🚀 Do you want help finishing Infinite Jest? Or want a complete guide to follow while reading? Join my Infinite Jest Course and Book Club here: writeconscious.substack.com 📚 Explore over 400 of Wallace’s favorite books in my free guide to his favorite books Access here: writeconscious.ck.page/8956ce90fc 📖 Want to WRITE better? Join my free writing school: www.skool.com/writeconscious Insta: instagram.com/writeconscious 📕My Best Books of All-Time List: writeconscious.ck.page/355619345e 🔥Want to READ my wife’s fire poetry? Go here: marigoldeclipse.substack.com 🤔David Foster Wallace’s Favorite Book on Writing amzn.to/4eVmjAI
A James Baldwin Baldwin quote comes to mind that I first heard from Dan Carlin on Hardcore History “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who ever had been alive. Only if we face these open wounds in ourselves can we understand them in other people.” That quote really distills the message almost perfectly. Also your plugs have gotten so much better Ian I’m never ready for them, haha
Im so f-ing tired of reading this exact same comment over and over again...God people, you didnt need better teachers, you need to get books in your hands more often instead of your iphone, then youll make your own good thoughts instead of depending of some random video with the slightest hint of knowledge and common sense...
@@ypaisley and Im attacking the comment, not you, couldnt care less about you personally: I dont even know you...Again: Im tired of reading the exact same comment.
@@Lacostanico I only catch a few comments here and there, so it’s hard to avoid being unoriginal, I guess. I still think he’s a pretty cool guy, and I’ll bet his students agree. :) Peace!
I don't know how old your students are but there's this book: "The Education of Little Tree" which might work perfect for some of your classes. I loved that book. It's a super easy read and good for kids and adults.
I wish my English teachers had the same enthusiasm for literature as you when I was in school lol. We just read boring shit and wrote papers. Barely any class discussion.
1:41 the first thing I thought/hoped after clicking in the video was if Wallace separated mainstream cinema with other kinds of cinema, luckily he does.
took me until I was 17 to really read anything. my mind turned socrates into a sitcom tragedy and Aristotle into a rambling lunatic. fuckin love reading.
teachers should have their class meditate for like 10 minutes in absolute silence. Dr. K really goes in deep about the psychological degeneration of this generation.
@@jordanramsey5763 Yes, especially with the number of children twiddling their thumbs on stupid phones and tablets. Meditation is absolutely necessary. I find that reading gets me into a meditative state.
I've found myself having a hard time reading pure fiction/literature lately. It feels needlessly obfuscated and indirect. Why hide what you want to say behind literary tricks and posturing? The philosohers and poets (maybe a few essayists) have been my thing for the past decade or so and I'm wondering if I will ever get back to enjoying straight up novels or even short stories. I tend to agree with the Bukowski "bim bim bim" school of writing. Anyone else feel that way? Any suggestions for novels that might get me back into the fold?
I agree completely. Fiction is a thin, contrived vision of the human experience and I'd rather use my imagination to deal with greater "worlds" like psychology, philosophy - even biographies contain better material to ponder life. I wish I could enjoy novels again, though...
Same here. Philosophy, history, mythology, psychology/sociology, and “spirituality” (for lack of a better term) are more pure, interesting, and relevant to my life so that’s 95% of what I read. I can suggest a few novels that dip into these realms: - _Stoner_ by John Williams - _Niels Lyhne_ by Jens Peter Jacobsen - _On the Marble Cliffs_ by Ernst Junger - _Back to Methuselah_ by George Bernard Shaw - _Against Nature_ by JK Huysmans - _The Tartar Steppe_ by Dino Buzzati - anything by Herman Hesse, I'd put _Steppenwolf_ and _Siddhartha_ at the top
That's because the primary draw of fiction is entertainment, engagement, following a story that (probably) couldn't happen. The things you're looking for do exist in fiction, and are important to a story's quality, but it's like trying to buy a thousand pounds of apples from the grocery store
I heard Denis Villeneuve say that science fiction deals with philosophy in a dynamic way. And I felt good literature can deal with philosophy and other subjects in a dynamic way. I mean each to their own non fiction has to be direct and cogent. Fiction can be amorphous because it's artistic, I feel the like the true point of fiction is expression, it's cathartic to see something expressed simply or beautifully. Fiction is prose which is like making beautiful drawings or films just with words. Lastly as Ian puts it, most fiction deals with suffering so the great works are works of empathy. Totally understand if that's not your thing though. But maybe sometime soon who knows.
@ilinkthereforeiam Certainly my favorite fiction is typically science fiction and usually shorts so they avoid a lot of the bloating I see in novels. Dostoevsky covers some great topics that I love, but MAN he was not succinct or pleasurable to read. I'm sure I'll find something soon. Just have to stumble on the right thing.
I both love movies and TV series... and I hate TV. I hate how screens have dominated our lives. I hate how TV in particular has become so reductionist, and how it has overshadowed books. Yet there are some excellent and just purely enjoyable shows and movies out there! Tis a puzzle.
This guy didnt reconcile his own existence and made grand assumptions about the nature of art. Being submerssed in shallow artistic expression can only lead to rebellion in another direction eventually. Of course, corporate entities are going to be mercenary when it comes to exploiting demographics. The problem Wallace failed to identify is the academic community and its insistence on seperating these demographics into distinct catagories and forming a caste system in service to these corporate entities in effort to protect their jobs and enrich themselves. His virtue signaling and need to be validated was his contribution to this shallow culture. A true rebel in the post Reagan era would never be accepted from the left, or the right due to them being completely subverted by this bureaucratic power structure. This is the true cause of the degredation of media. However it is expectedly ending.
important points made here, and yes there is women watching your videos. Especially when you talk about the hippy mov inconfortable truth for most people on the lower classes.
As a lover of books, I have to say that cinema has been acknowledged by some of the greatest writers of the 20th century as one of the truest art forms, to rival even the so-called "high" arts. James Baldwin loved movies, Phillip Roth, Don Delillo, Ezra Pound, Camille Paglia, Susan Sontag... And Shakespeare and other Elizabethan dramatists were accused of rotting the brains of contemporary theater-goers as well. This was the poorest take on movies I've heard in some time. Just say you don't like them and move on; because many people, whose brains were more prestigious than Wallace's ever was, loved movies.
omg. agree 100 % about empathy. about tik tok, and a lot of media is trash, but damn, careful treading into feminist (in the critical sense of the word) adjacent waters about art and consumption and who has historically gate kept the whole show. It's not going to be pretty challenging and pulling that down. You might be missing a few things about the appeal of things like Bridgerton, besides its awful reductionism. . 'male thing that we always want to be analyzing'. Maybe thats also a capitalistic thing? Also, Infinite Jest is, a book.
I look at my life at the 100's of thousands of hours that I've watched TV and movies and I would say that there are only 0.01% out of all those hours of great stand out and memorable moments. What a waste of time.
Damn just yesterday I was telling my wife who also watches bridgeton and I sometimes watch along. That this show is nothing but 100% female fan service fiction. There's nothing challenging or scary or any of any substance. It's just pure fan service.
I do not understand the appeal of Bridgerton, and I am a woman who has written fanfiction. Maybe it's because I have watched good period movies? Maybe it's because I read history books? Maybe it's because I am increasingly bored by the banality of modern culture? I don't know. No hate to those who like it. I like a LOT of things that other people don't like or have never heard of. But Bridgerton simply does not appeal to me one bit.
I like to consume media that is challenging or even unpleasant as long as it provides some kind of insight or beauty. Stuff that is just miserable or violent for the sake of being miserable or violent I have no interest in. For instance (since you mentioned it) I don’t like the _No Country For Old Men_ movie because it is just bleak without any accompanying wisdom or beauty, a hitman is marauding around blasting people with his shotgun. I understand there is something being communicated about the hollowing out of moral principles and obsession with money but it’s a very thin concept that doesn’t flesh out a two hour long campaign of violence IMO. The violence isn’t even cinematically compelling like it can be in a big Hollywood action movie. Contrast that movie with one I really like that came out the same year: _There Will Be Blood_ . This movie is also somewhat bleak but it is thematically rich, touching on capitalism, religion, the industrialization of America, family, lust for wealth, violence, etc. It is also beautiful to look at. I know _NCFOM_ is highly regarded by a lot of people, never understood why though, I’m sure there is more to the book.
Completely agree. What TWBB also understood and No Country didn't is that this kind of story requires of a film to look a certain way. It cannot have the glossy, clean, pristine Hollywood cinematography, it has to look rawer, grittier, and also preferably have as little of the recognizable Hollywood faces as possible. Deakins and The Coens are great and all that, but I don't think they got it with the film. Hell, even the academy, while throwing every possible Oscar their way that year, could not afford to not give best cinematography to TWBB.
I disagree with you guys. I see There Will Be Blood as an epitome of a totally vapid film. PTA has nothing to say never did so. There is plenty of 'wisdom and beauty' in Country, but, I think, that focus is more on the wrong choice, bad decisions and useles hindsights. Utter bleaknes is exactly the thing that makes 'wisdom and beauty' more than the disgusting kitsch.
@@user-cq5sg9cb4t I forgot to add that _TWBB_ has something else that _NCFOM_ doesn't- a dash of dark humor. No Country is uninteresting, bleak, and humorless.
Watch Skywhales. That's the best animation. I watched that obsessively as a child which was recorded on a VHS. Probably messed me up a bit then. It was off UA-cam for ages which really pissed me off, but good to see it's back now, actually uploaded by the guy who made it, 7 months ago. Must've done it as a 40th anniversary tribute thing then. The animation played in cinemas before the film 1984 in the UK, I found out later on, which was interesting.
🎬 Movies are entertainment" They are designed by Producers and corporations to extract the maximum amount of Profits from the unsuspecting masses...."FILM" is a very personal and Privately financed exploration of the inner worlds and dreams of its DIRECTOR AND CREATOR...the objective of the Film is to create a Portal to "Knowledge" , the objective of the "movies" is to create a business out of entertainment ...... 🤔
🚀 Do you want help finishing Infinite Jest? Or want a complete guide to follow while reading?
Join my Infinite Jest Course and Book Club here: writeconscious.substack.com
📚 Explore over 400 of Wallace’s favorite books in my free guide to his favorite books
Access here: writeconscious.ck.page/8956ce90fc
📖 Want to WRITE better? Join my free writing school: www.skool.com/writeconscious
Insta: instagram.com/writeconscious
📕My Best Books of All-Time List: writeconscious.ck.page/355619345e
🔥Want to READ my wife’s fire poetry? Go here: marigoldeclipse.substack.com
🤔David Foster Wallace’s Favorite Book on Writing amzn.to/4eVmjAI
A James Baldwin Baldwin quote comes to mind that I first heard from Dan Carlin on Hardcore History
“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who ever had been alive. Only if we face these open wounds in ourselves can we understand them in other people.”
That quote really distills the message almost perfectly.
Also your plugs have gotten so much better Ian I’m never ready for them, haha
I would’ve loved a teacher like you in high school.
Im so f-ing tired of reading this exact same comment over and over again...God people, you didnt need better teachers, you need to get books in your hands more often instead of your iphone, then youll make your own good thoughts instead of depending of some random video with the slightest hint of knowledge and common sense...
@@Lacostanico I’m complimenting him, friend, nothing more. I’m a Random Internet Stranger. Am I worth this expenditure?
@@ypaisleyexpenditure 😭
@@ypaisley and Im attacking the comment, not you, couldnt care less about you personally: I dont even know you...Again: Im tired of reading the exact same comment.
@@Lacostanico I only catch a few comments here and there, so it’s hard to avoid being unoriginal, I guess. I still think he’s a pretty cool guy, and I’ll bet his students agree. :) Peace!
David was addicted to Tv and he wrote The infinite Jest. Movies are good.
Yesterday I watched Ingmar bergman the seventh seal and now I cant read
was addicted, got rid of it, became a legend
I don't know how old your students are but there's this book: "The Education of Little Tree" which might work perfect for some of your classes. I loved that book. It's a super easy read and good for kids and adults.
I wish my English teachers had the same enthusiasm for literature as you when I was in school lol. We just read boring shit and wrote papers. Barely any class discussion.
1:41 the first thing I thought/hoped after clicking in the video was if Wallace separated mainstream cinema with other kinds of cinema, luckily he does.
took me until I was 17 to really read anything. my mind turned socrates into a sitcom tragedy and Aristotle into a rambling lunatic. fuckin love reading.
teachers should have their class meditate for like 10 minutes in absolute silence. Dr. K really goes in deep about the psychological degeneration of this generation.
you're vocalizing thoughts ive been unable to articulate holy shit
@@jordanramsey5763 Yes, especially with the number of children twiddling their thumbs on stupid phones and tablets. Meditation is absolutely necessary. I find that reading gets me into a meditative state.
@@Musicienne-DAB1995 funny that you replied now lol. I finished infinite jest day before yesterday! Just to lyk. Cause it was a good read
shoutout to twin peaks☕️
@HalideHelix lol
I've found myself having a hard time reading pure fiction/literature lately. It feels needlessly obfuscated and indirect. Why hide what you want to say behind literary tricks and posturing? The philosohers and poets (maybe a few essayists) have been my thing for the past decade or so and I'm wondering if I will ever get back to enjoying straight up novels or even short stories. I tend to agree with the Bukowski "bim bim bim" school of writing.
Anyone else feel that way? Any suggestions for novels that might get me back into the fold?
I agree completely. Fiction is a thin, contrived vision of the human experience and I'd rather use my imagination to deal with greater "worlds" like psychology, philosophy - even biographies contain better material to ponder life. I wish I could enjoy novels again, though...
Same here. Philosophy, history, mythology, psychology/sociology, and “spirituality” (for lack of a better term) are more pure, interesting, and relevant to my life so that’s 95% of what I read. I can suggest a few novels that dip into these realms:
- _Stoner_ by John Williams
- _Niels Lyhne_ by Jens Peter Jacobsen
- _On the Marble Cliffs_ by Ernst Junger
- _Back to Methuselah_ by George Bernard Shaw
- _Against Nature_ by JK Huysmans
- _The Tartar Steppe_ by Dino Buzzati
- anything by Herman Hesse, I'd put _Steppenwolf_ and _Siddhartha_ at the top
That's because the primary draw of fiction is entertainment, engagement, following a story that (probably) couldn't happen. The things you're looking for do exist in fiction, and are important to a story's quality, but it's like trying to buy a thousand pounds of apples from the grocery store
I heard Denis Villeneuve say that science fiction deals with philosophy in a dynamic way. And I felt good literature can deal with philosophy and other subjects in a dynamic way.
I mean each to their own non fiction has to be direct and cogent.
Fiction can be amorphous because it's artistic, I feel the like the true point of fiction is expression, it's cathartic to see something expressed simply or beautifully. Fiction is prose which is like making beautiful drawings or films just with words. Lastly as Ian puts it, most fiction deals with suffering so the great works are works of empathy.
Totally understand if that's not your thing though. But maybe sometime soon who knows.
@ilinkthereforeiam Certainly my favorite fiction is typically science fiction and usually shorts so they avoid a lot of the bloating I see in novels. Dostoevsky covers some great topics that I love, but MAN he was not succinct or pleasurable to read.
I'm sure I'll find something soon. Just have to stumble on the right thing.
So many good points here.
Kinda misleading title, but I pretty much agree 100% with the content. Also that story about the guy who went full Fake Christian was devastating.
I both love movies and TV series... and I hate TV. I hate how screens have dominated our lives. I hate how TV in particular has become so reductionist, and how it has overshadowed books. Yet there are some excellent and just purely enjoyable shows and movies out there! Tis a puzzle.
Where are the Vollmann vids?!
♡
Thanks Ian! Great video
E Unibus Pluram is as relevant as ever. Damn fine essay
This guy didnt reconcile his own existence and made grand assumptions about the nature of art. Being submerssed in shallow artistic expression can only lead to rebellion in another direction eventually. Of course, corporate entities are going to be mercenary when it comes to exploiting demographics. The problem Wallace failed to identify is the academic community and its insistence on seperating these demographics into distinct catagories and forming a caste system in service to these corporate entities in effort to protect their jobs and enrich themselves. His virtue signaling and need to be validated was his contribution to this shallow culture. A true rebel in the post Reagan era would never be accepted from the left, or the right due to them being completely subverted by this bureaucratic power structure. This is the true cause of the degredation of media. However it is expectedly ending.
Good stuff, thank you.
important points made here, and yes there is women watching your videos. Especially when you talk about the hippy mov inconfortable truth for most people on the lower classes.
As a lover of books, I have to say that cinema has been acknowledged by some of the greatest writers of the 20th century as one of the truest art forms, to rival even the so-called "high" arts. James Baldwin loved movies, Phillip Roth, Don Delillo, Ezra Pound, Camille Paglia, Susan Sontag... And Shakespeare and other Elizabethan dramatists were accused of rotting the brains of contemporary theater-goers as well. This was the poorest take on movies I've heard in some time. Just say you don't like them and move on; because many people, whose brains were more prestigious than Wallace's ever was, loved movies.
mans just did an astute ass analysis of tony soprano as an aside..
omg. agree 100 % about empathy. about tik tok, and a lot of media is trash, but damn, careful treading into feminist (in the critical sense of the word) adjacent waters about art and consumption and who has historically gate kept the whole show. It's not going to be pretty challenging and pulling that down. You might be missing a few things about the appeal of things like Bridgerton, besides its awful reductionism. . 'male thing that we always want to be analyzing'. Maybe thats also a capitalistic thing? Also, Infinite Jest is, a book.
I look at my life at the 100's of thousands of hours that I've watched TV and movies and I would say that there are only 0.01% out of all those hours of great stand out and memorable moments. What a waste of time.
Nicely said. Born to be entertained.
Fun fun fun.
I WANNA BE SEDATED. The Ramones.
Is there something kids like to read these days?
Damn just yesterday I was telling my wife who also watches bridgeton and I sometimes watch along. That this show is nothing but 100% female fan service fiction. There's nothing challenging or scary or any of any substance. It's just pure fan service.
I do not understand the appeal of Bridgerton, and I am a woman who has written fanfiction. Maybe it's because I have watched good period movies? Maybe it's because I read history books? Maybe it's because I am increasingly bored by the banality of modern culture? I don't know. No hate to those who like it. I like a LOT of things that other people don't like or have never heard of. But Bridgerton simply does not appeal to me one bit.
I like to consume media that is challenging or even unpleasant as long as it provides some kind of insight or beauty. Stuff that is just miserable or violent for the sake of being miserable or violent I have no interest in. For instance (since you mentioned it) I don’t like the _No Country For Old Men_ movie because it is just bleak without any accompanying wisdom or beauty, a hitman is marauding around blasting people with his shotgun. I understand there is something being communicated about the hollowing out of moral principles and obsession with money but it’s a very thin concept that doesn’t flesh out a two hour long campaign of violence IMO. The violence isn’t even cinematically compelling like it can be in a big Hollywood action movie. Contrast that movie with one I really like that came out the same year: _There Will Be Blood_ . This movie is also somewhat bleak but it is thematically rich, touching on capitalism, religion, the industrialization of America, family, lust for wealth, violence, etc. It is also beautiful to look at. I know _NCFOM_ is highly regarded by a lot of people, never understood why though, I’m sure there is more to the book.
Completely agree. What TWBB also understood and No Country didn't is that this kind of story requires of a film to look a certain way. It cannot have the glossy, clean, pristine Hollywood cinematography, it has to look rawer, grittier, and also preferably have as little of the recognizable Hollywood faces as possible. Deakins and The Coens are great and all that, but I don't think they got it with the film. Hell, even the academy, while throwing every possible Oscar their way that year, could not afford to not give best cinematography to TWBB.
I disagree with you guys. I see There Will Be Blood as an epitome of a totally vapid film. PTA has nothing to say never did so. There is plenty of 'wisdom and beauty' in Country, but, I think, that focus is more on the wrong choice, bad decisions and useles hindsights. Utter bleaknes is exactly the thing that makes 'wisdom and beauty' more than the disgusting kitsch.
@@AleksandarBloom Vapid? Kitschy? Agree to disagree I guess.
@@user-cq5sg9cb4t I forgot to add that _TWBB_ has something else that _NCFOM_ doesn't- a dash of dark humor. No Country is uninteresting, bleak, and humorless.
I wonder what DFW would think of Tik Tok lol. A lot of gen z and gen alpha don’t even have the attention span for a movie anymore.
@@GaiatheSage Yeah, it's pretty sad.
he would be MAGA and hate modernity like MAGA types
@@GaiatheSage people got to get off of their devices , especially because it deranges kids. adults too but it really destroys kids.
@@MicahMicahel Big doubt that Wallace would like Trump or Biden but okay.
@@MicahMicahel You have to be MAGA to be increasingly bored and put off by modern "culture"?
Bluey for adults lol
ARE U MEXICAN I have to know
film is low art, it was never good. I don't mean animation, which is actually good.
You have to be joking. Have you even heard of the films of Tarkovsky or the films like Mulholland Drive, the 400 Blows, Barry Lyndon, etc
@@biskit8050He probably hasn’t and probably doesn’t even understand visual storytelling and needs everything explained through words.
Watch Skywhales. That's the best animation. I watched that obsessively as a child which was recorded on a VHS. Probably messed me up a bit then. It was off UA-cam for ages which really pissed me off, but good to see it's back now, actually uploaded by the guy who made it, 7 months ago. Must've done it as a 40th anniversary tribute thing then. The animation played in cinemas before the film 1984 in the UK, I found out later on, which was interesting.
🎬 Movies are entertainment" They are designed by Producers and corporations to extract the maximum amount of Profits from the unsuspecting masses...."FILM" is a very personal and Privately financed exploration of the inner worlds and dreams of its DIRECTOR AND CREATOR...the objective of the Film is to create a Portal to "Knowledge" , the objective of the "movies" is to create a business out of entertainment ...... 🤔