David Kipen interviews David Foster Wallace in San Francisco for City Arts & Lectures in 2004 - audio only. Taken from here: www.scpr.org/pr... For more Wallace: www.thehowlingf...
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.
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.
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
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.
@@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.
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.
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.
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"
@@tableo.plenty7317 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6Tm4uFLF9eI.html Some of the worst interviewers i've heard. still a great interview
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 RU-vid, as Bob opined. It’s all a simulation anyway. Had to give it another year to confirm that one.
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 @ ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qm_u3YoL8s8.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 '!?)😅😊
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Вот курсы писательского мастерства - это реально какое-то шарлатанство. Этому нельзя научить, с талантом к этому можно только родиться, по-моему это очевидно. И всё, что может сделать препод в рамках таких курсов, - навязать собственную эстетику, что никак не поможет студентам отыскать свой собственный голос. Можно было бы вспомнить, что Уоллес сам в своё время посещал подобные курсы, но в том-то и дело, что он там постоянно срался с преподами и гнул свою линию, то есть вёл себя явно не так, как, предполагаю, ждал от своих собственных студентов. Я абсолютно уверена, что если человек талантлив, он должен просто следовать за своими ощущениями и делать то, от чего его самого прёт. Потому что только если тебя самого прям прёт, обязательно найдутся люди, которым это понравится. И в этом весь парадокс - Уоллес никогда не сомневался в себе и в собственном вкусе, он никогда не позволил бы кому-то диктовать, что «вкусно», а что нет, потому что у него были всегда собственные взгляды на эстетику, но на его собственные курсы приходят не настолько уверенные в себе люди, они сомневаются в себе, и добровольно позволяют поставить чужие представления об эстетике выше собственных. Печаль. Словно они уверены, что у другого человека есть какой-то доступ к «объективному» представлению о том, как правильно писать, хотя эта «объективность» не основана ни на чем, кроме успеха, за которым стояла вера в собственные представления и собственный вектор развития. Идти учиться творить - значить не иметь собственного представления и собственного вкуса, а значит заведомо быть неспособным к этому занятию.
@@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...".
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.
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 interview confirms the writer's thesis: that American culture, now world culture, is about constant entertainment. The interview is awful or the idiotic question by the interviewer. I suppose he's looking for laughs and most of the questions are obvious cliches.
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.
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.
@@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.
Fixing passive voice is simple. Once you see the construct and its inherent flaws and pitfalls you just stop doing it. At its core it involves artificially reversing the subject and object of a sentence. Now if Kipen is talking about simple state of being that can often be more difficult to remove 100%, though to the extent you can remove it, your writing will improve. I do see some novice writers who do not understand the difference between passive voice and state of being, though both make for weak lifeless writing, getting rid of the former will instantly give your writing more pop, as will getting rid of the latter, but which sometimes proves impossible. Awesome hearing DFW talk here. I am one-third through Infinite Jest and this time I will for sure finish.
"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.
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.
@@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.
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. :-)
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
People relish to pry into the writer's mind as if a starving skell on skid row ripping open a soup can with a jagged can opener just so they can swirl their tongue around the skull cavity of creation and thereby gain a pustule of nutrition.
