Hear genius.
February 26, 2010 6:15 PM   Subscribe

The David Foster Wallace Audio Project, a still-growing collection of interviews, radio profiles, and readings (including staged ones of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men).
posted by auralcoral (19 comments total) 44 users marked this as a favorite
 
thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou
posted by threetoed at 6:21 PM on February 26, 2010


and but so thank you!
posted by mannequito at 6:31 PM on February 26, 2010


It seems it is official DFW day on Mefi.
posted by idiopath at 6:32 PM on February 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


More entertainments!
posted by localhuman at 7:07 PM on February 26, 2010


Wow! I'm doing some downloads. And I have new respect for the band Hallelujah the Hills, a member of which seems to be involved with this site (see email address link at the bottom of the front page).
posted by sleeping bear at 7:12 PM on February 26, 2010


It should always be DFW day on MeFi.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:13 PM on February 26, 2010 [7 favorites]


It seems it is official DFW day on Mefi.

BDOAT!

And this is awesome. Thank you.
posted by Lutoslawski at 7:32 PM on February 26, 2010


I'm about 315 pages into Infinite Jest (maybe 20 pages footnotes); the previous times I've tried (5? 6?) I've only gotten about forty-fifty pages in. I read but two pages today, read them twice actually, and going to read them again I believe.

I never before got far enough into the book to come across anything with Don Gately in his sober life, I had no idea that AA recovery has such a large piece in this book. Amazingly well done, the best writing I've come across detailing some of the early experiences of a newly sober alcoholic or drug addict in AA. His characterizations of the AA old-timers is absolutely dead on, same with the feel in the half-way houses. He nailed it. It's spectacular writing.

And he was quite young when he wrote it, and new to recovery himself -- that he had such awareness and clarity to write so lucidly about all of this, the guy was a sponge, soaked up everything. But soak up everything or not, to have the head that he had, to be able to have all of these remarkable insights into AA recovery when he was still so new to the sober life himself... It takes many people years to do anything other than hurt like a bastard on fathers day when they get clean and sober, anything other than to hurt and to be lost; this guy sits down and writes Infinite Jest. One of a kind. What a loss.

Yeah, it still hurts.

Thanks for this resource -- I do love to listen to interviews, catch his mind in real time, seems I can almost hear his mind clicking and whirring, crackling with intelligence and smarts of every sort as he speaks candidly and politely with his host.

Everyone wants to see cancer wiped out, Alzheimers, etc and etc; myself, I'm looking to the day that there is effective treatment for every person suffering from clinical depression, and that any and every bit of stigma is lifted from those suffering mental illness.
posted by dancestoblue at 9:18 PM on February 26, 2010 [10 favorites]


Thank you. Stellar find.
posted by nevercalm at 9:48 PM on February 26, 2010


I call shenanigans. How does one add add sixteen pages of footnotes to audio without it just becoming tangent or digression?

Oh, right.
posted by Graygorey at 10:45 PM on February 26, 2010


German public television has put an 84 minute unedited interview online last year, taken some years after Infinite Jest. Which no-one ever refers to.
posted by ijsbrand at 1:18 AM on February 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


What I'd really really love to hear though is DFW actually delivering that miraculous Kenyon Commencement speech.
Which is to niggle and I don't mean to. Thanks for al the work people.
posted by Wrick at 2:33 AM on February 27, 2010


Awesome!
posted by COBRA! at 8:03 AM on February 27, 2010


Wrick: a snippet. pts is right, it's a difficult thing to find.
posted by Graygorey at 10:19 AM on February 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Looks like the Kenyon speech is being released as audio (and possibly video?) on the first of May.
posted by Sfving at 12:36 PM on February 27, 2010


Thanks so much for the clip Graygorey. Here's to your hunch being accurate Sfving; roll on May.

cheers
posted by Wrick at 2:22 PM on February 27, 2010


ijsbrand: "German public television has put an 84 minute unedited interview online last year, taken some years after Infinite Jest. Which no-one ever refers to."

Thank you for this. Couldn't watch it on their player -- this machine to old, slow, stop-n-go videos, drives me bats -- but found it (cut up of course, ten minute segments) on youtube, which I can download (and did) using my handy-dandy DownloadHelper firefox extension and watch on VLC player on puter, skip problem solved. Great interview.
posted by dancestoblue at 5:19 PM on February 27, 2010


Seconding the thanks for the German interview! The interviewer had a touch of the Remember, when you were with the Beatles? style to her, but it was charming, and DFW, despite clearly feeling a little uncomfortable, was so gracious and thoughtful in his responses. I assume it's from late 2004 or early 2005, since he's talking about a disappointing recent election. It's interesting to hear him talk about politics, which it seems like he was starting to do more in recent years. Although things are obviously still far from perfect, I really wish that he (and Hunter S. Thompson, who also seemed pretty distraught over 2004) had stuck around to see how things turned out.

I hope that doesn't sound like I'm crassly seeing everything through political lens. I was sitting in an Obama field office when I learned that DFW died, and I've got this tangle of emotions/memories, plus I can't help but think that seeing November 2008 would have given him at least some small bit of happiness.
posted by naoko at 4:19 PM on February 28, 2010 [1 favorite]


I'm coming to the end of my first time reading Infinite Jest (about 200 from the end) and I don't want it to end. This is my first reading of DFW (I got into Infinite Jest after the Kenyon speech), its just so amazing. I keep bugging my girlfriend by reading out different sections. I just want to share it with everyone!

I'm going to try and swallow as much DFW as I can once its all over. This will help. Thanks.
posted by AzzaMcKazza at 5:14 PM on February 28, 2010


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