David Foster Wallace interview on "Infinite Jest" with Leonard Lopate (03/1996) 

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.

@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

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 :)

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.

Thinking of you

How is it going?

Right? Especially what with his casual, unwarranted mentioning of David’s past drug use. Like, wtf?

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.

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

Lol

I love that too much

Mc 11:29 iwiw

Inspiring

yea, he seems really quiet since 2006 x)

Surely you jest. Wallace videos on RU-vid, I would argue, are probably higher in quantity than almost any other authors in any lit content on RU-vid. 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 RU-vid. 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.

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.

Fyi we strapped our legs to the bench with weightlifting/hernia belts

Note: be careful to make quotes accurate

That's why he's good.

yea

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.

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.

Because he always wears black

Because he wore only black clothes

That from halo 3

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.

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?

I think he's OK. What is the problem with him for you?

Peter is the goat

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.

Are you accusing his wife of something here? That's ugly. Stop being ugly.

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….’

@King Kong I couldn't find the interview you refer to, would you be able to post a link? Thanks.

So you would rather have all writers only appear in well prepared PR puff pieces? OK... then you will love reading J.K. Rolling.

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.

90s radio was awful. i do not miss those days. bunch of wannabe shock jock intellectuals.

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.

Try Libra

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.

?

He’s dead.

No. A run-on sentence is not grammatically correct.

@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.

Wtf you talking about

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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?

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?

👀 ...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.

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.

Bandaged? Bandana.

A different time.