Charlie Rose interviews David Foster Wallace, 1/4

Charlie Rose interviewed the late David Foster Wallace, a contemporary American author, on March 27, 1997.
DFW: The stuff that I was doing was really more math than philosophy, and I don't know whether I would have taught. If you're good enough at that they just kind of put you in a think tank and let you write on yellow paper.
www.charlierose...

[@azaquihelify]

One of the greatest sadness of my life, was to find this dude....too late

[@lorenzozadro2892]

Tatsujiro Kurogane I appreciate black humour

[@bardamu3242]

Cheers

[@kylehenson277]

Call him what you want-- he's an interesting character. Very smart, well spoken and confident in what he's talking about, yet incredibly nervous in this (and other) interviews. You can tell that he is aware of the irony of his presence on this show.

[@kylehenson277]

@Jessica Hicking I don't even remember commenting this, but I wasn't insulting him by any means. Also I sound like a pretentious douchebag.

[@Mohammad-zc7gn]

@@kylehenson277 hahaha it means you grew that you realize that though

[@lordbunbury]

@@kylehenson277 Why do you think your previous comment makes you sound like a pretentious douchebag? I think you described him pretty well. Highly intelligent, but so self conscious that he might come across as snobby or a douche that he keeps apologizing for himself. I don’t understand the last sentence though: the irony of his presence on this show? Why is it ironic?

[@nopeISdope96]

He seems like he’s hyper-self-aware or something

[@chokingmessiah]

Lesson learned. Do not read the comments to any youtube video, ever, ever again.

[@kreed1004]

BOHEMIA about time someone said that

[@stuartlondres]

Hola Senor 9009

[@HigherPlanes]

BOHEMIA Unless you need insight pertaining to the taint of humanity

[@caparinobro]

+BOHEMIA THANK YOU!

[@RyanL95lol]

I love David Foster Wallace man... he's such an endearing guy

[@PounamuKnight]

God, I miss him so much.

[@real_john_doe]

I would love to have been able to simply sit down with this man and just search the depths of his mind, an incredibly fascinating individual.

[@jx14aby]

+Johnny D I saw the movie last night. He's a fascinating guy. So sad he had to go.

[@real_john_doe]

+HULKJ4ZZ What are you the prose police? Tell me, when did it become mandated that youtube comments were to be cliche free and waxed with eloquence?

[@real_john_doe]

+HULKJ4ZZ Thanks for the input. I'll keep that in mind. Best to you.

[@davidferron5096]

+Johnny D I get the impression that DFW cared very much about the individual, and those comments are searching to hurt.

[@Jayhavens1]

David Foster Wallace was America's late twentieth and early twenty-first century's Alexis de Tocqueville - He showed us modern America for what it really was -- that it really wasn't very pretty to look at. He showed us that we Americans are obsessed with being entertained -- that we are not choosing carefully enough what to love. He showed us our own 'new' American narcissism and his description was a very very ugly portrait of ourselves. For all of his flaws, he turned the mirror on all of us and we Americans are not pleased with what we saw - can you imagine why people didn't like him? Rest in Peace David.

[@justsomestuffn]

He was mentally ill, and turned a mirror on his own anxiety ridden self.

[@barsouk]

You can always move to Cuba or Iran.

[@chanceDdog2009]

dave proves DFW was right, i bet good money dave voted for trump...

[@MLJohnsonian]

Ah yes, Chance, very profound. Those shallow deplorables! Those deep Dems!! Amarite?

[@chanceDdog2009]

@@MLJohnsonian yes . You are

[@jamesderoc6717]

you can read this in my face?

[@AdamSmith-cc2up]

james deroc Well, ‘show me someone who doesn’t like being respected.’

[@mrnarason]

That was scary actually

[@terrapinjs]

Just finished Infinite Jest. Could have been twice as long and I still would have loved it. DFW was a genius.

[@SconeMason]

Having lived through being a great admirer of Wallace, met him briefly, and seeing how everything turned out, it's heartbreaking to watch this now. He grits his teeth every so often as if being tortured.

[@everlastingman4377]

“He was lovable the way a child is lovable, and he was capable of returning love with a childlike purity. If love is nevertheless excluded from his work, it's because he never quite felt that he deserved to receive it. He was a lifelong prisoner on the island of himself. What looked like gentle contours from a distance were in fact sheer cliffs. Sometimes only a little of him was crazy, sometimes nearly all of him, but, as an adult, he was never entirely not crazy. What he'd seen of his id while trying to escape his island prison by way of drugs and alcohol, only to find himself even more imprisoned by addiction, seems never to have ceased to be corrosive of his belief in his lovability. Even after he got clean, even decades after his late-adolescent suicide attempt, even after his slow and heroic construction of a life for himself, he felt undeserving. And this feeling was intertwined, ultimately to the point of indistinguishability, with the thought of suicide, which was the one sure way out of his imprisonment; surer than addiction, surer than fiction, and surer, finally, than love.”

[@everlastingman4377]

Dave Emery Dave, what the fuck do you want to accomplish here? Just spreading your empty bitterness? "Does being a "talented genius" make a person's every move "wonderful", including their self murder?" Who said wonderful? It was a hideous tragedy..

[@jamesderoc6717]

love how the comments about a writer try so hard to be poetic . really you have no idea about his problems . .. .fine writing though

[@everlastingman4377]

james deroc Its by Jonathan Franzen, one of DFW's best friends, who does happen to be a fantastic writer.

[@TheRosaNight]

Sal Paradise Amazingly enough, his suicide was not about giving your dearly-held principles the finger. We will never fully understand each other, and you apparently have no idea of the self-loathing that drives some of us to the razor, the pills or the rope. When I wanted to kill myself, it was because I knew happiness, meaning, excitement, deep bonds with friends and lovers--all the things that make up our collective world-- were being experienced by those around me, and I felt incapable of connecting with any of it. Death seemed preferable to existing as a husk.

[@everlastingman4377]

Rosa Night I don't know if you noticed, but my post was in quotations; as in not my words. It was written by Jonathan Franzen, a friend of DFW and I think it was a well written insight (from the perspective of someone who knew him) on his suicide. Being someone who struggled with suicide, how do you have the audacity and lack of empathy to claim someone you know nothing about knows nothing of the struggles of suicide? Could it be that I like his work because some of it was very pertinent to my life, that his words resonate with my thoughts better than anyone I've met in person? Isn't that what literature is all about? You don't have a monopoly on suicidal ideation and neither is it something that can be simplified to the point of a generalization. That being said, I do hope you really have recovered from whatever dark place you were in, I can't say too much more for fear of over-simplifying something so complicated and insidious. Good luck to you.

[@eugeniofiallos6785]

he grimaces involuntarily just like Hal

[@gbluecheez]

“I am pleased to have him back on this broadcast.” *takes a sip of water*

[@jackpfiester5013]

What's water?

[@Normeiskey]

I love him so much. Even when criticizing something he always looks for that artist's medium of atonement. He's never brash, and very, very humble.

[@Savorist]

So interesting how when he is answering questions, his eyes are pacing as if he is, indeed, reading his answer.

[@eliotk1385]

Rose is a great interviewer. He both exposed Wallace's insecurity and helped lead him in the right direction.

[@bertyboy12345]

Please, his questions were fuckin stupid and lacked the intellectuality owed the occasion.

[@movement2contact]

@Jeff Baker you sound insecure about your own intelligence...

[@sdemosi]

I miss him. The closest most of us ever got to him was reading the road trip dialogue of Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself. It felt like we lost a friend when he committed suicide

[@Benjabola]

I know that I am just passively observing this interview, but I feel like I am listening to a friend.

[@unclejunglebass]

my dad's dad taught at the university of illinois from the 60's to the 90's. cool connection! DFW is the man.

[@MistahKurtz1979]

It was classy of him not to totally bash "The English Patient" even though he obviously didn't like it.

[@WD-zk6fg]

Agreed.

[@daithiocinnsealach1982]

Dude loved himself so much

[@alwaystiredboy]

damn, Jason Segel got his voice down almost perfectly

[@sabkins3409]

my bloody valentine OMG, love your pfp

[@jamessouthcott4316]

Somehow moving, or cathartic, to see how Wallace reacts & keeps up with "dad' questions (i.e. patronizing) while not being thrown by them & giving honest responses. Probably if he had one of his students of his as an interviewer this would be fire

[@thomaspynchon8400]

He looks like intellectual brother of Axl Rose

[@antonietto1]

D F W we won't never forget you. So sensitive so brilliant,,so sweet person .You were one of thhe best writer and i think "Infinite Jest" is a masterpice toghether with "A supposedly funny thing i'll never do again". Rest in peace David

[@lazur1]

What a courteous, sensitive intelligent guy he was.

[@cynthmcgpoet]

I can't say that I've been a long-term fan, but upon discovering his work I have become one. I've been puzzling for the last few months about his state of mind towards the end of his life, but if he had been taking an SSRI such as Paroxetine or Setroline then that would explain everything to my satisfaction.

[@MikeM91320]

I'm assuming DFW is most known in the academic arena? I just came across his "This is Water" speech/book while reading a book by one of my favorite retired military leaders. DFW is obviously well-spoken and I'm sure well-read but part of me also feels he might be a bit arrogant? Off base? Is he considered a great teacher? The interview is interesting enough to make me want to discover more of his writings.

[@cynthmcgpoet]

I appreciate the fact that he struggled against using hipster metafictional irony within his work. That is a revolutionary act in a cynical culture, and for that I admire him tremendously. I thought you deserved a non-snarky response because I really want to see your question as sincere.

[@chromeeyelashes]

Love that little tick he does where he shuts his eyes real tight, showing his teeth.

[@tomitstube]

nobody bought or praised dfw's work because he was entitled to it, you must be very naïve to think people, especially writers, can just skate on privilege. maybe politics, but dfw never played that game, dfw is great because he worked his ass off and is a very very bright human being. his insight goes to places very few are able to grasp.

[@johnfinck288]

It just occurred to me that my previous post was all about Bloom; forgive me. I love DFW's work, it saved me, HE saved me. I felt like I was in the dark before reading Wallace, was in the dark for so long I didn't even know it. Before Wallace, I read and wrote in a vacume of hip, self-conscious, self-referential,and ironic sludge. I wish I could thank him.

[@muzweli13]

I’m not an intellectual, nor have I immersed myself in academia all my life. I’ve not read one word of this man’s prose. Now, maybe that doesn’t give me the credentials/right to comment here, but let me offer up a different perspective. ‘This man’s troubles were largely a product of his own making - end of’. There’s an infinite amount of possibilities out there. It was his decision to choose his, however narrow or wide; narrow seems to bring it home for me. He seems to be a individual trapped in his own intellect, who finally ran out of options and ways to express it in a world of his own making. His inability to accept or exercise any other options, leads me to doubt the true breath of his intellect. When faced with obstacles of any kind, a true genius/intellectual... backs off and immerses themselves in a world of options - not unlike a Mozart, who searches for the right notes in a symphony, or an Edison who tries for the 10,000th time.This man had the wherewithal to show kindness to animals, yet was unable to show that kindness to himself. Rather than feed the dogs, or at least put it in perspective..., he should’ve been feeding himself with some patience, love, and compassion; obviously, intellectual self indulgence wasn’t workin. I don’t pretend to know about his medication, alcoholism, or drug addiction, because I just got here. I do know that, millions of people out there with way lower IQ’s, struggle and overcome these things everyday. They struggle to stay alive (just one more day). They struggle to feed their families (for just one more day). With all of DFW’s intellect, he couldn’t reconcile a moment for what it truly is, which is all bullshit anyway, and say... “hell, tomorrow’s another day”. Now some of you will pick the above apart till no end, and you’re more than welcome. But remember this: ‘none of us have had an original thought or experience since we fell from the slit, not even DFW - and even that falling has been assimilated into the mechanism of the big machine’. Your first Christmas, high school prom, the bandage on your first skinned knee..., everything pretty much, was/is experienced from the standpoint of parameters already established. It’s DFW’s interpretation of those parameters that one finds interesting - but it’s only an interpretation.

[@dran0]

Why are you so mad? He was obviously a man that struggled with his inner demons, and eventually succumbed to them. He lost his purpose, and took his life in turn. Its sad when anyone dies especially to suicide, but why are you so mad that he took his?

[@muzweli13]

dran0 I think you replied to the wrong person. I’m not “mad” at all. If you’re trying to illicit a response from me on that score..., I’m not biting.

[@muzweli13]

I could care less that he took his own life. That was his own call.

[@jotcw81]

He contemplated about the Game of Life for so long, he forgot how to play it.

[@sempercompellis]

towering intellect

[@malcolmbryant]

A genius who made us cry.

[@leeroypancake]

God he talks fast when he gets going , holy shit ,his brain must be a trip

[@cesarvivas]

he said he sweat a lot during interviews and readings.. also he said it was a pressure technique to relieve migraines, but i think that was a pretense for the former reason

[@gibbiv]

"You can read this in my face?" 3:52

[@MiroslavWD]

The introduction is so cool~~~😊

[@jgonzales912]

K cars...cars that are now in junkyards somewhere. Or worse.

[@prepst3rhipster]

Genius and creativity alongside tragedy are very common for obvious reasons. We are a social species, and the more we know that others do not understand the more we are isolated and struggle to find peers. Lack of available companions often leads to solitary lifestyles & thus more time do 'feel and go crazy under the burden of one's inability to communicate or socialize effectively. That's one perspective, there are many more, but these people are not gullible, shot to fame and guided somewhere.

[@BloodIncantationTab]

my comfort place

[@Datdankboi]

I'd argue that Infinite Jest, and all of Wallace's work following his first novel, is an attack on postmodernism.

[@jonabirdd]

"Worrying about not writing. Not worrying about what to write..?" "Right. Worrying about not writing."

[@DoJo-HyGe]

Cunctation.

[@ScosilVIDEOS]

crazy how when a smart person appears in a youtube video, everyones insecurities start flaring up and they write like they're going to get graded by a professor. People need to relax. Don't feel inferior.

[@corporatepawn7052]

So you see a comments section that actually has some degree of sincere and civil discourse and your reaction is to criticize it based on some unsubstantiated assumption? You do realize how cancerous the typical youtube comments section is right or are you so blinded by your own insecurities that you're projecting onto others?

[@uui219]

*Maybe they just have an opinion on him that's contrary to yours.*

[@Chironex_Fleckeri]

This is exactly what happens on any intellectually stimulating video. Everyone goes big brain mode and tries to make profound comments.

[@Chironex_Fleckeri]

@jay yes

[@knowsmebyname]

Katie Couric interviews Shakespeare.

[@valpergalit]

Of all the interviews of Wallace I've seen, he seems to be most comfortable in this one. I love it.

[@melnjada2]

seeing this I think Jason Segel did a good job!

[@marktwain3387]

Who?

[@cynthmcgpoet]

I agree with you about Bloom. While he may have insight into Shakespeare, he fails in regards to his views on contemporary literature. Leave him to his fossils, and he's practically harmless.

[@MikeRoberts1964]

Axl Rose Wallace?

[@newdamage5945]

I was thinking: Axl Rose The Intellectual.

[@t.j.payeur5331]

Axl Rose is a zit on the ass of David Foster Wallace...

[@memoasus1967]

Fuck yeah

[@kerrymcnamara2876]

at 8:20, DFW's hesitant response to the "Dune" question is priceless.

[@vibbly]

you're seriously asking me for my view on the english patient?

[@malcolmbryant]

Most insightful comment so far. Thank you for that. Sad but true.

[@ANNEWATTSBOISTER]

They were both undergrads in the Pioneer Valley, DFW at Amherst and Elliott Smith at Hampshire.

[@chicostick12]

long live DFW

[@IamTreebeardword]

If you read Infinite Jest in its entirety and don't AT LEAST think it was at least A LITTLE impressive, then I guess that says a lot about you then doesn't it?

[@SteelyDanimal]

This guy is like the Literary Elliot Smith.

[@togglescratch]

a very intelligent guy, very preoccupied by his own intelligence. he says "you don't need an hour long narrative of this," implying that he could provide one. you can tell his whole life is hell. he can't leave his own mind even for a second.

[@RyanWSi]

I miss him

[@jodalsgaard5792]

Basically the only DFW interview on KZbin where the interviewer seems to actually get his work and what he's talking about. Really great stuff.

[@zionistkid]

You should be ashamed of yourself. Charlie Rose was DFW's worst interview. Bookworm's Silverblatt is the best person to ever interview him.

[@jodalsgaard5792]

Yeah, rewatching the interview made me realize that it's not charlie rose's questions at all that I like, just DFW's answers. I still think it's an incredible interview, but Rose is in the same league as the rest of them. Then I found the Bookworm interviews, sound only, on the DFW Audio Project and listened to them, and I have to say you're completely right. SIlverblatt's a clever guy!zionistkid

[@zionistkid]

yep... Wallace is a genius, but Rose made him wince more than a few times.

[@bobwarren9467]

I enjoy both Bloom and Wallace.....I don't have to agree with the people that I enjoy to enjoy their work.

[@youremydisco88]

@rushrushrushfan he wears the headband because he sweats a lot in a setting such as this

[@danocable]

Terry gross fresh air interview with Wallace is good.

[@malcolmbryant]

No! He says "You can read this in my face?" 3:58

[@loevehjerte]

rest in peace

[@Suwutae]

what about Wallace? im just getting to know this guy

[@eziosavva]

would you kindly to subtitle? because automatically subtitles does not make some sense, it is difficult to understand full message from a deaf person perspectives.

[@piparcher2189]

Here's a transcript I found, it reads fairly accurately: www.smallbytes.net/~bobkat/rose.html

[@eziosavva]

Thank u very much

[@iamdavidchavez]

Dave Eggers said in a forward to Infinite Jest that DFW wore a bandana at public readings because he sweated so much. He wore it to prevent his sweat from dripping on the pages. I wonder if he wore it here for the same reason.

[@ilipiwke]

Can you give an example of such statement in Infinite Jest? Personally, I loved the novel.

[@snowstarGurl]

Have you actually read any of his novels? Coming from a privileged family does not mean you don't have worries. 'Sure later on he battled depression..but overall his work is overrated'- I'm not sure what being privileged has to do with work being overrated. I mean, look at Byron, Wordsworth, Keats. And without the privileges of better education, how would people have access to more knowledge? I think it's a really silly thing to be jealous of someone's lot, and then go on to define them by that.

[@UpperCrustthe3rd]

that's a pretty good comparison.

[@1rkipling]

Ultimate Jest is one of the best novels ever written. It has more philosophy and morality and character development than any other modern novel i can think of.

[@gerhitchman]

lol

[@justice7788]

Does anyone else watch this only to realize that you're surrounded by complete idiots and sleeping zombies, while also being reminded once again that you shouldn't have dropped out of college? I need more intellectual conversation in my life... sorry personal problem

[@johnboy3419]

It’s hard for me to keep up I don’t know this dude at all and he seems extremely scared to show who and what he really is for fear of being judged but like I said this video is first I’ve ever heard of him

[@mattisprettycool]

No way. It is such a fantastic story.

[@msclgns]

@destybenway -- Yeah, but there is a Richard Rodriguez author, so I'll allow the slip-up.

[@laservishnu]

I love that he just throws "cunctation" in there so casually.

[@TheUltimateGC]

No, he meant to say Robert* Rodriguez, director of El Mariachi.

[@lamaitresserouge]

he was definitely my soul mate

[@franklinuroda6474]

Why read any book? I'm interested in the content. I like the artful layout of the work, and the skilful use of words. I like the other work of the author. I like the author. How long a process does all this take? Not long.

[@fc7alibi]

David Foster Wallace can wear a bandana and a necktie at the same time.

[@WD-zk6fg]

This myst have been part of what inspired "Prison Mike" from The Office. They just left the man's intellect and character out of the reprisal. It was a missed opportunity if you ask me.

[@marblerye123]

Well he is the interviewee. He's there to talk. Charlie is just there to keep it going. Usually it's charlie who interrupts his interviewees.

[@slybuster]

You're awesome.

[@malcolmbryant]

No, DFW says "You can read that from my face?" when CR says "You enjoy being respected" or some such.

[@TheZurul]

also, Bloom calls everyone "dear" in conversation.

[@raccoonsarenotafraidofpeop8983]

david lynch respect!

[@TheUltimateGC]

Oops, he said "Richard Rodriguez", I think he meant Robert Rodriguez, right?

[@dillagentlychillin]

why is DFW constantly interrupting Mr. Rose just as Charlie is making some profound observation?

[@PhiloInfinitum]

Perennial genius, unparalleled in academia probably for the next 100 years.

[@Salmagundiii]

Fascinating interview. But I disagree with his assertion that Lynch was the first to do quirky films that get a wide release; there are plenty of examples in European cinema and even in Australia, Picnic at Hanging Rock did very well in 1975. But I doubt this is really a case of cultural myopia; maybe he'd meant to add a qualification to his statement, but got distracted.

[@troumer]

@TlR6 I might have thought the same as you if I didn't already know about it. I was lucky enough to see him read twice. The second time (about the same time as this interview) the medication thing came up. As for exasperation making it worse, you may be right, tho I had thought of it as just nervousness. Both here and at that reading, it was more pronounced at the start and gradually lessened as he got more comfortable. But I'm guessing about that.

[@Beccaleigh457]

@rushrushrushfan DFW wore a bandana because he got so nervous about making public appearences that he'd perspire a lot, so the bandana would hide it.

[@peaceloveandherpes]

This is random, but I think "he will die in his comfort zone" ought to become a quote.

[@bcmason83]

I am by no means a fanboy, in fact I had not even heard of DFW until a few days ago, but I have shared EccentricHippie's opinion of Bloom for years. I got so sick of reading Bloom's intros to his own edited volumes (which admittedly come in handy). Bloom apparently thinks he is making profound points by comparing every character in every book to Iago or Falstaff. It bothers me that people actually take what Bloom has to say seriously, and base their own opinions on what he says.

[@bucketheadkfc]

@rushrushrushfan by pressing the shift and the "@" key you are doing no less action than you would be if you typed "at"...in fact you have to go through the mental process to type a symbol rather than a simple two letter word, why did you do this?

[@thompben]

Wallace is very much within 'the zone of academic white-bread high-brow crap' - he typifies American postmodernism, which is/was the direct product of academic/university-based schools of literary criticism (i.e. the Barth, Barthes, Barthelme sort.) Bloom's the opposite - from the Johnson/Hazlitt line of critics that have always been rare in US universities. Very conservative, often wrong, but also brilliant. He's devoted his life to literature and written insightfully - where's the pretence?

[@yoyossarian9468]

Has anyone else gotten to the point of DFW's bandana is ridiculous?

[@Burncourtable]

I completely disagree with him about teaching, but i do respect his work.

[@alexinglis2623]

Yooooou never got to interview David Lynch

[@harrisonthompson8611]

richard rodriguez....you know hed hit himself over that mistake

[@Fuckoffgoogle25]

can someone explain to me what they like about his writing?

[@kxkxkxkx]

Wisdom, style, vocabulary, humor