All of it? Got a review?
@@tarico4436 are you seriously trying to compare DFW to Jordan Peterson? You’re a walking stereotype
No joke. I've read IJ 13 times. After the first go I reread it twice in a row. then once a year for a decade or so. It somehow gets better and better!
@@akeithing1841oh whoa that nuts! (impressive) one day i hope to read it once but i’m terrible at reading and finishing things
Hands down my favorite author. Gone too soon
great interviewer
I am guessing what people appreciated about him was that he was this smart guy with a child like fresh view of things, that he hadn't lost that core unlike many of us.
I wish he was still alive and writing
Same here.
N0ne 0f us Iives f0rever!
He was a great writer but his actions were very immoral. It's the same thing as Roman Polanski great director but a despicable human.
@@Throbbicus69 what did he do that was so bad that you would compare him to a pedophile?
I always laughed with him regarding the sentence length and had nothing but envy of him for being able to be the intellect the hat pulled off what I/some of us always wanted to do but couldn't.
DFW in the thumbnail looks like he's about to spit out Illmatic
He looks like a tool.
this is an underrated comment lol
@@4thgradedropout980 nah.
writers i monkey flip em
Thank you for the upload...
"I don't know that there is anything wrong with self-consciousness, the trick with students is to make them realize that the consciousness they are conscious of is simultaneously less and more interesting than they think it is"
That is really a lovely thought.
the breathless run on(with grammar) is employed experimentally throughout the entirety of Baron Wenckheims Homecoming, and I enjoyed every last letter of the novel. Take a peek for yourself sometime, you might just enjoy it.
😂
Thanks for uploading. Haven't heard this talk before, either. There's something reminiscent of David Foster Wallace's writing about hearing new words from him years after his death.
new to me, that is
Tamales with corn
Though just as easily and justifiably valid to Not say this: that the loss of David Foster Wallace, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Anthony Bourdain, Robin Williams in such a terribly short time ... has me feeling that a species of sensitive person who "sang the body electric", of late; wherein our toxic, louder world drowns the poet and the song.
... To struggle, to go on with an irremediable, dolorous solitude crowding one's heart from the fight. How to keep the shades in check? How to accept the giant good that has occurred in spite of the lurking void? What tool or trick in the mind would have one break the glass, extract the ax, and break out of the burning house? What miscommunication with the poet have we failed to express? Perhaps this chosen exit is the brief, utterly final balancing weight against the bright, burning light of engagement and forceful embrace of some of the gifted ones.
As a writer I have to say...that last sentence was maybe the most eloquent explanation of suicide I've heard.
@@atwilliams8 thank you.
Peter, wow. Beautiful. Devastating.
Walter Whitman?
@@tahsina.c Yes! . I tip my hat to the sage innovator.
Thanks very much for this upload!
Almost 20 years ago. Time, the revelator.
Thank you for sharing this!
I've recently become a fan of D.F.W. by way of comparison in how I enjoy writing. A friend of mine that is into advant-guard artistic expression commented "you should read D.F.W.". I will never view writing through the same lens again!
I've recently been introduced to him through a comment made by Justin Roiland. I've been very inspired and I just ordered "infinite jest"; I can't wait to read it.
Dirk Plankchest C
Thanks a lot for uploading this!
“Some kind of not-as-good Joycian tumble”
Thanks for uploading! Very enjoyable.
Thanks for sharing.
I am so glad I was forced to use a typewriter early in life. I really enjoy using it.
These are the best questions ive ever heard an author asked.
38:04 is poignant and relatable,. The convo preceding it is interesting for the discussion of style in films or writing and whether it is possible to employ a large amount of it without crowding out the emotional aspects. The interviewer then notes that David seems to focus on the emotional resonance of sadness as opposed to the other emotions and presses him for some insight, to which David acknowledges his outlook might be a bit distorted.
Poor soul, he'll be missed.
my god, DFW is a genius, no doubt. 4 minutes in and i'm floored. I have a dissertation prospectus to be writing but this is just sucking me in.
Why do you want to spend your time on a depressed, over-aged teenage nerd, though? Why not read some authors with actual humanity?
@@schmetterling4477 wow. nice adjectival phrasing. I'm interested in how you came to these conclusions about DFW. Care to share?
@@chesscomposer_ I read the first three lines of Infinity Jest, or so, then I threw up and that was pretty much the entirety of my infatuation with David Foster Wallace. Listening to his interviews made it only worse.
@@schmetterling4477 you didn't really say anything substantive. but i guess sometimes we just don't like stuff. what authors do you like?
@@chesscomposer_ Vomiting after reading is quite substantive in my books. It doesn't happen all that often.
we love you David!
Such a brilliant bloke.
He died eight years ago today. RIP to Mr. Wallace.
jigsaw10181 Memory sticks!
@@danielmancillas5672 And it keep sticking
@@Sinmyfountain like glue
❤
Still missed
Excellent discussion here; Wallace's self-deprecating demeanor and sense of humor is very endearing.
The audio track comes across as slightly accelerated, giving his and the interviewer's voices a somewhat not normal higher pitch.
I listened to an interview @ ruclips.net/video/qm_u3YoL8s8/видео.html, and I thought I caught a vocal glitch, stutter, or something when DFW was speaking. Interesting. Thanks for sharing?
DFW has got a luvly soft voice/accent.
This interview was the reason downloaded an audio speed changer. I can't stand the sped up pace of a man who chose his words so carefully.
There is also a built in speed change option in the settings of youtube videos.
i love this dude
The end bit where he mentioned that there was no men of stature comparable to Joyce or Kafka in our time was heartbreaking. He was heading to being that man, and he would still be him today.
But he's Right on!(Quentin Tarantino '-"Theres Nobody walking around Like Actors..Re;Lee Marvin.. Charles Bronson.'Now'!&He Adds That Charlise Theron'_"Would Be As Close to that.")&I get it its just a fact.(Evolution '!?)😅😊
The guy with the 'big first novel draft' who asks the editing question. I wonder how he got on?
love it!❤️👍🏼
The most profound writer and speaker I have come across in my 50+ years. His pain is so obvious to us all now. Very sad but that sadness needed to happen for us all for some reason I guess.
Sadness is a response to an external event. He isn't sad. He is depressed. Depression is an internal state that is almost entirely independent of external influences. Not sure why you think that he is a profound writer, either. His English prose is that of a hack. There is no beauty in it, he merely tries his hardest to avoid all the sentences that others have written before him. Not sure why he had to rip off a Monte Python sketch, though. Now that is just sad.
@@schmetterling4477 Keep wasting time please.
@@Bilbus7 It got your mind going, even though it only moved a tenth of an inch. It was totally worth it. With a few more posts and plenty of WD-40, even your mind will, one day, be flexible. :-)
@@schmetterling4477 Killer Kommentar! sehr gut!
@@schmetterling4477Are you? Forget it.
25:08 - sounds like a spoiler alert moment.. when can we start listening again?
He graduated #1 in his class at Amherst College as a philosophy major.
There's some very subtle banter going on here. The interviewer and DFW are on the same page.
Thank you so much for posting this :-)
14:06 does it for me. What a pity he didn't live on to help lend clarity these days. Still...
there WILL be a comma in-between two independent clauses
Who is the interviewer? Anyone know? Thank you I want read his work
Oh God that part at the end about vicious political journalism. The more and more I learn about Wallace the more I realize that he would have been living in an absolute nightmare were he still alive. Everything he worried about JUST GOT WORSE.
What got worse? Political journalism? There is almost no political journalism in the US. There is only infotainment and that hasn't changed in decades.
@@cinci-rp7bw the guy was clinically depressed and went off his meds. Don't go claiming he was just some self obsessed egomaniac who loved and hated himself so much he ended himself.
You are missed.
This guy really shouldn't have left...
+Simon Reichel Not according to him. You know?
I have a PhD. I read Infinite Jest and then posted my thoughts.
@@ShanOakley where can I read them?
And now he's one of the immortal writers we celebrate. :'-(
I loved this
He was "probably looking forward to his fifties". Sad to hear now. O heck, he'll age well anyway.
Not to mention the "100th anniversary of YOUR death" part.
The Heaviness The Heaviness
pensando en ti en este dia de los muertos maestro - saludos y qepd
The part about sitting in a quiet room and concentrating on something for a long time made me think of myself reading IJ, which is ironic because IJ is about entertainment and addiction to such, and commenting on media-saturation and distraction.
Another thing: the very fact that a book about entertainment requires such a long attention span to read and process is clever, and I hope intentional.
I am by no means a genius or an intellectual like DFW but I totally get him, or maybe he gets me! I would love to have been friends with him and been able to just hang out on the porch late at night talking about cool and deep stuff.
The Dude didn't get anybody, not even himself. And why do you want to be friends with an abusive person, famous or not?
The "looking forward to my 50's" comment was made in Infinite Jest. Irony... "Does that make any sense?"
Need more resources in india too
reading infinite jest helped me get through one of the worst depressive episodes i've ever had
The book is very comforting for some reason
Bad prose helps against depression. Who knew?
@@schmetterling4477 did you read the book?
@@breh9243 I read enough to know that it's some of the worst English prose ever written. You will excuse that I don't waste my time on a depressed person's version of "It was a dark and stormy night...".
@@schmetterling4477 what titles have you read?
Is there video of this?
I want to know who asked the last three questions. Did they sign up together?
One thing for sure, although he left us earlier than would seem appropriate, by no means did he not leave us without sufficient mental chewing gum to ponder and consider. As painfully and comically self-aware as DFW was, his burden of high intelligence and alienation meant the escape of literature he relished and offered as a writer only was in the final sense, one more task that must have exhausted his spirit. Thinking about one’s own thinking finally can lead us into a dervish dance first of fascination and finally, world weariness. We all perhaps find ourselves immersed in music, literature, and different forms of media perhaps as an antidote to boredom or loneliness, but ultimately we still have reading about love as a consolation for a lack of it in our lives. We finally must feel the magic only works when we don’t understand how the illusion is accomplished. His brilliance was he could step back and see his place in the world of distractions, was a rare thing, but ultimately it must be still lonely at the top of any mountain. He was seen and known perhaps, but still removed from the joy of the achievement or successes.
OMG, your prose is just as bad as his. A wall of verbal diarrhea by mediocre thinkers. Lord have mercy on my brain.
@@schmetterling4477 - Thanks for your feedback. Let me know where I can read your prose so you can show how true writing is done. Otherwise, your feedback is just as worthless as my attempt.
@@owenwilberforce6138 I only like to do things that I do well. Why drown the world in the regurgitated swill of yet another amateur? If you are not gifted at writing, don't write. There are so many other worthwhile things to do.
@@schmetterling4477 - That’s cool. I just feel like shitting on others sometimes just means you’re full of it. No offense but why tear things down just to seem like you are sitting on a throne of judgment? If you have anything to say, say it. Anyone can be a critic, few venture to put things out because of the critics who lie in wait. But tearing other people down doesn’t prove anything.
@@owenwilberforce6138 Don't produce garbage and I won't tell you that you are producing garbage. Fair?
Did you read David Foster Wallace, by any chance? It's a swill of teenage depression packaged into a hack of English. Does teenage depression appeal to people who never grew up? Of course it does. That's why he is popular. Does popularity make him a great writer? No. Am I allowed to say that? Yes. You are free to explain to all of us why I am wrong. Good luck with that.
jeez this was kind of surreal, i was that lonely kid dfw. I first read IJ when i was 16 and it resonated with me unlike anything else i've ever experienced
💙
4:50
FELT
I believe it!
Dfw is everyone's best friend.
what joke does DFW make at the 38:53 count? mr. kipen says "i could certainly talk to you all day, but i bet there's other people who are, are…"
english is not my first language :D
"nice segue"
Around 11:00 the interview mentions his short story "Good Old Neon" and asks where readers should start to get "the hang" of him. I got chills. I got chills so bad because that story is entirely about suicide. It almost seemed like NLP to some extent. Oh my god.
Orin Pemulus i wouldn't say it's entirely about suicide. What's NLP?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming
I would assume there is no video of this?
me too. but it's not anywhere except in our fantasies.
Mi amor
49:50
38:43 Looking forward to his 50s
I just don't think about pasta very much
38:42 😢
"Full Body Wince".. it speaks to you. We all know the brief, almost nqrcisdiistic self consciousness from looking at ones self in the mirror they were bit wholly anticipating.
bruh who is this dondadelo person. ive heard him say his name multiple times and i cant spell it right
don delillo
Donda Lello
Wonder if severe depression opened or stimulated a part of his mind that would not otherwise been accessed?
Yeah the whole tortured artist thing bit of a cliche and explored in shows like House or orther ones or stories like that, often there is a situation where the genius has to give up drugs or go to therapy and doesn't want to do it because he'll lose his talent or his edge of course in that case it's probably just them trying to avoid doing the work. Anyway it could definetly be argued that depression fuels very deep thougt, or that in order to even achieve what DFW did you have to be kind of traumatized. Ultimately I would probably say depression isn't necesseraly required for great art but it can definetly inspire it.
IMO it’s not the depression itself but the isolation that depression is often paired with that allows the mind to have space to wander in places too offensive or uncommon than it would go normally.
@@JonathanPoto interesting thougt Jonathan I will ponder it in isolation.
@Syntax yeah i think without his depression he had been even better... not really into this 'the more i suffer the smarter i get' thing
I think many people with depression, myself included, have trouble with ruminating too much. He probably was cought between ruminating in a negative sense while also gaining great insight through the same thought-doors and pathways that depression gives you. A heightened sensitivity to a world around him that had a productive/destructive duality to it.
I am making way too many assumtions and I'm probably wrong about most of what I said. However, I do think that great insight and inward spiraling thinking, which often leads to psychological unraveling, can often be very close to one another for many people.
"tracking down that kinescope..."
His voice seems sped up.
metabolism
Yea you can hear the manic more in this one.
@@fifaworld2 It may just be the recording sped up a slight bit and nothing romantic like mania or whatever (even though the latter would be more interesting, but not necessarily true).
yes glad u said that.. it seems so different from other interviews i’ve heard. His speech is faster, his thoughts aren’t as fluid and connected.. also laughing fans kind of always freak me out lol bc they just adore him so much everything is amusing to them.. anyway, not a definitive way to diagnose anything but there is a stark difference in the way he’s communicating.
I agree. I kinda think it was recorded at, say 44.1 Hz and then played back at 48 Hz. So this isn't actually his real voice.
Those audience questions, jesus
so le indie rap man is also a literary poser? sweet brah
I don't know, I thought they were pretty interesting answers actually.
Dom! I love your videos and seeing you comment on a David Foster Wallace video makes me an even bigger fan
Lol hey dom
Dom! Love The Future Late Show
1:29 to 1:37
Jesus. Yes.
If he was still alive I think I'd straight up believe in God
I fakking love David Foster Wallace. I almost enjoy the interviews more than his writing.
dfw. a writer's writer. not sure anyone else paid attention to him.
34:27
A machine can master a technique.
I think you have it backwards. Machines can't master techniques - Machines ARE techniques, mastered.
@@jordanm2984 Oh look its Marshal McLuhan!
Genio assoluto 😎
Geniale 😎