Charlie Rose interviews David Foster Wallace, 4/4

Charlie Rose interviewed the late David Foster Wallace, a contemporary American author, on March 27, 1997.

DFW: If you wanted something really exciting or sexy, there really isn't much. I just got really unhappy—
CR: But you were—I mean, it was drugs, you were suicidal, and the whole nine yards, yes?
DFW: Yeah, here's why I'm embarrassed talking about it—
CR: I want to know why.
DFW: Not because I'm personally ashamed of it, but because everybody talks about it.

DFW: The people who most interest me now are people who are older and sort of been through a mid-life crisis. They tend to get weird because the normal incentives for getting out of bed don't tend to apply anymore. I have not found any satisfactory new ones but I'm also not getting ready to jump off a building or anything.
CR: Well that's good news.

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/5639

Category:

Education

Tags:

• david foster wallace
• dfw
• charlie rose
• interview
• infinite jest
• a supposedly fun thing
• i'll never do again
• postmodern
• postmodernism
• contemporary
• fiction
• literature
• david lynch

[FunnyCowboyDance]

I think Rose did a very good job of interviewing Wallace. Wallace was obviously uncomfortable, but you have to realize that he was just an uncomfortable person. Rose was confrontational, but not in a negative way. I think you would have to be to keep up with Wallace's massively encyclopedic and superior brain.

[honeybozo]

4:34 : understanding the physical shirk - opening up on national tv about not being suicidal and then getting dismissed like a recalcitrant 12 year old..... Charlie's got a heart of gold - unfortunately it's totally lacking in empathy

[cameronischat]

"...whatever you get paid attention about for is never the stuff you think is important anyway" - insane

[KennyReddwooddforest]

@honeybozo Thank you so much, I had been looking for an interview of his wife. I will watch this interview. I might most likely not have saved him, it sounds so grandiose to say something like I could have saved him. Its more of a wishful thinking than anything else. I do believe in safe dying and in giving people the right to do this when they want to. But I would always try extremely hard to help them, to give them hope, to hug them and tell them that they have huge value.

[honeybozo]

@KennyReddwooddforest google "karen green david foster wallace interview guardian" for an apt interview with Karen: even she could not save him -unfortunately genius does not equal emotional fulfillment.

[KennyReddwooddforest]

@honeybozo Yes, I want to buy the ebook Infinite Jest and the others as well and also the new biography. I have so many questions. I wish I could talk to his wife. I wished I could have saved his life. My husband and I have saved someone's life before, but he eventually years later committed suicide. I wished I could have met David in 2008. He was a genius writer, observer, and analyzer. Yes, I agree with you on what you said. And he was very angry about humanity and I understand him.

[honeybozo]

@KennyReddwooddforest appreciate your comments - dont know much about Rose as I am not stateside; but your heart comment does make sense 'suppose that would be a real wake-up call for anyone. Wallace certainly was for real; he probably wouldn't have checked out the way he did, if he wasn't. Still haven't finished his Jest....

[chives422]

:( the last thing david reflected on, about how he was sort of writing purposelessly, that made me really sad. i can relate to that in a morbid sense whenever i think "what is the purpose for anything?" but i also feel empathetically, i want to give him a big hug and tell him it's okay ://, and remind him of his meaningfulness. he was an asset to the human race

[KennyReddwooddforest]

@honeybozo No, I do agree with you. Charlie Rose was a bit insensitive. He is not in touch with who he really is, at least that's what I believe. I would be so nervous, too, to be interviewed by him. He is very fast and a bit impatient. He does not fully feel the person in front of him. I have seen it several times. After his heart surgery he had become more mellow. But I don't know when this interview was, before or after the surgery. Wallace is for real. He was highly observing.

[honeybozo]

@KennyReddwooddforest the shirk is actually at 4:27 and it comes after he says I'm not ready to jump of a building right now. Appreciate that you share the Wallace's hypersensitivity, but if Charlie is like a daddy he could have been a more compassionate one -so I guess the point I made a year ago still stands. And I don't agree with Wallace that he is a fraud btw.

[BowelofSTFUANDDIE]

I don't think he whispers anything at 4:33. I believe that was a sigh of relief because this seemed like an exasperating interview for DFW. I would've loved to have a conversation with him. Even if it were only ten minutes in duration.

[KennyReddwooddforest]

@honeybozo No, Charlie Rose means well. He is just not totally in tune with someone who is nervous. Because Charlie is not nervous as David saw right away, Charlie is so totally used to being on TV all the time that he doesn't think about it any more. David is self conscious and beating up on himself. He knows how humans react and is highly aware of possible speed chess moves from others. I know, because I often feel the same way. Charlie is much older and kinda like a daddy. Ha.