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A Brand New Interview with David Foster Wallace
- empath75 8y ago> “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.
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- oldsklgdfth 8y agoA 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.
- keithpeter 8y agoThat quote struck me as well. The 'effective engines' for search are there I suppose but perhaps not so much for choosing.
- lprd 8y agoI'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?
- tptacek 8y agoStart with "Consider The Lobster".
- throw_away2 8y agoHe can basically be broken down into his non-fiction collections, his short fiction collections and his novels. Personally, I would start with his non-fiction (Consider the lobster, supposedly fun thing). Then maybe some of his short fiction, like Brief Interviews, which can be a little more experimental, before tackling the novels.
- kristjansson 8y agoThis has been my path through his work, and it's been pretty enjoyable to follow. The non-fiction is definitely the most accessible, and built my taste for his writing.
- throw_away2 8y agoThis is perhaps my favorite non-fiction of his (which appears in Consider the Lobster): https://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/HarpersMagazine-2001-04-0070913.pdf https://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/HarpersMagazine-2001-... It's a discussion of descriptivist vs prescriptivist grammar and led me to A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, which is a way more fascinating book than its title would imply.
- yasp 8y agoInfinite Jest, although it might take you a few tries to get through it. Part of the fun though.
- yarrel 8y agoI loathed "Infinite Jest" having got through it in one try. The advice I have since received is that I should have started with DFW's shorter pieces. I'm not going to now, but I do feel it's good advice given the love I've seen people who followed that route generally gain for his writing.
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- marnett 8y agoThank 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 8y agoThanks, 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-to-tell-me-to-read-infinite-jest/ http://reductress.com/post/why-im-waiting-for-the-right-man-...
- marnett 8y agothis is hilarious. thanks for sharing.
- mlthoughts2018 8y agoThe 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.
- chrisweekly 8y agohahahaha that is fantastic, +111
- AlexCoventry 8y agoMy wife actually did introduce me to DFW, back when we were dating. I was a bit obsessed with him for a while... even visited his collected works at UT Austin.
- pcthrowaway 8y ago
- dilap 8y agoI wonder what DFW would've thought of Tao Lin.
- lordgrenville 8y agoAs 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 8y agoIt'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.
- ex3xu 8y ago> 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 8y agoLiterary academia does that, but I've not yet developed a habit for it myself.
- hailk 8y agoI 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.
- faux_intellect 8y agoI 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 8y agoSilverblatt 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.
- _Microft 8y agoNobody 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 8y agoIf 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