Hello, I'm Drew Ross
Today, I want to talk about an author of
One of the audiobooks that is out.
This one, to me
Epitomizes what I love about reading
That author is David Foster Wallace. And the reason I love him and I love his work
Is that it hurts? You know when I talk about read something that hurts
what I mean is
Reading should challenge you and she make you think she makes you
Consider whether you are living the way that is best for you
so
Some writers. Just give me a black eye bloody lip. They wear me out. I'm when I
Finished with their work. I'm just thinking oh, man
And it just stays with me keeps grinding on me. That's what I love about David Foster Wallace. I
Haven't even read that much of his stuff. I honestly have just stumbled upon his work and
Read or listen to his book called David Foster Wallace in his own words now
David Foster Wallace passed away. He committed suicide, um back in the I
think it was like
2009
don't quote me on that, but it's been a little while and I
just said it hurts me because I really like this guy and
His writing is so
daring so risky and
He he doesn't pool punch. He comes at you with everything
He's got in the thin limits of work Liz that she's with you
He's not like, you know
Some dictator on high telling you how bad you are or a preacher this you know?
Yelling at you for being what you are
He's literally looking at himself
as much as anyone else and
so
When he writes
it
It comes off as genuine and authentic
He doesn't feel like he's trying to be
some literary genius he honestly
Um, at least the way I feel when I read his work because it makes me feel like this guy
Genuinely wants to find the truth
He wants to know
What is the best way to deal with this topic?
And
in addition to that he's not afraid to look at the warts the ugly side of
himself let alone
humanity as whole
Very few writers are that
Dangerous
and um
So I really have mad respect for him. I stumbled across David Foster Wallace when I was on YouTube. Um
Looking at different speeches by the
Recent
Candidates and and I saw a commencement speech David. I think it was like Kenyon College
I can't remember the name of the place but
He did this commencement speech and he starts off with and
I used to be a
preacher myself, so I've used a lot of the
illustrations that you see in these it's been speeches and he uses a famous illustration about a
fish being in the water and an older fish comes by and sets an ounce of water and they say
what is water and
The idea is that you can be so
Surrounded by something that you don't even know. It's there that you take it from Miranda that it just becomes the norm
and guide illustration is used a million times in commencement speeches and
so she starts off at this cliche, but then he puts this incredible spin on it and
You talks about that it's not just that your education should make you think
It should make you think
in ways that
Change things it should make you
see
Transformation and it's not just that you think it's that you think in?
ways that are going to
matter
and he talks about going to the grocery store and having to deal with traffic and
that if he doesn't think and if he doesn't spend time considering the world
Or this cashier who?
he could easily look down upon and say uh, what a horrible life she has
Instead. He says instead of just thinking
Why don't you think about?
What's behind what you're seeing
Think about this woman and he's ringing up your grossest reason
What a life. She's living one life. She could be living
He goes on to just really challenge these young people
to spend their live
lives thinking
about
Thinking on a new level and giving the world the benefit of the doubt
It was really something that um
that resonated in my heart and
Previous to that. I had read a book called. Um
Process
She knows the name of that book, okay, I just found it
it was called process the writing lives of great authors and
um in that book
David Foster Wallace is one of the authors that
Author of that book sarah studd olla
She does sort of a, you know, a piece a chapter on David Foster Wallace
That was the first time I'd heard of it then I stumbled upon this
YouTube video of this commencement speech which lasts like 20 minutes and it was just profound
And I thought okay. Wait a minute. I read this little piece on him in this book now. I see him speaking
And I was like I need to I need to check this guy's work out
so I go on audible and I'm like I look into it and I see this book David Foster Wallace in his own words and
It's really just sort of a a little primer
it's got a little snippets of different books, but it's really worth grabbing if you want to just have an
introduction to David Foster Wallace
because
Even if there are some interviews with him also
And I think that authenticity that I was talking about before really comes through in those interviews. I
Really mean it
there are parts where he comes off sort of as a
you know literary elitist, you know like
He's sort of up here. And the rest of us are down here. It's not it's not overt
But there is a little of that in there
But overall he comes off very authentic
and
When you read or when you listen to he read?
some of these
concepts are just
Blow you out of water
She has a book called brief interviews with hideous men
and it's such a brilliant format that
He addresses some of the most
taboo relationship
topics
in a way that
Disarms you because he calls it hideous man
So he knows what he's saying in the book is horrible
And yet he's allowed to say it because he's interviewing which is not really interviewing him
It's fiction, but he's interviewing these hideous men and their opinions come forth
And the Challenger because as a man
I'm going out on a limb here now, but as a man some of those opinions
You've probably held at some point in the past or maybe even still hold
That's what makes his writings
So powerful if if he makes you look at your own dark thoughts and brings it out into the light
And says really?
Really you you think this you think this here?
Because is this really what you want to think and then it cuts you deep?
Not that I you know, some of the stuff is truly is that I've never thought but some of it hits close to home
Then there's another section of this particular audio book where?
It's called consider the lobster, which is another collection of essays and the stories. Um
And he talks about using living food, you know, mainly Lobster and boiling it alive
Don't get me wrong. I'm not parting with my steak my chicken my Lobster my salmon
But that's not to say it doesn't let me go damn
TFW leave me alone lobby my steak without you coming up by
Punching me in the eye, please
Let me just live my ABI little life
Leave me alone
and
You Gosling he wants you to think about things
And some other you don't want to think about
And I love that. I just think it's it's bold and it's needed in our world
Another thing, um about David Foster Wallace is that
He's not afraid to thumb his nose at the establishment
She wrote this book called anything in jest and you might have watched one of my previous videos where?
that's gonna be one of the books that
I'm reading um
This year in 2020 that I'm gonna become determined to finish. It's huge like this thick and
She knows that it's
insanely all and
That it's just full of
Sort of spinning your wheels. I have a good friend here
Who told me that it could have been one-tenth the size that it is and been great
But she had a hard time getting through it
But I loved his other work so much that I'm gonna power through it and see what I find
so if maybe you're already a David Foster Wallace fan, if not
Don't start with Infinite Jest. That's not what I'm doing
Start with you know in certain words or in her brief interviews with hideous man, or one of his other books
Um, I think it's like his last book is called The Pale King
If if I enjoy the Infinite Jest
I'm gonna you know, maybe take a look get on all of his other work
but
the main thing I wanted to share with you about David Foster Wallace is his fearlessness and the fact that he is going to
approach topics
with such a razor-sharp
Um way of
Forcing us to look at ourselves and look at our lives and our choices and
Calls us this considerately. What am I doing here?
Is this really the right thing?
so take a listen to that look if
you're a
audio book lover like myself
Take a listen to it leave some comments if you already have read Infinite Jest
Leave some comments and let me know what I mean for
and if you haven't
Maybe go get a copy and start reading and we can compare notes in the future
But that's all I got about David Foster Wallace today
Remember read something that hurts
