David Foster Wallace on Bookworm (1996-2006)

From KCRW's Bookworm. Interviewer: Michael Silverblatt.
00:00 On Infinite Jest (April 11, 1996).
28:54 On A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (May 15, 1997)
57:26 On Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (Aug 12, 1999).
01:26:05 On the Phone (Aug 3, 2000).
01:54:45 On Consider the Lobster (Mar 2, 2006).
These uploads aren't monetised. Show your appreciation with a beer: www.buymeacoffee.com/mjnicholls

[@andrewosbaldeston3893]

“It seems to me that one of the scary things about the nihilism of contemporary culture is we are really setting ourselves up for fascism. Because as we empty more and more values and motivating principles.. spiritual principals out of the culture, we are creating a hunger that is gonna.. eventually gonna drive us to the state where we will accept fascism. Just because the nice thing about fascism is they will tell you what to think, they’ll tell you what to do, and they’ll tell you what’s important.“ David Foster Wallace

[@kaibuchan]

this is exactly what is happening today.

[@zacharygarrett9299]

Fuck, that is spot on. Scary.

[@ohdude6643]

And yet that predefined grid of allowed thoughts is not only present in Fascism, but also on its diametrical projection: Communism, and Antifa kind of movements.

[@lordbunbury]

Tell me what to do and think daddy Trump

[@michaelfarkas2257]

@@kaibuchan yep, this is exactly what we see with the democratic party and its controlled media, government, and university apparatus, who force substances into you and tell you what is and is not acceptable thought.

[@DSnake655]

The constant assurance that he's making sense is the sign of a true thinker. He wants to be understood, unlike the lot of them.

[@Mrkostaszx]

We are blessed to have this set of DFW interviews. Michael is articulate to the core with questions that would normally be fairly abstract for me but he really manages to get the point across.

[@tomfinley1118]

I agree we were so lucky that DFW existed.

[@alvinhaglund5811]

liked him back in the day , but I think he liked the idea of being a writer much more than writing@@tomfinley1118

[@jordangaspard25]

Thanks for the upload. Their conversations are incredible, even after listening to them numerous times. For some reason, these interviews provide a great comfort to me.

[@donaghcoffey2416]

I'm with you on that. Listening to these interviews never gets old.

[@midnightoats4050]

Thank you for compiling this!

[@MacSmithVideo]

He's so thoroughly Gen X, complete with all its neuroses. Truly a voice of a generation.

[@andybaldman]

Explain.

[@Cuyt24]

He was born in 1962. He's a boomer.

[@Blasteroids4816]

I think it's fine to consider him a gen xer at least spiritually. Lord knows baby boomers claim every rock star under the sun as baby boomers when literally everybody from the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix are technically members of the silent generation

[@Cuyt24]

@andrewkaranja4816 He was a boomer. You can't spiritually be another generation. I'm 36 years old and I don't claim to be spiritually zoomer. Stop with the nonsense.

[@filmbuff4]

@@Cuyt24 62 isn't boomer, boomers were born right after WWII...62 would be the first of Gen X

[@BrandonScottFox1]

you are amazing for posting this. forever indebted to you. thank you!!!!

[@mattmacneil3424]

2:07:43 when he says "the lobster essay" sounds like silverblatt doing a silverblatt impression

[@devil_pls]

Thank you so much for this amazing video!

[@ididgt4259]

Man I would've loved to have listened to them talk about Oblivion. I think that could be DFW's best work. Good Old Neon, Mister Squishy and The Soul is Not a Smithy are some of the creepiest things he wrote imo

[@joem5615]

I didn't like his novels but I love the essays and stories, good old neon is my fave

[@scaladeUK]

cheers for this mate!

[@ringkim5135]

Thank you. It's very nice to hear DFW's voice.

[@avantgardenovelist]

thanks for doing this!

[@idklol4197]

dave does that professor thing a lot where he says "weelll" instead of "i disagree with what you just said"

[@spikeep6141]

My Generation, and the one before (Foster’s) were raised under the constant, daily Damocleasian Threat of Global Thermonuclear War and The Balance of Terror - We were taught to vacillate, and hedge, and withhold from comment as a Strategic Social Social Posture intended by design to avoid *Conflict,* and the breaking-out of *open* hostilities and *ALL costs* - because any unconstrained Conflict, left unchecked could rapidly descend into a perverse downward spiral of *escalation,* that could *ultimately* proceed to ultimately end up resulting in *The End of The World.*

[@idklol4197]

@@spikeep6141 unhinged capitalization but interesting point

[@maxhill1827]

@@spikeep6141that sounds awesome. Better than Gen Z. I was raised on KZbin, pornhub and TikTok videos!

[@pocket83squared]

@@maxhill1827 [Slow, drawn-out] Yeah. Gen X was pretty sweet. Our neuroses were sort of one-foot-in-each-pie, but it's better than being knee-deep in one big one, like the Boomers or the Zillenials. Our childhood missed (or at least normalized) that daily threat of thermonuclear catastrophe, and we learned how to ask for a phone number _before_ giving up and turning the impulse over to electronic distractions. In the end, we ended up _partially_ cynical, sure, but still hopeful enough to find a job and a relationship; lazy though we may be, we luckily avoided developing full-tilt entitlement while still getting to play with all the good toys. Also, our writing is the best of the three.

[@tboss8157]

@@maxhill1827lmao

[@donaghcoffey2416]

Great upload. Thanks a million fella. Just thank you ☺️

[@stockbag]

Thank you.

[@ProtoAstron]

Happy Birthday David!

[@bigbooks360]

Thanks for the upload man. I can't afford the beer but you got a subscriber for sure.

[@m.j.nicholls]

Cheers, dude.

[@fungi42021]

thank you

[@anattablue]

its weird that david spoke the most normally

[@Haydenthemaker1000]

The greatest

[@elijahjennings4404]

Reminds me of the public radio broadcaster from parks and Rec! thanks for kepping DFW with us ❤

[@Jurry253]

The creators are big fans of DFW’s work from what I’ve gathered, so that’s almost surely no coincidence.

[@madcrawfish]

that's because his character is based on michael silverblatt

[@G1Joe]

"Encourage Me & I Will Not Forget You" - Best Fortune Cookie

[@sbonventure]

Does anyone know why this video is classified as "age restricted?"

[@RyanMcQuen]

Some book mentions: 49:40

[@uriahfiiya]

What a theme song!

[@tonywalton1052]

just a couple of regular guys having a budweiser beer........

[@DinosaurSuccess]

dfw was so depressed and insecure for it. no, none of the answers sound completely insane. in fact they are some of the most sensical things i have heard in a long long time.

[@RyanMcQuen]

40:55 Footnotes!

[@idklol4197]

51:45

[@ringkim5135]

21:52 DFW said the nice thing about what? I am not a native speaker and it has no subtitles. Thanks for help in advance!

[@poppykipfer6244]

Hi Ring Kim, The word is "fascists" - he's speaking about how, as we empty ourselves of spiritual, motivating factors, we are setting ourselves up for accepting (and hungering for) fascism. "The nice thing about fascists is they'll tell you what to think. They'll tell you what to do. They'll tell you what's important. And we as a culture aren't doing that for ourselves yet." Hope that helps!

[@LiINammmm]

21:00

[@himomsf2]

49:25 - 52:00

[@nekrautistik]

Sometimes writing (and dare I say **being a writer**) can exacerbate one's mental illness. I fortunately was born with (it feels like I was born with it) the Ability to draw, so after ten years of flailing at the "being a writer" tree I have dropped that and replaced it with something that has done nothing but fill me with MORE hope and not LESS (which writing can do). Just a thought.

[@austinlemke5650]

9:36

[@danikd2924]

2:00:00

[@adnanmahmud8854]

1:23:06

[@Misserbi]

As an athlete trained to play a sport it is strange how a victory on the field translates to no display of character at all to those who don't see a talent but an opportunity? Doesn't it seem like that is what "Consider the Lobster" may be about?

[@Fagulhu]

2:21:00

[@diorblunt]

20:50

[@mixedmattaphors]

David Foster Wallace saying he's uncomfortable with both the moral and post-moral terms shows it. Yeah, Dave. You throw away the first, you get the second. Suck it up, and count your Winnings, on the Lobster. (Ironically, he could have written that exact essay, maybe minus the Eating, about babies who are killed before birth. He probably wouldn't want to "touch that.")

[@weewee2169]

what do you mean in plain english im interested

[@Nikeroxmysox]

@@weewee2169I assume it’s religious moral’s the guy you’re asking is referring to. Throw out god, you get man’s moral code, which differs from one person to the next. Which the commenter then extrapolated to his personal views on abortion, which is obviously immoral in this persons eyes, and that if we all just followed “god” there would be no dead babies. Maybe they’ll respond, in the off chance they don’t, that’s my take away.

[@waynemethsky]

can someone photoshop a cowboy hat on that picture

[@maxmeeks9910]

Fans of this guy might, just might, like "We Are The American Zombies. Real shit, from a legit good student, that's lived in bording houses, attended AA, and was a high-school Top Ten, Dean's list college grad, that later STOPPED watching TV, and became conscious.

[@jackson633]

This Silverblatt guy is on serious meds or rec drugs or something.

[@jordanzlotolow8254]

what makes him an expert?

[@432Restoration]

Is it just me, or does Silverblatt expose DFW as a bit of a fraud?

[@christianabt9548]

In what way?

[@mikegeraghty5844]

Interviewer sounds stoned

[@cacophonic7]

David Foster Wallace was born in 1962, not 1996...

[@mattemery4081]

Pretty sure the dates reference his appearances on the show not his inception and expiration date

[@hglenn2k]

@@mattemery4081 "For our next lesson we will practice reading the description... with hard work and dedication we could even read an 1100 page novel one day"

[@michaelfarkas2257]

DFW is always talking to some wannabe intellectual tryhard using as many big words as possible

[@MishaShivers]

I get like that whenever I read DFW's stuff. It's hard not to want to try to meet him up on his own level, even if it's futile.

[@mattmacneil3424]

do not talk shit about silverblatt

[@ramunebradfordtake2710]

Well, here's the difference, unlike Jordan Peterson or Shapiro, DFW actually knows the words he uses. and he doesn't sound condescending he's just saying what he knows linguistically. Does that make sense? It's not to showcase his intelligence it's just how he talks.

[@user-ys7kt7dd3o]

The interviewer sounds like Fauci and it kind of ruins it for me

[@TrueManCrowyote]

21:22 DFW predicts the rise of Trump.

[@realCharAznable]

I think he'd be sad to hear such a reductionist assertion. The only way you could suggest something like that is if you form your worldview from American media, which is quite the opposite of what he'd suggest.

[@TrueManCrowyote]

@@realCharAznable When he says “we are setting ourselves up for fascism” and “We as a culture,” the “we” DFW is referring to is “America.” DFW was a coyote medicine man at work on finding ways to heal “our” culture, finding the patient incurable or the remedy too difficult to prescribe or swallow, he left us. Gratefully, he still left us (in this case I mean “all of humanity”) a great gift and clues on how to begin to do the work.

[@realCharAznable]

@@TrueManCrowyote I agree with all of that. But the reality of America's illness is baked into the system at a cellular level at this point, and it is equally rampant in both parties and beyond. I have a hard time DFW would jump on the "Trump is the root of all evil" train, because that is a caricature of the truth, propagated by the mainstream media, which DFW was deeply cynical and critical of. The spectacle surrounding Trump is one of innumerable issues in our society, a symptom or a culmination of things rather than the cause. But to get tunnel vision about it and allow partisan blinders to be put on is a mistake if one is trying to understand the situation as a whole.

[@TrueManCrowyote]

@De Profundis Trump is not just a fascist, he's a National Socialist in the mold of his biological father. The only difference is he's not as angry as his real dad was; his adopted father spoiled him.

[@michaelfarkas2257]

if DFW was alive to live through the progression we have lived through, he would be a trump supporter