January 30th, 2010 / 3:18 am
Author Spotlight
Blake Butler
Author Spotlight
10 Part David Foster Wallace Interview 2003
[Parts 2-10 available from the end of part 1. Thanks Gene Kwak]
Tags: david foster wallace, interview
thanks Blake.
thanks Blake.
I love the tension that develops between Wallace and the cameraman, who is a kind of stand-in for the kind of philistinism Wallace is loathe to engage for fear of the very kind of dismissive response the cameraman gives him when he tells Wallace at the beginning of the interview that Wallace is pontificating, and then how Wallace’s body language is so clearly angered at it, and then toward the end of the interview, Wallace circles back around to a pejorative definition of pontification for the German reporter, at which point he points out that the word is usually used pejoratively, that the cameraman probably meant it in a funny way, but that this is why he’s loathe to engage in smart talk in the first place, at which point the cameraman says he has to change the tape and turns off the camera.
I love the tension that develops between Wallace and the cameraman, who is a kind of stand-in for the kind of philistinism Wallace is loathe to engage for fear of the very kind of dismissive response the cameraman gives him when he tells Wallace at the beginning of the interview that Wallace is pontificating, and then how Wallace’s body language is so clearly angered at it, and then toward the end of the interview, Wallace circles back around to a pejorative definition of pontification for the German reporter, at which point he points out that the word is usually used pejoratively, that the cameraman probably meant it in a funny way, but that this is why he’s loathe to engage in smart talk in the first place, at which point the cameraman says he has to change the tape and turns off the camera.
spoiler.
spoiler.
If you don’t want to watch it in 10 parts, here is a link to the original site of the interview.
If you don’t want to watch it in 10 parts, here is a link to the original site of the interview.
This is wonderful, Blake. Thanks. I love how he said he didn’t know that he was funny; he didn’t write to be funny. Also, do we know who said that irony is the song of a bird that has come to like its cage? I don’t understand irony. I have a few students who are being brilliantly ironic, in the best sense of the word, and all I can say is, wow, that’s ironic. Ha.
This is wonderful, Blake. Thanks. I love how he said he didn’t know that he was funny; he didn’t write to be funny. Also, do we know who said that irony is the song of a bird that has come to like its cage? I don’t understand irony. I have a few students who are being brilliantly ironic, in the best sense of the word, and all I can say is, wow, that’s ironic. Ha.
Thanks for this. Interesting to imagine an American television interviewer who could talk so easily about their theories about Thomas Bernhardt’s writing. The contrast with the cameraman is pretty startling.
Thanks for this. Interesting to imagine an American television interviewer who could talk so easily about their theories about Thomas Bernhardt’s writing. The contrast with the cameraman is pretty startling.
how i wish i could watch this
how i wish i could watch this
I didn’t see this in the beginning at all. Are we watching the same version?
I didn’t see this in the beginning at all. Are we watching the same version?
uup…there it is. part 2.
wow….
uup…there it is. part 2.
wow….
It’s so fucking odd here how this cameraman really transgresses and almost invades DFW’s space here, physically and conversationally.
It’s so fucking odd here how this cameraman really transgresses and almost invades DFW’s space here, physically and conversationally.
The writer who said that is Lewis Hyde. Wallace talks about quite a lot of this stuff in his essay “E Unibus Pluram.” It’s in the book “A Supposedly Fun Thing…” but can also be found online, it looks like: http://activitiesandassignments.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/7075-e_unibus_pluram_television.pdf
Though I’m not sure if that’s the longer version from the book, or an abridged version, or what.
The writer who said that is Lewis Hyde. Wallace talks about quite a lot of this stuff in his essay “E Unibus Pluram.” It’s in the book “A Supposedly Fun Thing…” but can also be found online, it looks like: http://activitiesandassignments.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/7075-e_unibus_pluram_television.pdf
Though I’m not sure if that’s the longer version from the book, or an abridged version, or what.
wow, this is brutal.
wow, this is brutal.
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Watching Wallace for 90 minutes is a treat, in theory, although he seemed so uncomfortable in parts that I just wanted the interview to end for him.
And I really didn’t like the interviewer’s questions.
I’m halfway through Mister Squishy, which I started before stumbling across this interview. Jest has been sitting on my shelf unread for years. Oblivion is the first Wallace I’ve ever read, and while it’s a long and not-so-easy read, I find it incredibly compelling work (that I can only read for about a half hour a time, if that makes any sense).
Watching Wallace for 90 minutes is a treat, in theory, although he seemed so uncomfortable in parts that I just wanted the interview to end for him.
And I really didn’t like the interviewer’s questions.
I’m halfway through Mister Squishy, which I started before stumbling across this interview. Jest has been sitting on my shelf unread for years. Oblivion is the first Wallace I’ve ever read, and while it’s a long and not-so-easy read, I find it incredibly compelling work (that I can only read for about a half hour a time, if that makes any sense).
Referring to Squishy in that last sentence, not Oblivion as a whole.
Referring to Squishy in that last sentence, not Oblivion as a whole.
thanks for posting. this was kind of hard to watch. i could relate to and find his self conscious behavior fascinating in the charlie rose interview, but seeing it here, kind of worse in a way, and him a bit older, was much harder to watch. i dont know if i think of him the same way now. like there was this sense before that he would’ve grown out of it and been like a wise old sage at 70, but even if he’d lived, i kind of think he’d’ve driven himself too insane before that. i dont know. the more i see or read about him the less i relate to him. or maybe its me in general relating less to things as i hurry along.
thanks for posting. this was kind of hard to watch. i could relate to and find his self conscious behavior fascinating in the charlie rose interview, but seeing it here, kind of worse in a way, and him a bit older, was much harder to watch. i dont know if i think of him the same way now. like there was this sense before that he would’ve grown out of it and been like a wise old sage at 70, but even if he’d lived, i kind of think he’d’ve driven himself too insane before that. i dont know. the more i see or read about him the less i relate to him. or maybe its me in general relating less to things as i hurry along.
have you ever even read dfw’s stuff? this sense of self consciousness permeates it. and sure at times, it’s painful to watch but to assume that it would “go away” is to assume that it was an affectation or some juvenile byproduct and that he would get better as he matured. but it wasn’t. it wasn’t something he did for some sense of false modesty. it just was.
have you ever even read dfw’s stuff? this sense of self consciousness permeates it. and sure at times, it’s painful to watch but to assume that it would “go away” is to assume that it was an affectation or some juvenile byproduct and that he would get better as he matured. but it wasn’t. it wasn’t something he did for some sense of false modesty. it just was.
i dont know. just kind of a sense that i had. maybe im wrong. it just struck me as interesting that it seemed to get worse with age for him. im not familiar with that kind of progression with age. i think self consciousness deteriorates with age, or atleast the affects of it. i just kind of feel that. im wrong maybe. that isnt to say its false modesty, i agree that it was embedded in him. and im not referring to it as if its some kind of an affliction or disease, just a personality quirk, its not important. but i feel like my own self consciousness lessens over time ya know, so maybe i jumped to that.
i dont know. just kind of a sense that i had. maybe im wrong. it just struck me as interesting that it seemed to get worse with age for him. im not familiar with that kind of progression with age. i think self consciousness deteriorates with age, or atleast the affects of it. i just kind of feel that. im wrong maybe. that isnt to say its false modesty, i agree that it was embedded in him. and im not referring to it as if its some kind of an affliction or disease, just a personality quirk, its not important. but i feel like my own self consciousness lessens over time ya know, so maybe i jumped to that.
seems very very human to me. i feel like when people don’t show their self-consciousness (for instance, i don’t, usually) it’s just a mask.
seems very very human to me. i feel like when people don’t show their self-consciousness (for instance, i don’t, usually) it’s just a mask.
@ Reynard, I agree. He seems very uncomfortable, but it’s also a natural sense of discomfort, with no affectation. I don’t think the cameraman helps, at times.
I’m 100 pages from the end of IJ…it’s been a treat…a big treat that’s taken me months and months.
@ Reynard, I agree. He seems very uncomfortable, but it’s also a natural sense of discomfort, with no affectation. I don’t think the cameraman helps, at times.
I’m 100 pages from the end of IJ…it’s been a treat…a big treat that’s taken me months and months.
Blake, been having internet overload, and so things are getting crossed over (just posted the same thing on Fanzine after seeing the DFW post of Reddit yesterday, and now I realize it’s the same thing DC was commenting on earlier in the week about you guys posting). Anyway, kudos for finding it, it’s definitely been around now. The odd thing of course is with all the outtakes and stops and starts that he assumes will be edited out, the uncontrollable painful winces he has at moments, it becomes even more irresistible not to watch all 84 minutes in one sitting (therefore being entertained as if watching TV….therefore stuck to a screen…but at least it your screen). I gotta make sure to check in with HTMLG and Cooper’s blog each, because when I don’t I miss something big. Thanks, Casey
Blake, been having internet overload, and so things are getting crossed over (just posted the same thing on Fanzine after seeing the DFW post of Reddit yesterday, and now I realize it’s the same thing DC was commenting on earlier in the week about you guys posting). Anyway, kudos for finding it, it’s definitely been around now. The odd thing of course is with all the outtakes and stops and starts that he assumes will be edited out, the uncontrollable painful winces he has at moments, it becomes even more irresistible not to watch all 84 minutes in one sitting (therefore being entertained as if watching TV….therefore stuck to a screen…but at least it your screen). I gotta make sure to check in with HTMLG and Cooper’s blog each, because when I don’t I miss something big. Thanks, Casey
It’s been removed.
It’s been removed.