
A Brand New Interview with David Foster Wallace - jger15
https://electricliterature.com/a-brand-new-interview-with-david-foster-wallace-71c03223294b
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marnett
Thank you for sharing this. For those who haven't read and/or watched DFW in
any capacity, you really should. His thoughts on modern western society are
just so fascinating and multi-faceted. His perspective is one of great
depression, yet his points are eye-opening and remarkable.

One of my favorite interviews of his is this one [1]. You can tell just how
deeply he thinks about each question.

[1] [https://youtu.be/FkxUY0kxH80](https://youtu.be/FkxUY0kxH80)

~~~
glibgil
Thanks, but I'm waiting for the right person to tell me to get into David
Foster Wallace [http://reductress.com/post/why-im-waiting-for-the-right-
man-...](http://reductress.com/post/why-im-waiting-for-the-right-man-to-tell-
me-to-read-infinite-jest/)

~~~
marnett
this is hilarious. thanks for sharing.

~~~
mlthoughts2018
The Beth Newell & Sarah Pappalardo episode of Hollywood Handbook was a big let
down, which was so disappointing given the quality on Reductress.

I am so puzzled that the intersection of People Who Nail David Foster Wallace
Satire and People Who Don’t Get It As Hollywood Handbook Guests is non-empty.

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empath75
> “Most of the journalism I read in America right now is interested in how the
> internet is going to affect the business of publishing. I personally think
> that the internet represents simply an enormous flood of available
> information and entertainment and sensations with very little assistance to
> the consumer in terms of choosing, finding, discerning between those choices
> and this sort of rabid, capitalist fervor with which the internet is being
> not just developed but invested in. I don’t have to tell you about the .com
> stock market explosion and all that. It seems to me, as just a layman and an
> amateur, that the internet is almost the perfect distillation of the
> American capitalist ethos, a flood of seductive choices. It’s completely
> laissez-faire, with no really effective engines for choosing or searching
> and everybody being much more interested in the economic and material
> aspects of it than some of the aesthetic and ethical and moral and political
> questions attached to it.“

From the interview.

~~~
oldsklgdfth
A similar sentiment is expressed by Neil Postman in "Amusing ourselves to
death". He closely examines the impact of a visual medium on communication, as
opposed to written work, and how it affects the messages that we can
communicate. Ultimately the messages and ideas that we communicate shape our
culture. The internet wasn't big at the time of the writing, but he is very
insightful as to what it means for out communication.

Side note: the types of conversation that take place on HN are not surprising
when you take into account the lack of photos and emoji as opposed to say FB
that has "like" features.

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ex3xu
> You know, a very simple answer would have to do with the idea of constant
> movement but within a rigidly defined set of constraints and also with the
> idea of two and twoness and things moving back and forth between two sides
> in such a way that a pattern is created.

Huh. Never thought about that before.

Wonder what connections to this idea that I am missing in the deeper themes of
Infinite Jest. Does anyone know if there are any good websites for this kind
of literary analysis? I'd be interested if there's a hub where people go to
share the task in putting in the kind of "work" required to understand deep
fiction that Wallace talks about. It would be nice to be able to read about
the many other deeper symbolic connections that I missed...

~~~
awild
Literary academia does that, but I've not yet developed a habit for it myself.

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hailk
I got into the behemoth (Infinite Jest) fairly recently. Have not finished it
yet though. Every time I open the book, I end up starting again and gain
perspective all over. A behemoth, but a tasty one nevertheless. Highly
recommended.

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_Microft
Nobody has mentioned "This is water" from a commencement speech [1] at a
college yet, so let me do that.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhhC_N6Bm_s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhhC_N6Bm_s)

~~~
50
If you have seen _Paterson_ by Jim Jarmusch, you might also like this analysis
of the film with supporting arguments from Wallace’s “This Is Water”:
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RnGvWTRQ9j4](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RnGvWTRQ9j4)

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lprd
I've yet to read any DFW books. I've heard much about him, and saw couple of
his videos on youtube. Any recommendations on which books of his I should
start off with?

~~~
jeffreyrogers
In my opinion DFW is a much better essayist than novelist, so I'd recommend
you start with his essays to see if you like him and then move on to his
fiction if you feel like it. Many intelligent, well read people (including
literature professors) dislike his fiction, so know that it's not just you if
you don't enjoy it.

Consider the Lobster is a good collection of essays to start with. The essay
on Joseph Frank's biography of Dostoevsky is probably my favorite DFW essay.

~~~
seanhunter
If you like short fiction, I really recommend "Little Expressionless Animals".
It's not as much of a complete head-scrambler as some of his other short
fiction.

If you like journalism, some of his pieces on tennis are astounding, eg
"Federer as religious experience" or the one where he follows some guy who's
worked his ass off his whole life and is one click below the top tier and will
probably never make it (forgotten that one).

If you like criticism, "E unibus pluram" (on TV) and "Fictional Futures and
the Conspicuously Young" (about postmodernism, irony and the whole clique of
people around Brett Easton Ellis) are both outstanding.

For novels, he only wrote 3 (as far as I know) and they're really great. I
personally read "Broom of the System" first because I like reading things in
order (I've done this with a number of other authors I like). It's a really
cool book, very funny and not quite as huge a commitment as "Infinite Jest".
So don't feel you have to start with Infinite Jest, you really don't. It's
great though, as is "Pale King". Had he lived to complete "Pale King" I think
it would easily have been his greatest novel, but in the state it was
published in, it's still outstanding.

~~~
charlysl
Maybe the tennis journeyman's essay you referred to is the one about Michael
Joyce

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faux_intellect
I highly recommend listening to the interviews Wallace did with Michael
Silverblatt on KCRW's Bookworm.

[https://www.kcrw.com/people/david-foster-
wallace](https://www.kcrw.com/people/david-foster-wallace)

~~~
lordgrenville
Silverblatt is an amazing interviewer of authors, and a deep but totally
unpretentious reader. He's been interviewing writers for almost 30 years and
still does every week. I'd recommend the podcast version (or radio, if you
live in the US) to anyone who wants to improve their experience of reading
fiction.

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dilap
I wonder what DFW would've thought of Tao Lin.

~~~
lordgrenville
As someone who really admired Lin when I was younger, I now think that he
embodies exactly the kind of ironist DFW criticised, too afraid of being seen
as uncool to ever publicly care about anything.

~~~
dilap
It's interesting, I've always taken Lin at face-value -- I don't think he's
being ironic at all. Especially in _Trip_ , I see someone who is trying to
full-on embrace and figure out life w/o a hint of detachment or irony in a way
DFW would've appreciated.

