David Foster Wallace interview on "Infinite Jest" with Leonard Lopate (03/1996)
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- Опубліковано 26 вер 2024
- 13:51
Q.
"Reading reviews, I mean, reviews aren't for the writer. They're a judge kind of telling a prospective buyer whether the book's good or not. And reading them is rather like eavesdropping on two people talking. You know, it's very tempting to do it, but you always end up getting your feelings hurt. And they're not designed to help you. They're not for you, they're for potential buyers."
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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
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Yeh. Amazon for sure......
For those who've never read dfw, do not buy it on Amazon. If you read him at all you'd be anti corporate.
In every interview he always says something akin to "If you seriously want to hear me spout off about that we'd need a few more hours." But I'm sure nearly EVERY fan of his would love to hear every last nuance he had in mind when crafting his oeuvre, not just Infinite Jest.
To be entirely honest I don’t know that I would. Half of the fun of reading his fiction (to me, anyhow) is stumbling upon some lovely little passage and wondering how in the hell he could be so clever as to come up with it. Hearing him explain his entire writing process would stutter that enjoyment I think.
Yeah he always says "but no one wants to hear that" and all i am thinking is "yes wed do".
Ours d’ouvre
I am in the middle of Infinite Jest. It's the funniest book I've ever read, and also my favorite book despite not being done yet. Whenever there's an especially funny and/or clever bit (e. g. the part about "The Joke" on pp. 397-398), I want to ask how he got the idea for it, but then I remember that he committed suicide in 2008. He had his flaws and misdeeds, but that does not change the respect I have for him and his writing, and the tragedy it is that he will never come back.
@@andreapirlol4301 Glad I could inspire you to read IJ for the third time! That will be me someday, I hope. I also agree that Mario is lovable :)
DFW always makes me think of the Dostoyevsky line: “Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.”
@callmecatalyst Thanks - I will!
@callmecatalyst It was a really good read! Coming from New England myself it has a special place in my heart. Thanks again.
Beautiful quote
Truer words have never been spoken. Still, I have always believed that great intelligence and a deep soul come with a tremendous price tag. Being this way must make the extraordinary feel a bit alien when they walk among average people; among other things.
@@RumbleFish69 indeed
I read it at a leisurely pace of about 25-30 pages/day and finished in 5 weeks. Brilliant book, but must be read without distractions, for sure. It changed my life, really.
You kind of have to read it that way. Clear your schedule for the next few months and get cracking! I can see where you can feel this book is life-changing...It pretty much is. There is no doubt, at least for me, that this book is one of the greatest pieces of literature ever written. I also think that those who criticize this book simply don't get it, or just have not read it. It's very sad that he is gone.... Imagine how much more he could have given the world.
@John Q. Bebtelovimab no they are not! it's petulant
I’ve known about this book for a couple years now due to a youtuber named “Jason James bickford” (seriously look him up) I finally pulled the trigger and bought it 10 seconds ago ! I am so excited
same thing here bro
wow... could you explain in 10 words or less? i am curious,
and need a good reason to read the book.
I thought the interviewer was extremely rude. He doesn’t take kind consideration of much that David says. Bless your heart and soul Mr. Wallace. I heard you took your life and I’m trying not to take mine.
Thinking of you
How is it going?
Right? Especially what with his casual, unwarranted mentioning of David’s past drug use. Like, wtf?
Something about his voice and the way he articulates is very calming
chuchuchuchhchhchuuu. hmphhh. - David Foster Wallace
Lol
I love that too much
Mc 11:29 iwiw
Inspiring
“One of the things I was trying to do with this book was have something be long and difficult but have it be fun enough so that somebody would be almost sort of seduced into doing the work.”
Can’t speak for anyone else but this was absolutely the case for me. Reading books, especially lengthy difficult ones is something I struggle with without a truly gripping story. Jest was so unlike anything I’d ever experienced before I was hypnotised by it and found myself spending several hours a day reading it. I’m still not done but I’m very close and it’s been such a great experience
big thank you for the encouragement to begin the read.
Reporting back, it’s been maybe a week or slightly less since I finished and wow, that’s all I can and will say. I understand this world he created better than I do my own reality lol
I read 400 pages and it stiill didn't seduce me ...the work didn't pay off in the slightest
@@elizabethclaire7916 dont bother
@@KingMinosxxvithat’s your opinion and not everybody else’s
Hard to read, but written so that the reader will WANT to read it. That description nails it.
I find that the longer I read the book, the easier everything gets to understand. It's like you get into his rhythm.
@@pod9363true story
same with gravity's rainbow
@@pod9363 It's like tennis.
there really needs to be more DFW content on UA-cam
yea, he seems really quiet since 2006 x)
Surely you jest. Wallace videos on UA-cam, I would argue, are probably higher in quantity than almost any other authors in any lit content on UA-cam. It is hard to find in depth stuff that's not coming from Wallace's own mouth but I think that's because it's such a novel and stylistically unique piece of writing that people get caught up on and dote on such similar things; why is the book so long?; why does the 'answer' lay outside of the physical book?; why endnotes?; which are interesting to an extent but there's so much happening in this book that gets overlooked, and have much more complex, but not concrete, answers (which is unsatisfying to the average reader) in lieu of the seemingly more obvious questions. Though nothing is totally clear or obvious right away in dfw's world, which makes it so much fun to dig around and find stuff that goes deeper into different interpretations, meanings, and intentions. But there really isn't much of a lack of Wallace on UA-cam. Be glad to give you some links to things I enjoyed regarding the book, or his life in general, that I think make it past the either overzealous or confounded review. And dfw went "really quiet" in '08.
to bad he's long dead
@@KingMinosxxvi*too
crazy hatred of DFW. Move along.
"There's no meterorology in there" was a very Hal Incandeza comment.
finally found the part of the book that the clouds cover comes from and it's almost perfectly ironic how they picked something so obscure and it weirdly became iconic
It always makes me sad when I hear DFW speak. I appreciate his thoughtfulness and gentleness but I know he doesn’t overcome his depression.
23:30...when he says "Don't want to talk about it, thank you." So politely and softly, it breaks me.
I'm sorry, but I don't understand why it breaks you. He's just saying he doesn't want to talk about it.
@@HomeAtLast501he suffers from the tragic artist too pure for this world idolization
@@Gcssdvnkloiutesc What makes you think they suffer at all?
@@GcssdvnkloiutescThat’s callous and ignorant. DFW ended up taking his life, after decades of severe depression. Show some decorum and respect.
@@ZoeChan-s4j Something in your eye, Wang?
he was such a talent ...one of the most gifted writers in English language for decades.
he was a teacher in my school. I wonder hoe many students ignored his classes without knowing what or whom they are missing
who's comparable nowadays? in your eyes?
David Foster Wallace & the Infinite sadness. Many things about him remind me of Elliot Smith not least his end.
They have a similar speaking voice
@@ColombianThunder As well as a general outlook on life and both fell by their own hand.
That’s smashing pumpkins
@@HelloSpyMyLie I know, I was making a point of him beeing sad.
It's probably hindsight bias, but he sounds incredibly sad throughout the entire interview, even as he was achieving his greatest success. He seems reluctant to accept it. That being said, I'm reading this book now and it's been very entertaining so far.
Engaging, riveting, rewarding. Thanks.
I can’t tell if the interviewer admires or hates DFW.
That's why he's good.
A lot of shoulder pulls have padded bars over the knees, to keep you down even when pulling weights heavier than you.
Fyi we strapped our legs to the bench with weightlifting/hernia belts
New word I'll steal from DFW: 'chunklet'.
Thank you DFW
"This is a book that I could at least hope could be appealing to a wider audience done anything else" - DFW
Note: be careful to make quotes accurate
13:38 reviews
16:27 perfectionism
What the hell he wrote this book in a town I lived in for a year? I wish I knew at the time.
Painfully boring questions.
Are there any tapings of his lectures?
yea
"and then there's the drug aspect. . ."
"ehh.....yeah.."
He said "yeah" that way because it isn't true and he just wanted to move on. He's never done drugs in his life and has spoken about it in interviews.
@@evanpeltier just listened to an interview on WBUR with him after the book came out. Quote: "I don't know a lot of people under 40 who at one point didn't do a lot of drugs. And I'm under 40."
Not saying he was an addict but to say he never did drugs is wrong.
@@evanpeltier lol you are so fucking naive.
@@evanpeltier He did do drugs. He just does not like to talk about it as it is just mundane and something everyone does. So why would he do drugs and then talk about his issues with them when it is the same as everyone elses story.
@@evanpeltier hes said hes done drugs just not more than the avreage person his age.
Leonard sounds threatened here and weirdly aggressive
Pretty Squared I can see what you mean. But I think he’s mainly trying to keep the interview’s pace as well as the intellectual pace.
I totally agree and was just about to post that.. I'll just agree here instead
Envy is a real emotion.
@@mpcc2022 That was my first thought.
@@JohnnyWoodard Yeah, creative spaces can be chalk full of envy.
RIP genius
A new interview! Keep up the good work!
Its tragic DFW had the issues he did, Infinite jest turned me on my head while in school and he definitely "occurred" to me
Read it 30 years later, again, and see if it still does that.
i can I.D
How so? Why?
I just started reading it, and it's not grabbing me in any way.
“Plot is not a key for you here.”
“You would have to define key.”
I realised it wasn't going well when he started to resemble Kurt Cobain as Chris Walken in The Deer Hunter.
lopate is kind of a dik here geez, but of course he has a tough job and has to keep it moving due to time constraints. dfw dealt with it and rose up to it excellently.
Love the praxis background.
Interviewer sounds like Fred Willard in Best in Show
Now a book this big Davie, I'd imagine there was a lot of worrying from the publisher concerning accidental disfigurement for the readers who, like myself, really only feel comfortable with a book held open over my face while laying down.
Wallace sounds like breathy pillow-talk DJ.
suicide at 46? Man.... rip...
The best book I've ever read, Infinite Jest took me 7 months to finish because I left it at work and only read it on my lunch break.
I wonder if this shirt had a logo that was edited out. I can't imagine it was made that way, with a random large blue rectangle.
👀 ...I can see letters, faintly. I thought I could read it, I was wrong. Curiouser and Curiouser. Glad it wasn't/isn't just me thinking about it. 😂
My understanding is he would add shapes like that to t-shirts to try to turn attention away from parts of his physique.
R.I.P. Devin Forstner Wallus
I’m almost done reading this and at first I wasn’t sure now I got all of his books and can’t wait to read them. Also I just realized Tex Watson was a killer in the Manson family. For awhile I was going where the fuck do I know this characters name from. And then it hit me. Anyways RIP. this guy was so brilliant and unique
“Chunklet”
Why was the one character nicknamed "the Darkness"? Loved the book
Because he always wears black
Because he wore only black clothes
When David vocalizes after a query (tsh, tsh, tsh, tsh), I posit that’s NOT DFW trying to position his response POLITICALLY, but rather he’s trying to be ACCURATE. I think that’s why some folk don’t understand him as a person of thought.
Interviewer....mean.
everything about this interviewer annoys me, they really couldn't find someone more compatible?
26:45 poetic line but what does it mean
Maybe that everyone should really see and understand a person who truly knows in their chest whats worth living to them, and that their trying to get there?
Alas, poor Yorick!
That from halo 3
Wouldve been nice to hear him comment on Chris Borland retiring after one season in what wouldve been an AllPro career as an aggressive linebacker and what brain/CTE research tells us about football fans and their disregard of scientific findings. DFW played some football himself.
Which writers does he mention had influenced him?
This interviewer makes Charlie Rose seem like Peter Robinson.
I think he's OK. What is the problem with him for you?
Peter is the goat
I failed in my first attempt to read Infinite Jest. Put it down at page 132 or so of the paperback edition. Too many "Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment", or at least more than I could take. I'll get around to it some time in the future.
once you get past the 250 page mark it reads a lot smoother, but there's def a hump in the start of the book in terms of difficulty / boredom / not understanding what the book is doing yet
@@3rdhand712 It's good to know. As I said, I do not rule out giving it another try some time down the road. But I would start from the beginning again.
@@3rdhand712 It is never the readers of books who don't know what the books are doing, it is always the authors.
@@schmetterling4477 wym
@@3rdhand712 If the book sucks, then the author is to blame, not the reader. Let's give it a try, shall we:
"I am seated in an office, surrounded by heads and bodies. My posture is consciously congruent to the shape of my hard chair. "
Wow. That is some of the worst English prose I have ever read. I don't see genius at work here, just a nerd with verbal diarrhea.
Leonard is getting off to a slow start in this interview. Hope he starts asking about the ideas in the book ...
The greatest writer in human history.
I have never heard of him until recently. I did read all of Shakespeare and Shaw, though, among other much better writers.
@@schmetterling4477 ~ just recently?…… then how would you know?
@@johnalbert5786 Why do I have to know about crappy writers? There are millions of them.
@@schmetterling4477 Calling DFW a crappy writer is just ignorant. I don't think he's the best writer ever by a long shot. That's impossible for anyone. He was still an incredible author.
@@MilesWilliams88 Dude, did you read his prose? It's like he is trying to mutilate the English language on purpose. Which I guess he is. He was desperate to appear "different". Being different is not automatically art, though. As a singer I am "very different" from actual artists... I am off pitch all the time. So is DFW, as far as prose is concerned.
What a passively aggressive hostile interviewer.
He’s smart in some ways, but actually very immature in some ways as well.
What does “smart” actually mean? Being good at chess? Broad knowledge base? Mental nimbleness?
We are all immature and mature in ways. No one one day becomes “mature” in every area of life.
Yeah, yeah, so if you don't have as much pauses with as much delay, you're not as _profound_,
Gawd the interviewer is so condescending!
Infinite jest reminds me of my elongated stools it is
Jason Segal really nailed DFW
Human bellows.... best kept near fireplace.
I like how I can relate with DFW but cannot use him. Was he sick? Or was he forced to endure a fate not of his choosing? Was he set up or did he think his choices were few and far between? He is a genius. My question is -- Why did he trust his life partner?
Are you accusing his wife of something here? That's ugly. Stop being ugly.
Leonard Lopate was quite rude and demeaning.
Nobody has a god given right to be treated like a princess all the time. Indeed, the real test is what you do when they don't.
@@schmetterling4477 And that's called gaslighting.
@@bobby7844 What about what I said was not true? Details, please.
@@schmetterling4477 Gaslighting has no relevance to whether you can say something irrelevant that may or may not be true.
Gasligting is when you go off topic instead of keeping it relevant.
If I told you today was my birthday and I don't talk on birthday's or for a year afterward, would that mean I told a lie?
I have no idea whether what you said was true or not. What matters is that it wasn't relevant.
@@bobby7844 pretty sure that's not what gaslighting is but okay.
It feels like this awful interviewer is torturing him
A little. His comment about sentences after DFW points out that his long sentences are indeed grammatically accurate. - ‘You’re not the first writer to do it either….’
I've heard way too many inept and clueless people interview David Foster Wallace. This was unbearable to listen to beyond 3 minutes.
90s radio was awful. i do not miss those days. bunch of wannabe shock jock intellectuals.
this interviewer's middle class hubris and disdain of the reading "public" is nauseating. A gatekeeper.
@King Kong I couldn't find the interview you refer to, would you be able to post a link? Thanks.
10:42
I read Delillo's Underworld and aside from the first 60 pages thought it was junk.
Try Libra
Awful interviewer. No wonder people don't get excited about writers and writing.
So you would rather have all writers only appear in well prepared PR puff pieces? OK... then you will love reading J.K. Rolling.
I've heard DFW say repeatedly that he, "wanted to write a sad book." I think he wanted sadness, period. Don't get me wrong, he was a brilliant writer, but at the end of the day --- life is what you make it. He wanted it to be sad.
"known as the grammar nazi" but uses example of semicolon, which is punctuation, not grammar. 🤔
6 13 19
Poor guy suffered. This photo of him with his head bandaged is a look he often went for. I find it telling.
Bandaged? Bandana.
Honestly "in search of lost time" or "remembrances of things past" is 3 volumes. I dont understand why they don't splitt up this book. To read this book in a week would take full days without family or work. For a normal person who only gets a hour or so of free time a day to read this book would over a month and that s with pretty solid discipline. It's not only 1100 pages long and demanding but the pages are huge, the font is tiny and its printed practiacally to the edges. Personally I don't think the pay off is actually there. It might have been 25 years ago. But to be honest while it may have been somewhat prescient at the time it almost seems dated now. and I don't think anybody would have ever considered it fun.
Cavalier and Clay is fun
Why would you ever expect to read a 1000 page book in a week? You need realistic expectations first of all
@@sunkintree what the ef are you on about jack
@@KingMinosxxvi "To read this book in a week would take full days without family or work"
@@sunkintree yah so what? If a literate person can't read a book in a week or at the most two than wtf is it for? It looses it's value as a possable cohesive artistic experience and because there is no readily apparent organizational structure within in the book there are not even reference points to help you read over long periods of time. Release this book in this manner is totally petulant.
Still dont get this chap. Hip outfits? over praised? three names?
Read his stuff?
@@hklinker did--overrated.
@@TheWhitehiker ur subscribed to Ben Shapiro so ur word doesn’t count
Different stroke 4 Different 4olks
David Foster Wallace is avant garde.
Reading Infinite Jest is like climbing Everest. I am about to read it for the second time and need to at this next chapter of my life.
get this guy on jre
?
He’s dead.
A run-on sentence is still a run-on sentence whether grammatically correct or not. But I love the book. Faulkner not so much.
No. A run-on sentence is not grammatically correct.
Infinite Jest is garbage. Crapola. It's meandering mess and an ego trip.
Shy egomaniacs.
Anybody 'sides me relate?
No wonder he committed suicide. I haven't read the book I was introduced to him today what a wonderful wonderful man.
DFW reminds me of MO (Michelle Obama). Hopefully the world will be smart enough to make her Prez in 2024.
@natallia6387=BOT COMMENT
What? Your comment reminds me of QE (quiche edamame). Big trouble in Little China was a great title for an "ok" movie. Popcorn lung.
Hope the creator of this channel is doing well, seem to have not uploaded in quite some time. Thanks for the videos.
Communists should not be welcome in the U.S.
Dave is God.
The symbol of masculinity speaking slow and pronouncedly. It could be a female desire to see and hear "it" relating to everyone. I think huge gets defined here. Students of writing have no choice. He represented the dream of success as the "given path" for all. Is that a difficulty he exemplified?
Wtf you talking about
I just feel bad he was forced to constantly cover up that embarrassing forehead tattoo.
I’m totally shocked that he turned out to be totally fucked up as a person having been raised by a couple of leftist academics and atheists. He was a bright guy. Had he taken another path in life and had he been raised by normal people he could have been a productive person.
Productive? How many novels have you written. GFY.
“He could’ve been a more productive person.”
How many books have you written? How many interviews have you done? None?
Your absolutely right .... could have been a manager at McDonald's, for example ... or an accountant. Not that there's anything wrong with that!
@@johnterencejr I believe my productivity in life surpasses his. Amazon offers about 33 million books on their site. Writing a book is not some major achievement in life, especially fiction. You're just making shit up.
@@paulryan2128 McD's seems like a better fit for you, honestly.
Book is wholly unreadable
Tucks medicated pads. It's real interesting when you have no food.
Persperation. Swet, salt, and fatty acids.
Totally lost in this book.
I never realized Leonard Lopate was such a passive aggressive dunce.
Theres a beautiful moment where DFW is clearly uncomfortable with being compared to another author and Lopate very smoothly, and with great deftness and emotional intelligence, pivots to talking about how IJ is to a degree autobiographical. A real gentleman and professional broadcaster.
A different time.
What's the music at the very end?
interviewing that’s so insistent, lacking any confidence to entertain a conversation, that favors instead to force feed questions with time-blocked rapidity will always come off as patronizing drivel like this interview. this is journalism in bad faith. felt like Leonard Lowbrow hadn’t even parsed the first chapter, made painfully obvious by his desperately reaching for quotes that someone else clearly wrote up for the read. sad to hear DFW cordially endure an interaction so blatantly naïve and indifferent to better understanding his work.
Thank you for uploading all of these. Best DFW source on UA-cam.
David we miss your spirit. Thank you for your art and your perspectives on life and you craft. ♥️
Why is this interviewer trying to shoot down his guest - the literary artist’s - answers or points? Where do journalists learn or feel behooved to one-uppance?
Jealousy.
A journalist is not a nanny and (s)he is not your PR agent, either. Would you like a participation trophy with that, kid?
He also is extremely aggressive and poorly prepared. The man interviewing DFW did not read Infinite Jest before hand. He easily could have if he had chosen to take the author and his work seriously.
@@210GOD_win11a full time journalist has time to read a thousand page novel. Maybe 100 pages tops. Which is enough to get the gist if you have education in literature.
He'd didn't stroke him hard enough for you?
We don't have literature now because the news only wants to cover cat videos and Trump drama