Every Love Story is a Ghost Story | D.T. Max | Talks at Google

[@nickidaisyreddwoodd5837]

I read the biography. Thank you D.T. Max for this kindhearted and compassionate book. We need therapy centers around the whole world free from religion and free of charge where people can go to and feel protected and where they can open up about their deepest vulnerabilities and childhood pain.

[@anonb4632]

No, we need more spirituality. Most modern mental illness is from a lack of it, and gross materialism, not from the influence of it.

[@nickidaisyreddwoodd5837]

@@anonb4632 "Spirituality" comes from religion and is religion. That's why I stay away from that word. Religion is mental illness that leads to more mental illness.

[@anonb4632]

@@nickidaisyreddwoodd5837 You clearly have psychological hang ups about that aspect of life. Spirituality is not necessarily tied to religion, and some religion is devoid of it. It should give you pause for thought that the main regimes who considered religion to be a mental illness in recent decades were the Soviet Union and the PRC, along with their satellites. They classed it as a form of "sluggishly progressing schizophrenia", a diagnosis found outside socialist countries, but useful for committing dissidents and for any movements which were not in line with party doctrine. You may not be that way minded politically, but you are pursuing a line of thought there that is incompatible with liberal democracy, in which people have the right to do and say most stupid things, should they wish to, without the authorities breathing down their necks. I don't recommend you become religious, but I do suggest you become more spiritual. However, a bit more tolerance might serve you well. You can't plant a frown on your face every time you pass a church or mosque, that's not healthy either.

[@nickidaisyreddwoodd5837]

@@anonb4632 Ehh you want to talk to me about the right to say stupid and terrible things publicly? Look no further than BLM, Antifa and the Muslim agenda. There you find the most hideous and gruesome things that can ever be said in public. But they are not removed from the streets or social media websites. No. The people who are censored are those who speak up for Peace and Love. I don't frown at churches or mosques I avoid those places all together I would not even walk past them. Walking past a mosque could get me murdered. That's what religion has done it has made religious people insane and now they kill innocent people on the streets. That is definitely Not healthy. I'm not even an atheist. I think for myself.

[@anonb4632]

@@nickidaisyreddwoodd5837 I agree with you about those groups, but my main problem is when they force themselves onto others. Free speech doesn't mean you have to listen to or accept what they're saying. BLM's issues are largely down to the amount of violence and unrest they've caused and because most people who out up BLM signs don't know who's paying for it or what it really stands for (a lot more than police deaths - social revolution)

[@ericgrabowski1468]

I was in the Granada house. There is a plaque over the fireplace of him. I was writing at the time I was at the Grenada house but hadnt really heard of him yet. There was a girl who was living there too who was obsessed with him.

[@nickidaisyreddwoodd5837]

What themes do you write about? I wrote a scifi novel.

[@codacreator6162]

I think there is room for interpretation here regarding DFW's desire for fame. Like a lot of introverted writers, it's entirely possible that he wanted fame for his work, but not for himself. Not the same thing.

[@jerrygorge1564]

Spot on!

[@MikeL-7]

One of the best biographies I’ve ever read.

[@tamzproduction5176]

Thank you Google. Thank you Max. I am in love with a dead . Rest in peace Devid Foster Wallace. You are the kind I call saint

[@StadiumHandz]

24:00 ONWARDS thank you DTMax

[@blackbird5634]

I didn't know T.J. had a brother!

[@scoon2117]

This is my favorite book

[@MrDanbloom]

D.T. MAX, respond to this and be honest re: --- In his book Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace, D. T. Max mentioned in passing that Wallace “threw a coffee table” and “tried to push Karr from a moving car,” which Karr said is “about 2% of what happened.” She tweeted: tried to buy a gun. kicked me. climbed up the side of my house at night. followed my son age 5 home from school. had to change my number twice, and he still got it. months and months it went on Likewise, the 2012 Atlantic interview with Max on the subject is full of red flags, and couches Wallace’s behavior as “creative”: One thing his letters make you feel is that he thought the word was God, and words were always worth putting down. Even in a letter to the head of his halfway house-where he apologizes for contemplating buying a gun to kill the writer Mary Karr’s husband-the craftsmanship of that letter is quite remarkable. You read it like a David Foster Wallace essay. That’s one of the most shocking things you discovered: that he considered-granted in a half-baked manner-murdering Karr’s then-husband. He later went on to have a tumultuous relationship with her. Yes, certainly. I didn’t know that David had that in him. I was surprised, in general, with the intensity of violence in his personality. It was something I knew about him when I wrote The New Yorker piece, but it grew on me. It made me think harder about David and creativity and anger. But on the other end of the spectrum, he was also this open, emotional guy, who was able to cry, who intensely loved his dogs. He was all those things. That, in part, is why he’s a really fascinating guy and an honor to write about. You write that Infinite Jest was motivated by his “dysfunctional yearning for Mary Karr.” How did she influence his drive to write the book? What I meant by that was that he was trying to impress her. He really wants her to think he’s doing wonderful work, and I think when she, at various times, breaks up with him, he’s thrown into those negative spirals that can also be enormously productive for a person, a creative spiral of anger. Almost like something out of a Hollywood movie. There’s a note in one of my files where he says something like, “Infinite Jest was just a means to Mary Karr’s end, as it were.” A sexual pun. “[I]t grew on me.”

[@nbme-answers]

what is this "extreme reading" group that keeps getting mentioned? i want in.

[@__-cd9ug]

(i realize your question is 3 years old at this point but maybe someone else will wonder the same thing) my understanding is that the 'extreme reading' alludes to the very researched and informed works of some writers - those who typically write very long novels where each sentence is the result of extensive research or literary work maybe I'm wrong but I think it's only a 'group' in an analytical sense, like the postmodernists or the realists; not a group to its members, but considered a group by an observer

[@nbme-answers]

@@__-cd9ug Hi from 3 years ago 👋 Still here! If I remember right from the video, it sounded more like an internal group of Googlers who read the novels you're describing as part of a traditional book club. Either way, sounds fun!

[@lauramineto9675]

David Foster Wallace, you left too soon.

[@Misserbi]

Skiddish. If you are fearful you cannot lead. You can follow and hope something does as well. If I can relate with the sentiment of addiction that seems to be the core of everything DFW -- don't set up strangers you embrace. Instead let their work speak for them. I think it was a mistake to put DFW in a classroom, ask him to become a symbol of financial advancement or success, and then use his hipnotic side as a tool for judging, "Gee, David was bold enough?" Again, I did not know him personally but I can sense a lot was skimmed, not known about, or avoided to make this complete.

[@dmann1115]

And here I thought hagiography was a thing of the past...

[@where7847]

tsss pot addict? he must really like to cook or sumpthin

[@santiagoescobar932]

oh chip

[@nickilovesdogs8137]

I don't believe the official version of "suicide".

[@Jayhavens1]

It was all a plot by Putin.

[@anonb4632]

@@Jayhavens1 Russophobia is just a way for Yanks to exploit their latent xenophobia respectably.

[@Jayhavens1]

@@anonb4632 This was sarcasm...please tell me you knew this?

[@anonb4632]

@@Jayhavens1 A lot of Yanks believe Russia is behind their home grown problems, like the results of the two party system.

[@anonb4632]

@@Jayhavens1 So your reply is a def case of Poe's Law.

[@justaguy4886]

all this dfw worshipping