A couple of weeks ago, cartoonist Tim Taranto gave us at the store one of his literary pun drawings: “David Foster Wallace and Gromit.” Cute, right? And it got me thinking a lot about DFW.
All I’d ever read of his were a few pieces in the collection A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again and his commencement address at Kenyon College. So I dug a little deeper and pulled up via YouTube a few interviews he’d done. Put some books of his (including the Joyce-dense Infinite Jest) on my library “for later” list. Anybody finish that book? I’ve yet to actually meet anyone who has. That goes for Proust, too. Let me know.
One particular interview grabbed me. He gave it to a German woman who was making a documentary for TV back home. It was well after he wrote Jest, and he did his best to offer thoughtful answers to her questions. What struck me most were his thoughts on the mass media’s saturation of US culture, and how it’s affecting our interpretation—and very creation of—our reality, as individuals and as a society. Give it a watch. (note: there are eight more parts that follow this first one)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5IDAnB_rns
That led to a Doritos-like binge (those tasty orange triangles being junk food, that’s a bad simile) of DFW interviews. There are several on YouTube, including a pretty good one by Charlie Rose. I’m still digesting what he had to say. Wallace, not Rose. Next up: tucking into some more of his books. Wish me more than luck.
15 comments
Yes, many people have read Infinite Jest. I’ve read all DFW’s books (except the one on mathematics), but this hardly makes me unique or special. Most everything he wrote is worth reading once, and much of it is worth reading again and savoring and will stick with you for a lifetime.
Lynn,
I just received ‘Jest’ as a birthday gift, so I’ll get on it soon. Finishing up “Consider the Lobster” (the book) first. Loving it, except for the piece he wrote for Harper’s about the ‘Dictionary of Modern American Usage.’ Couldn’t get into it. My eyeballs nearly exploded from the footnotes to the footnotes, but that’s partly a function of my crappy vision. But when I finish ‘Lobster,’ I’ll definitely go through it again. Looking forward to more. He was so thoughtful. I dug his piece (and especially the asides) on the Dostoevsky series. I think his stuff makes me a better person.
[…] forward a few years, and my husband, John, recently got onto a DFW kick, both his writing and videos of interviews he […]
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