Something I’m very thankful to David Foster Wallace for is that he reminded me that I always knew how to think deeply about things. I always thought deep intellectual thought it was something way beyond me. But now when I be patient with myself and calmly listen to the stuff he says, I end up understanding everything hes talking about.

@samarthsingh8735

2 жыл бұрын

That’s such an interesting thing to say, I’ve never read any of DFW’s stuff, can you please point me to where I start for some insight like this?

@pod9363

2 жыл бұрын

@@samarthsingh8735 I really don’t know. His essays are great condensations of what he believes and focuses on. Try his one about how TV effected his generation, E Unibus Pluram.

@peekodafreeko3949

Жыл бұрын

@@samarthsingh8735 I know this is a year late but felt compelled to reply as well. Depending on what your into, I would start with an essay first since they are less commital. Consider the Lobster the essay for harpers not the book. If you like sports then Roger Federer as Religious Experience in the NYT. Or just plain fun then Big Red Son. My favorite of his essays is 'Tense Present: Democracy, English, and the Wars over Usage' but it can be dull to some. If you like the essays then Infinite Jest is the go to. Its very divisive and both people who love and hate it are right. But I loved it . Hope you can give him a shot, I deeply appreciate his work and what the Op says is true.

"A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that's unlocked and opens inwards; as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push." - Ludwig Wittgenstein

@benjaminenders8762

6 жыл бұрын

german philosophers are ruling the linguistic game lol

@BLUEGENE13

6 жыл бұрын

thats the dumbest quote i've ever heard.

@camaples

6 жыл бұрын

what's going on behind my words when I say this is a very pleasant pineapple

@aubreypressley1450

4 жыл бұрын

That actually happened to me once.

@freedomworks3976

4 жыл бұрын

Fran Cacirano good stuff ... modern liberal life , the problem is NEVER you it’s always them it’s them out there

8:38 "That our endless and impossible journey to house IS our home." Damn Foster you making me question everything right about now.

God I wish I could have been one of his pupils...

@circlemouth7567

7 жыл бұрын

He said he would give people a C if their "deployment of a semicolon wasn't absolutely Mozart-esque". Tough on grammar.

@Persnikity-yv3nh

7 жыл бұрын

Oh I wouldn't go in expecting to get a good grade. Or even to pass, necessarily. I would have happily taken a shitty mark on my transcript if it meant sitting in a lecture hall and being able to just LISTEN to his ideas on writing and literature twice a week.

@jamesbaltrum9788

6 жыл бұрын

The Jenna Pearl - it was an incredible experience to sit through a workshop with him. The level of intensity he gave off was contagious.

@sterlinghayden4096

6 жыл бұрын

The Jenna Pearl , be thankful we have what we have, which is a great deal.

@eliayres2747

6 жыл бұрын

So you could see how he sees?

Thank you for posting this snippet of Wallace's (and Kafka's) brilliance.

@franciscaceres 'It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.' --Bertrand Russell

@songbinlin371

7 жыл бұрын

Artzineonline

"at age 50, every man has the face he deserves" Orwell, "Coming up for Air"

@TheChuckfuc

3 жыл бұрын

Orwell is a gold mine of wisdom.

@nextoesc

3 жыл бұрын

Kafka died at 40

@lookbovine

3 жыл бұрын

@@nextoesc Exactly, modramafoyomama, how is this relevant at all??!? You saw an Orwell quote you liked and put it on the wrong video or what?

@damonmoney4474

3 жыл бұрын

@@lookbovine it’s a reference to 6:20

@jimsbooksreadingandstuff

2 жыл бұрын

@@nextoesc Orwell died before he was 50, too. Both Kafka and Orwell died from tuberculosis.

It's almost impossible to understand Kafka as deeply as this...I think Franz would've really appreciated this. Factoid: I was once let into the Franz Kafka museum in Prage when it was closed and had it all to myself. I don't know why, but the woman at the desk just saw my disappointment and said I could go in.

@kafkachampin

2 жыл бұрын

When I went, the lady at the front made us wait for three minutes while she, by hand, counted each individual coin in the counter - then took our coins, and asked us to switch our phones off; it certainly set a tone.

@craiggallagher7292

2 жыл бұрын

I had a similar experience at the Edgar Allen Poe museum in Richmond; however, I have had a strong desire to go to Prague for many years. Before I leave behind this mortal coil, I will get there. I hope.

If you liked "The Trial," check out "The Castle."

DFW died far too soon, he had so much more art to give the world and that is why this video makes me sad, he was brilliant, I've no doubt he would have been a Nobel laureate.

@adamqadmon

2 жыл бұрын

too intelligent for the Nobel i'm afraid

@pumarem7956

Жыл бұрын

@@adamqadmon lmfao riiightt

Was this in NYC at Town Hall? If so, I was there and really enjoyed seeing him.

I once attended a musical performance by Jinx Lennon, a sort of absurdist hip hop folk singer, during which one of my friends turned to me with a puzzled expression and asked, "is this comedy?" Comedy? I really didn't know what to tell her. It seemed like she needed to know what box to put the show into in order to be able to enjoy it. The schlubby, disheveled guy clearly was not a comedian, and he provided no explicit cues that might tell the audience that they ought to be laughing at any particular bit. No winks, no nudges. The material was being presented sincerely. Said material was, however, very silly indeed. With the broadest of strokes, a looped beatbox rhythm and strummed acoustic guitar, regaling us at first with a plodding, monotonous and totally pointless story about his childhood friend, "the Rapscally-ally, ally-ally-ally, ally-ally-ally-ally-allion", and later admonishing us to "fight diabetes" by avoiding white bread and "bad sweeties", he painted a bleak picture of rural adolescent boredom and crushing existential futility that, had it been explicitly presented as comedy, would have fallen flat on its face. But it wasn't, and it didn't. It was one of the funniest things I've ever experienced. "Comedy? I mean, kind of? I guess so", I told my friend. She frowned for a moment. "I don't get it", she said. "Fair enough", I said, "I'm not sure there's really anything to get." My friend nodded and half-shrugged. She seemed satisfied with that. I really don't think there necessarily should be anything to get. It doesn't have to mean anything. You don't have to like it. You can cry if you want to. If there is a lesson to be learned, your brain will take care of that for you. These sorts of user-generated red herrings abound in popular culture today, when everything is endlessly dissected and scrutinized and subjected to levels of analysis so joyless and pedantic it would probably get my 5th year English teacher sopping wet. It's quite sad. Is it good? Shut up and enjoy it then.

@Shmyrk

Жыл бұрын

Sounds awful

@FirstLast-gm9nu

10 ай бұрын

Sounds great

@Spudcore

10 ай бұрын

@@Shmyrk It was.

@Spudcore

10 ай бұрын

@@FirstLast-gm9nu It was.

Where did you get the background footage of Dave reading at a podium??

@SupposedlyFunThing

5 жыл бұрын

It looks like it came from this bit: kzread.info/dash/bejne/eauHl9J-lsa3fs4.html

Sufficient advanced depression makes Kafka indistinguishable from comedy

This is really good

He always gives the impression of being so intelligent that trying to have a conversation with him would be a genuinely terrifying experience, like getting your coat stuck in a train door and being dragged to your oblivion while you desperately try to keep up.

@contentinternational

2 жыл бұрын

idk dude i think it would be fine

@itstoogooditswaytoogood3211

2 жыл бұрын

funnily enough (not really funny), this is precisely his fear as well (that you would feel that way)

@alaskatennis

2 жыл бұрын

Funny because something similar to this is depicted in The Pale King (his last unfinished novel).

@NASkeywest

Жыл бұрын

DFW was very self conscious and would probably feel like he was thinking to deeply or not articulating himself properly.

@Laocoon283

Жыл бұрын

​@@contentinternational lol

Really? It's only the sound that matters, and I heard every word Wallace said. I wouldn't have heard this if it wasn't for this video

The Psalms, too?

I am greatly entertained by the fact that the two top comments are polar opposites. One is saying that DFW's words are complex but entirely intelligible, and the other is saying they purvey understanding beyond our comprehension.

wow, not gonna get all that in one take.

@Toughman637

4 жыл бұрын

tomitstube i know haha. This is my third time watching it in a row. I’m getting it one paining at a time

@ArtistPare

3 жыл бұрын

It was written to be read, like a book, not listened to.

The only thin DFW wrote that actually really like is this short speech.

DFW was in my dreams last night

@Monsterassassin3

2 жыл бұрын

Ive had that happen before. I had a conversation with him about his short stories in the living room of my old house

why is this slowed down? do you have an audio file of it at normal speed?

@kreek22

6 жыл бұрын

This way you only have to listen 2 or 3 times, instead of 4 or 5.

@TheChap36 I just read a few of his less knowns, including In the Penal Colony, and i'd like to say that his ambiguity can be quite a strong repellant to his work. Motives are absent within his work. For example: the officer choosing himself to suffer a religious death while disregarding the new commandant's accusations. If the truth of the matter is that his justice is without question, and that each is guilty without evidence, than the second commandant's opinions should have sealed his guilt.

@TheChap36 Another point: we are meant to feel bad for the officer and look upon the condemned man and soldier with judgement due to their refusals to help fix the apparatus. We see that humanity is absent in the condemned man, soldier and (debatable) the officer. The officer is suicidal because of: his recognized undoing, an epiphany of guilt, or his deep spirituality towards the first commandant. Ambiguity proves to do what in the matter of the officer's death?

Try reading his collection of short stories.

@Ajetoification

4 жыл бұрын

Whose collection of short stories? Kafka or DFW

@cheeez9438

3 жыл бұрын

Honestly, both.

What a Wall Ace. Ah life in the Labyrinth…

Lol, at about two and a half minutes in, DFW produces a joke in the anti-joke format and is like wtf you're not meant to laugh at that

@l0wr4n

2 жыл бұрын

He also did it in This is Water. Perhaps a common speech trope for him, probably just to eat up time

A version with somewhat normal audio: kzread.info/dash/bejne/pH6t1dubc93Wc7A.html

@billyg89 then* the second commandant's opinions should have sealed his guilt

@laurasalo6160

3 жыл бұрын

Thx

I feel that we like to see other poeple suffer to a certain degree. I mean, when he talks about "geting" Kafka he says that there's nothing to get beacuse the search of self is inseparable from the self, never ending even though you can realize it, so "we" can "get it". It's like "edgy" humour you could say, laughing at our own misery, inseparable from everyone else. Maybe its cathartic to speak truth and see other suffer, maybe empathetic. Or maybe not idk.

@laurasalo6160

3 жыл бұрын

Love seems the same to me. How self-centered to find yourself in love those who make you feel good. Or to only laugh at jokes that tickle you.

400 likes !

"John Doe Versus Death"

@pricesmith8450

5 жыл бұрын

pxsymbol did he say that and I missed it?

For one piece of evidence, dear Bertrand, you might have tried looking in the mirror. Or you might have read Shakespeare, or Crevantes, or Aristotle...probably a few hundred others. You might have listened to Mozart, or Bach...you might have considered looking at the work of Michelangelo or Titian. Or you might have just enjoyed the comfort of your home, built by skilled craftsmen. Russell was a brilliant man, trying to make a meaningful point. But taken literally...his statement falls apart.

Real recognize real

Pure, utter genius.

7:20 I laughed.

No it doesn't, all of mankind doesn't get to be defined as rational because you can think of a few isolated examples of rationality in man.

I guess we just see it differently. I could just as easily reply to you "Yes it does, all of mankind doesn't get to be defined as irrational because you can think of a few isolated examples of irrationality in man." Humankind is BOTH rational and irrational. It isn't an "all or nothing" equation. Certainly, no species could achieve the level of technical and scientific ability as humans have without rationality. Mathematics IS rationality, so by definition we must be capable of rationality.

@somethingsomething8871

7 жыл бұрын

I know it's a three year old comment but in case your interested. mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/content/9780262661829_sch_0001.pdf

@coltontaylor435

5 жыл бұрын

Something Something I know it's a two year old comment, but I was interested, and the link has been removed. Curious about what you were pointing to.

"Sudden and percussive" Everything stops after the soft hammer blow of suicide. I have Kafka's diaries, an old edition, tea-stained and possibly drooled on. Astonishing. Angst as narrative regurgitation, masochistic, nostalgic without any actual nostalgia. Jokey, condescending anti-Semitism of the young German girls he fancied most tragic. "Shall we meet out the front of the Goethe-house?" She never showed. Of course she didn't.

@pricesmith8450

5 жыл бұрын

Matt Gilbert I’m new to Kafka. Haven’t bought anything of his yet. Is this something you can find online? And for that matter what’s a good starting point on Kafka

@leonardohapp8362

5 жыл бұрын

@@pricesmith8450 hey, i am german and read a lot from Kafka. I would start with the metamorphosis then read short stories and then read the process (,I hope it's called like that in English). Have a good time

@rmcewan10

5 жыл бұрын

Leonardo Happ it’s called the Trial in English, but I can see why you’d translate Der Prozesse as the process lmao

@leonardohapp8362

5 жыл бұрын

@@rmcewan10 haha, that was so stereotypical for german english. I am almost ashamed

This is most definitely Wallace.

Conan Kafka

In the original German isn't the ending of the story about the young man jumping off the bridge a sexual entendre?

Kafka is funny af

Love his talks. Down to earth lunch pail guy

What a shame he couldn't stand staying in his own "home" anymore.

9:07 das ist komisch : : that's funny

@beflygelt

6 жыл бұрын

Or weird. Both meanings of the word are about equally used

If that's Jonathan Franzen reading, it would be nice to have that in the description.

@Breeelax

3 жыл бұрын

Its DFW himself.

Kind of irrational, no?

It's always nice to hear from a man who over wrote every paragraph he ever put down. Is what he thinks novel and important? Well, he certainly thought so. Poor bastard.

what is das is commish

Arendt had better insights into Kafka. Not so oblique.

A brick wall. Built only for you. 😂

What an unhappy person!

"Das ist komisch" What does the German language have to do with Kafka? And why couldn't this be said in English?

@skillful101

7 жыл бұрын

wait...did you think Kafka was or wrote in English?!

@jimmorrison5520

6 жыл бұрын

Well, it makes it more original when you throw a german line in there, don't you see?

@buzzworddujour

6 жыл бұрын

Why would I think he wrote in English? Apparently I was pretty severely mistaken in thinking he wrote in Hungarian, but still... that line in German adds nothing. There is no nuance or connotation to it.

@beflygelt

6 жыл бұрын

buzzworddujour you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. There is connotation to it - Komisch doesn't just mean funny but also something like "weird", so it's an apt thing to throw in at the end to make a homage to the language you'd at best be reading Kafka in Also if anything he'd be writing in Czech not Hungarian, having been born in Prague and with his Czech name

@tranzco1173

6 жыл бұрын

Because he is pretentious. Americans hate polylinguists, they find it supercilious. I use big words, because I am genuinely a fancy dude.

Genius? Direly unqualified? By saying that he is stating that he is qualified. Wouldn't a genius realize this? I'm right btw so don't bother.

@danp9885

10 жыл бұрын

ha ha

@surfleft

10 жыл бұрын

haha I love this comment.

@peaceandllov

8 жыл бұрын

+Jacob Doyle he can't.

@jakesibley897

7 жыл бұрын

Genius is not a monolith.

@peaceandllov

7 жыл бұрын

Jake Sibley That's deep . . .

Manages to be glib and pretentious at the same time.

@DanielHoffmanddhoffman

4 жыл бұрын

Yeah. I feel like his struggle was wanting to be everything all at once, but it the end he was burdened by his larger-than-life sense of self that he was hopelessly trying to evade. I think it's why he liked Kafka -- he found his humor uplifting and not bogged down like his own writing.

@contentinternational

3 жыл бұрын

Good take