David Foster Wallace on humor and Infinite Jest

Edited version of the ZDFmediatek interview with David Foster Wallace. This version offers David Foster Wallace's ideas, without repetitions, long pauses, interviewer's comments. Although some cuts may appear rough, there is no attempt at editorial bias or content manipulation. Mr. Wallace's archives (books in his library, notes, and writings) have been recently acquired by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas Austin.

[@weissgrimoire4386]

The two chapters with Jim Incandenza (the only years not subsidized) as a kid and the exchanges between him and his father are just the most hilariously heartbreaking and relatable scenes I've read in a story.

[@denverguitarhero]

Yep the mattress scene Is a highlight of the entire novel

[@aidandoylepolitics]

I didn't find the first one THAT funny. haven't gotten to the second part yet so don't spoil it

[@wilhelmvg9978]

Jim not that way Jim.

[@tomitstube]

amazing insight, he really nails american privilege and how destructive it can be. it explains this sudden populist lust for austerity and not giving a fuck about anyone else, it's all about me baby, my greed and selfishness are making you stronger, discrimination and humiliation builds strong bones and sturdy backs, now get to work i need a vacation... why am i even fucking talking to you?!

[@luckyold317]

I love the fact that you can discuss anything if you can make it humorous. Take someone whose suffering from depression, if they come right out and say that they're depressed or suicidal and everyone jumps to comfort them to assure them to distract the thought process and change the subject, but introduce it with a bit of sarcasm and a smirk and people will ease into the topic. It's that old saying about the honesty of wearing a mask. Make em laugh and you can tell them anything.

[@travisnealtodd70]

I'm glad that I made it through Infinite Jest the second time around, although I must say I will never see footnotes in a completely innocent light for the rest of my life. I wonder how much the character of Incandenza Sr. was inspired by Stan Brakhage, whether an NFL punter will ever receive as much literary attention, if there will ever be a more accurate description of what deep depression FEELS like. Our society and culture are the poorer without Mr. Wallace. Two words, John J. Sullivan.

[@learrus]

This man just said more in three minutes than any politicans says in their entire life time

[@owenbscott]

I am now 25% through this, and I'm not stopping. I think it's simply brilliant, and it's probably the closest thing we have in this generation to Ulysses, by Joyce. To argue whether it's "sad", or "funny" is absurd. It's an ocean. It's life. It's got EVERYTHING in there - sadness, humor, and practically everything else human. If someone uses a one-word description for this book - or, rather, even has the temerity to classify it under such specific terms, they are merely talking about themselves, not about the book. The book itself should be read exactly as we should be living our lives - without our own personal chatter. Objectively.

[@akidnamedcam]

Ulysses lol.... Don't kid yourself

[@helenhur6390]

Agreed. It's brilliant, but it's not Ulysses.

[@owenbscott]

Thanks, All. Ulysses was written a generation and a half ago, was supposed to take place in Dublin in 1904, so the time and place was more than 100 years ago and in Ireland. So yeah, it's most definitely NOT Ulysses. I find the medium of the Internet very strange as a platform for conversation. If I was having drinks one night with friends or even strangers and I was telling a story about how I was reading a fascinating book and how it reminded me of Ulysses, I can['t imagine that anyone at the table, whether I knew them or not, would reply with "HAHAH Ulysses .. Don't Kid Yourself!" ... and it's even a bit much to imagine an arch comment like "Agreed, dahling ... but it's not Ulysses." It would seem odd, I would imagine. But it seems that the ONLY comments provided for ANY type of opinion are negative, sarcastic, arch, disagreeable, and snide. The only two other times I have joined any kind of online conversation have been the same. That is absolutely the reason why i pretty much never engage, and when I do write publicly it's in a place where I can write away without anyone making a comment, because I frankly don't have the energy for this kind of thing. It's tiring.

[@helenhur6390]

I absolutely ADORE Infinite Jest and most of DFW's other works. Like I said, I think IJ is brilliant, but not quite at the caliber of what Joyce pulled off. To be frank, I didn't mean anything negative, sarcastic, arch, or disagreeable by my comment and I would totally have said that to you at a dinner table...in an even more enthusiastic and elaborate way, I might add because it's rare that I get to discuss these two works I love but people have seldom read. I think Ulysses is just a superior book in many ways that could warrant an essay to flesh out, but I could be made to change my mind if others disagreed and it's fun to engage with people about this. I find it the opposite of tiring to discuss the merits of books with other readers. Also, I thought it was obvious that statement "it's not Ulysses" was not to underscore the evident differences in settings, but on other merits...no "dahling" was implied, I promise. :)

[@owenbscott]

Thanks, Christian and thanks Helen. I apologize for criticizing your response, Helen. I just realized that I'm actually quite grateful that we are all still reading and thinking, although we are decidedly in the minority. Truthfully, it may be that the Internet forum of communication has merit, mainly because I'm pretty sure that some years would go by before I could physically bump into anyone who even knew who these writers were, much less form an opinion about them. So thanks for your comments, both of you!

[@constanceclemmons2864]

Good to see that the full one-hour interview is still available, thank you. I got scared when I saw these short edited clips. DFW would find it kinda funny, I think, that someone felt a need to cut out the "long pauses, interviewer's comments," etc., cleaning up his act and making the narrative tidier, more marketable, more part of the zeitgeist that DFW warned us about. This interview was a conversation and it is one piece and a journey worth taking the time to see through.

[@carolyndewey8625]

Thanks for the heads-up! I'll watch the whole thing.

[@Mooseman327]

When I saw this title, I thought "WHAT humor in Infinite Jest?" That book is so sad and depressing and seems to be written from a coffin...with no way out for someone who viewed life from the false perspective that everything is random occurrence and that life is something that happens TO you. As if the title itself isn't a big hint of what the author is trying to get across. The whole book is written as if the author is staring at his own skull in his hands and thinking about the meaninglessness of his own life. You have to sage yourself after reading it to rid yourself of the stench of death and the feeling of deep depression. I feel so sorry for this guy. He basically thought himself to death.

[@whoayuice6634]

2:10 I can see his grief even though he tried to conceal it.

[@fatsdom]

Disagree

[@particleconfig.8935]

I think as a physical response, laughing about painful things is relieving since the parasympathetic nervous system is activated. Laughing it off !

[@amritanshu5723]

Mr Wallace could be a fictional character from one of his unfinished novels who is giving an interview about a "novel' he wrote in the novel, which gets edited and uploaded to youtube. To be viewed by someone searching about him after learning about his death. Based on this supposition, this someone is a part of the novel too and since you are able to read this comment. You too are one of the characters the only thing real is Mr wallace who is already dead for us

[@FranCacirano]

thank u for uploading!

[@aknefeeser1483]

1:09 I just feel a deep connection at that moment. Starting from beginning in my reading experience I found Infinite Jest to be not funny but cripplingly and horrifyingly realistic about consumer state of West and it's implications.

[@Artzineonline]

@bigshleigh Ludwig Wittgenstein "One of the things that makes Wittgenstein a real artist to me is that he realized that no conclusion could be more horrible than solipsism. " -- DFW

[@37Dionysos]

This guy gave the best commencement speech I ever heard---it's here on YT called "This Is Water."

[@djrobbligidy]

37Dionysos I bought the book! And have given it out several times for friend’s required reading.

[@benw7367]

What the hell is water?

[@user-oe6rj9ll9y]

@@benw7367 they bring drinks and stuff to you at like restaurants

[@davidpappachan3551]

quibinary maybe you’re in on it too but he’s referencing a sentence from the speech

[@marcosm5183]

Yeah, changed my life man. It really did.

[@izzygraze]

I'm not sure I want to read his book. I listened to his speach at Kenyon college, and watched the movie Liberal arts, and he killed himself. Not sure if I want to get that sad.

[@mstegosaurus]

6 years later, did you ever read it? I found it to be life-changing in several distinct respects (all positive).

[@devildriverrule111]

From my standpoint, David Foster Wallace and Lars Ulrich from Metallica sound literally exactly the same.

[@lauraarmstrong6857]

Pursed lips

[@NostalgiNorden]

They both have danish accents?

[@aspizak]

@@lauraarmstrong6857 that

[@el6178]

Someone said that comedians are the only people allowed to speak the truth in public.

[@contactkeithstack]

Just read the section in IJ where he talks about having sex while high with your drooping faces, I was laughing out loud, so true, dark comedy can transfigure past pain.

[@ScallopTip]

I love this mans dynamic, clear, perception of the world.

[@mattemery4081]

He sounds exactly like the voice you make when youre mocking a pretentious artist type.

[@stephentaylor8090]

that's why we all need to listen to what is being said instead of just how it sounds, that's like saying you hate a movie because you didn't like the cover

[@mattemery4081]

@@stephentaylor8090 lol no hes a smart man. im just saying his voice and mannerisms are literally the voice someone makes when theyre making fun of a brooding artist type. Assuming that i think hes less intelligent or has no substance because i made that joke is like attending a book club without reading the book.

[@MrLeonightis]

what a shame he just couldn't get that awful idea out of his head

[@mikesmith-pj7xz]

Wittgenstein thought that because he couldn’t deal with his brothers killing themselves.

[@vanessacurley9830]

He makes a great point about humor and our culture. What are WE laughing at today, and our humor can really tell us a little about our Selves.

[@oheymardyjay]

(though I doubt that he would conform to this sort of thing), DFW, in his infinite genius, would have the best tweets of all time. He is missed.

[@bobxyzp]

There are plenty of funny passages in IJ, but for humor to be the main impression readers come away with would be pretty obtuse.

[@GuiltyUniverse]

Agreed, I don't think today's culture or indeed any culture could submit to one philosophy of thinking 100%

[@youtubecommentor1338]

why is his voice so hauntingly impactful!!!

[@pod9363]

I think it’s cause it’s a normal person genuinely straining to give you a good answer rather than impress you.

[@mannyenviado137]

In an interview I read elsewhere, when stating he wrote the book to be a profoundly sad book and was surprised critics raved about it being brilliantly funny, he did not, as he speaks here, in politeness simply sayi he was surprised; quite the contrary, he stated he was HURT that people took it as a "funny" book. I praise my wife, , at about the 1/4 quarter point could not continue as it was NOT funny, it was tragic, and she was feeling sad enough already. She was responding to the book as Wallace intended it to be a sad book. I myself have been, as lover of this brilliant deep acutely sensitive caring man. I was myself hurt at how many raved about the book with shallow minded "what a laugh riot"--- I like this video for it showing the deep sensitivity of a great mind/ so sensitive, he reverts to the word "surprising" as to not lay his "it hurt me" trip on others. But truth is, the critics that proclaimed I.J.."brilliant and funny" did hurt him. That mere fact he titled the book "Infinite Jest" HAMLET This? FIRST CLOWN E'en that. HAMLET Let me see. Takes the skull Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow Of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath Borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how Abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at It. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know Not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your Gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, That were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one Now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let Her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must Come; make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell Me one thing. HORATIO What's that, my lord?

[@autofocus4556]

Manny Enviado it’s called black humor

[@diemeatbag]

is it shallow to see it as funny? or is it deeper to see the humor in the bitterness of life?

[@Artzineonline]

@NoHayMasMate Thank you for your comment. "This version offers David Foster Wallace's ideas, without repetitions, long pauses, interviewer's comments." I think you'd benefit from watching the unedited version which is also available on KZbin. It may ( or not) justify this edited version. Cheers!

[@cmilla111]

I’m cynical and love dark humour. I can laugh about how the rich are killing the planet hut is that as funny as hundreds of people spending hundreds dollars to be somewhere else not doing anything about it.

[@maggazilla]

You win algorithm, I will indeed buy and read Infinite Jest.

[@gofishdino]

Imagine a world in which DFW was a figure as recognizable as Kim Kardashian or Tom Cruise. Now imagine a mediocre comedian doing a mediocre impression of him on SNL. How easy would that be?

[@matteomosolo]

am I yhe only one not finding Infinte Jest humorous? I felt very sad reading it, some pages where hylarious but always with this deep sad feeling that was hurting me...

[@roc7880]

If you feel depressed in the US, take a trip to some new place. Either way it will make u feel better.

[@AnnaLVajda]

That's the problem with writing and making art once it's shared an audience can misinterpret it completely. He was writing about serious topics inspired by his friends suicide and readers could only enjoy his work as funny and that response probably made him even more pessimistic and aware of how people are only interested in self gratification. If he wrote from his heart and soul and his pain was constantly mocked and made frivolous and misunderstood then that level of insensitivity would make the inspiration for his continued work like drawing from a poisoned well.

[@declup]

DFW says of irony and dark humor: "Pretending to protest when it really isn't. [They are] the song of a bird that has come to love its cage." Irony and dark humor have continued to metastasize since the late 1990s. The epistemological distortions of irony, the if-you-slag-those-idiots-and-crooks-maybe-they'll-go-away activism by the resentful have consumed American media and America's broader culture, including the country's journalistic platforms. And, as Wallace seems to suggest (or at least would be likely to consider), although the jibes and quips of bylines and talking heads are intended as a wake-up call or an anasthetic, they're neither. Rather they're jolts of self-righteousness and siren songs to those lost in the wilderness.

[@alohagirl808]

People my age...lost (Death), a man in pain...:'(

[@Misserbi]

I finally found the thing they pin on him. He did not do heroin but uses the mystic of narcotics in a nostalgic way. Is he the one teaching others to enjoy -- everything? As if it comes on...

[@Kriskazam]

This is how i feel about memespouting

[@angelicreinforcement3373]

You're so right! I never thought of it that way. I saw, in all the irreverent and often very striking societal criticism that is often found in it something like recognition, but perhaps it's just a trap. People just posting something so other people can agree with it, and then both can walk away feeling good about knowing what's 'really going on' and simultaneously perpetuate that thing. Of course a lot of memes are just plain toxic, but even the ones that hit closer to home may ultimately be harmful

[@bawol-official]

I’m so glad that these DFW interviews exists because of how well he’s able to articulate depression and the human conditions in a way a mature individual would understand.

[@Mark1Mach2]

Its sad the way he passed away.

[@borowczyk76]

@Yesiamblind If Cronenberg could make a half decent film out of Naked Lunch (in fact I love that film)... I'm sure in the right hands, Infinite Jest could make a great film... but I'd hate if someone like Oliver Stone would get his filthy paws on this one...

[@slybuster]

I liked the book he wrote about math.

[@michaelpisciarino5348]

1:09 A Sad, Funny Book 1:35 Material Comfort 2:28 Living with for years. Marketing Culture. Individualism/Selfishness/Gratify Your Own Desires

[@Artzineonline]

@mcenkema These are edited versions of the full interviews which belong to ZDFmediateck and are available in their entirety on their site. I don't own the rights so I can't show the full interviews.

[@Yesiamblind]

@nutsbutdum Malick is 67 now. He would probably die in the middle of the whole process. Besides that it would probably take 15 years to actually write a semi-coherent screenplay for this book. There is no way this book will ever be made as a film. And I think it is a good thing as well just look at how Brief Interviews With Hideous Men turned out. Not to say that Jim Halpert didnt try his best but some books just dont translate onto the big screen. Not every book needs to be a movie.

[@tkat5709]

0:45 oh boi what a quote

[@classicpinball9873]

He thought we weren’t taking things seriously enough, and while that is true for a lot of people it’s important to remember a significant majority of things have no point in being taken very serious

[@siriusvenus8708]

Comedy is Tragedy--sped up. Who said that? (not me, just quoting) Hint: a famous American tv comedian.

[@liltick102]

He says it all so well

[@Artzineonline]

@thisisgrey I think the reference is perhaps to Black Humor as a literary genre in the US which came to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s. Technically, though, it has been around for a long, long time.

[@TaZiey17]

What is the name of the author in the beginning that formulate sentence about discussion on things that are "heavy".

[@kevinjboconnor]

I have a feeling I would not like the book Infinite Jest, so I'm avoiding it. I read both War and Peace and Anna Karenina instead. Maybe someday I will read it.

[@phitdemon]

@Artzineonline Could you tell me where it is available unedited please? I watched it unedited a little over a year ago but the version I watched seems to have been taken down. I would very much like to rewatch it all if possible. Thanks.

[@KlausDoitschlaaand]

My spirit animal. :)

[@retard6477]

He seemed a gentle, brilliant man.

[@Artzineonline]

@NoHayMasMate Look for 'WasglotztDuso" this channel has all the full interview. Cheers!

[@333CJ2daK]

I dunno, I always read it as a cri de coeur about american culture... as an Irish man this type of humour is familiar to me.

[@Artzineonline]

@JesterMereel sent you a link via e-mail, can't seem to be able to post links here! cheers!

[@michelemorrone8614]

Elettrodi, mkultra?

[@eprimeprice]

@NoHayMasMate The full video is linked on the David Foster Wallace Audio Project

[@JesterMereel]

@Artzineonline Then can you please give the site link to the full video?

[@mehdinadif]

@phenylphree i just finished IJ, one of the best BOOKS(not novels) I have ever read!

[@blankpool]

What was he on about?

[@kappacappello]

does anyone know when did this interview take place?

[@DilgXeroxusvous]

DFW was the personification of pretentiousness

[@CB-so8xd]

Poor class to speak ill of the dead, friend

[@borowczyk76]

@nutsbutdum I think I'd rather see Aronofsky tackle this one... or even Paul Thomas Anderson. Mallick's films have too much of a billowy flow to them which wouldn't fit with Wallace...

[@lucasgarcezxyz]

Who was the author he quoted in the beginning of the video, is wittgenstein? Can someone clarify for me, not an English native speaker.

[@brennenspice6098]

Yeah, the language philosopher. Dfw's first novel "Broom of the system" plays with allot of concepts found in the philosophy of Wittgenstein.

[@lucasgarcezxyz]

brennen spice thank you, will put this one on my reading list

[@nutsbutdum]

Terrence Malick should seriously consider doing a movie on Infinite Jest.

[@Mooseman327]

Uh, no, he shouldn't. Malick's approach to film would be the very opposite of that in every way.

[@kate9341]

I love him

[@Artzineonline]

@kappacappello 2003

[@bigshleigh]

RIP

[@bigshleigh]

who does he reference in the beginning?

[@briandressel1344]

bigshleigh Wittgenstein

[@pascaldegroote9813]

2020

[@333CJ2daK]

nice

[@roycesboy]

@Artzineonline perhaps

[@john27397]

…And Melville wrote Moby Dick in one year. Read that instead of Infinite Jest.

[@bigshleigh]

@bryher2 I disagree strongly.

[@SpencerWilliamsIV]

Wow. Wallace was compelled to write Infinite Jest after a few people he knew committed suicide? Talk about irony... Infinite Jest is clearly a depressing work. I'd venture to say that the people who thought it was more funny than sad may not have finished it. There are many parts that are very humorous and you'll definitely laugh out loud, but if you make it to the end, I don't think you'll know what to think...

[@michaelburke6871]

Dude spent as much time telling us what’s wrong with us because we didn’t like his book as he wasted writing that moronic tome.

[@classicpinball9873]

Where’s your book Michael?

[@jkane797]

He has a character kill himself by sticking his head in a microwave and he's surprised people thought it was supposed to be humorous?

[@neilcaffrey7791]

Why did you find that funny?

[@barsouk]

@bryher2 Explain how Ayn Rand's philosophy has triumphed 100%. There's plenty of Collectivism enforced on us.

[@ChrisOrillia]

That movie was not worthy of his name, it just wasn't him at all, it captured nothing important, had nothing to say. Why did they make that movie? Jesus...

[@brennenspice6098]

Agreed, and what was even more annoying was just how much they missed his sharp wit and distinct sense of humor. I also have no idea why they decided to focus the themes around what it means to be a genius. I thought they would have at least tackled some of the more genuine personal issues that David suffered from, as well as certain character flaws that they neglected to paint.

[@matth6541]

Great edit, cut out that pesky breathing

[@AJLangford]

The poor empty upper middle class. How terrible. Perhaps he would have preferred to be brought up working class where people have no choice but to go work in exhausting jobs in order to survive. See how meaningless that is. See what the substance abuse/anxiety/depression/suicide rate is then. I don't doubt his own issues and brilliance but the literary world is full of the self obsessed upper middle class. Oh woe to be them.

[@checkurbrainfly]

+Anthony Langford thought the same thing

[@AJLangford]

+checkurbrainfly cheers. Glad to hear it.

[@martymalinowski1176]

+Anthony Langford was he to write about the working class regardless of the fact that he could not relate to their woes? how do you write well about something that you know nothing about?

[@martymalinowski1176]

+Anthony Langford and you may be right that many writers are upper middle class, but that's kind of a product of the fact that they're the only ones with the privilege to have the time to write, isn't it? That doesn't mean they can't be insightful or tap into certain issues that can be seen throughout humanity regardless of class or creed. I think DFW tapped into something more ephemeral than some sort of upper middle class first-world problem type stuff. The notion of spending your life to get "somewhere" and finding out once you reach that goal that there is no "there" is something that I think most people can relate to. He wrote about struggling to find contentment in the present which I think anyone can relate to, but he did so through his lens which is the only way I think anyone can possibly write something of substance.

[@Manualburn]

+Anthony Langford To protest that it is not preferable to have upper middle-class art because the experiences of the working-class are felt to be a more suitable subject for art is to miss the purpose of art completely. Are we supposed to recreate Germinal by Emile Zola ad infinitum? It's ok to for art to address a variety of experiences, because we vary in the way we experience life.

[@grantnielson2569]

DAVID FOSTER WALLACE IS A TIME TRAVELER AND IS EXISTING AS SAM HYDE RIGHT NOW

[@mastersoftoday]

ew gross

[@Misserbi]

I want to love him at face value but I cannot help but think God is not present at every gathering he attends. That means -- there is a lot he still does not know. And now he is dead.

[@hopperthemarxist8533]

I just don't like his personality. He seems like he thinks he's a genius it's annoying. Nobody is that authentic

[@nickprado7952]

+Babak G I understand where you're coming from, I had the same response by just listening to his interviews, but if you actually read some of his work and research his life. you would see that he is actually a very sincere human being.

[@martymalinowski1176]

He IS a genius though. I don't think it's wrong for a genius to sound like a genius. The guy was brilliant. I don't think he intentionally tried to sound pretentious, but when talking about heady topics it's hard not to at times. In interviews you can see he had an anxiety of coming off as a haughty academic, hyper self-aware and constantly worried about sounding pretentious or not getting his point across. His Charlie Rose interview is a great example, where Charlie has to reassure him that he doesn't sound like an idiot a few times. I find it endearing, but I am currently enamored with all of his work so I may be biased haha.

[@enigma9306]

He is a genius, and is that authentic

[@hopperthemarxist8533]

***** fair enough --

[@akidnamedcam]

A lot of Americans best authors have called him extremely pretentious in his writing, 100 or so pages in and I just got annoyed by it lol

[@farrah9748]

* the more I hear from him the more I agree ⛬ ♥