How can this guy be such a good orator and such a poor writer?

dude what? he's a fucking horrible speaker. have you seen that charlie rose interview? chk chk chk

>>9176039
>>9176670
these posts cancel eachother out making him an okay writer and a decent speaker.

>>9176677
Would only be the case if >>9176670 praised his writing, so he's a shitty writer and an OK speaker.

>>9176670
He just has this very monotone, dripping voice. Whenever I hear "Wittgenstein thought the most serious and profound questions could be discussed in the form of jokes." I just want to give an interview.

>>9176707
he's a great writer

>>9176677

Wow.. a thesis, antithesis, and synthesis in three posts... even Hegelian dialectics demonstrate DFWs mediocrity

>>9176039
no he's a good essayist
he's bad at everything else

His short stories were good. Everything else...

File: 1470162481561.jpg (25KB, 500x500px) Image search: [Google]

25KB, 500x500px

>>9176670
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqmIAbHXr0Y

Is he really good at either?

what do you guys think about this axl rose bandana head wrap thing?
is this /fa/?

>>9178309
It was a common 90s thing you 18 year old Portuguese stem major steam playing child

>>9176039
"Sorrry senpai i'm mumbling"
>blushes away

>>9178315
Does it make any sense to you?

>>9176039
i hate reading him too but love his interviews. i dont see how IJ couldnt have been trimmed.

>>9178379
it was trimmed, DFW's original draft was twice as long.

He was too sincere.

>>9178282
The_Bookchemist BTFO'd DFW in one of his latest videos.

>How can this guy be such a good orator and such a poor writer?

Because his literary ambition was to be taken seriously as a major literary player, and his "feats" stink thickly of that desperation. The slop is bad.

For his public persona, on the other hand, he wanted the be the normal, "gee, shucks" sincere and honest midwestern.

>>9177569
His essays are incredibly embarrassing. His 9/11 one is probably the worst essay published that decade.

>>9178458
well he needed to keep his door constantly open somehow

>>9178379
one of my favorite books but he could've cut 20-35 percent.

I was wanted to make a thread on him, might as well post this here:

Does anyone else get the feeling that they're reading a different Infinite Jest from the people who praise it? Reading the things people write about it, it sounds like really nice and interesting book that makes a point about irony and entertainment, and a lot of other things. All while making the reader "feel loved", as someone described it.

The problem is, that while reading it myself, I haven't come across any of those things. If they are there, they are buried so deep beneath the tennis circlejerking and other non-important trivia, that it makes them almost non-existent. Whenever I pick it up, I often find myself having to slog through chapters upon chapters of superfluous and trivial verbiage, all while getting bombarded with unnecessary information along the way. It made me genuinely hate tennis

Anyone else feel that way?

Like, it feels like that bits about honesty, irony, sarcasm, etc are all falsely attributed to Infinite Jest while actually are nowhere to be found in it, almost. There were some really enjoyable episodes in the book that were a pleasure to read, I don't deny that, but they're kind of few and far in between. If the book was 1/3 of it's length or 2/3 or something, sure. But as it is, it's just all over the place.

>>9178685
I like tennis; I played it a lot in highschool though. I also like the verbiage, but that might have been a novelty thing. I really thought it was a very impressive book all around, and even though the plot was [very] slow sometimes, I enjoyed the wiring enough to keep going.

I should have never come to this board; I've never heard anyone talk about this book before and my opinions are very fragile. I don't want /lit/ to ruin it for me, but what if I'm wrong?

>>9178710
>wiring

>>9178701
It might have been an advantage for me that I didn't come into the book with any expectations. I never heard any of these things about it, I just read one of his short stories and thought it was amazing, then looked him up and bought IJ. I don't disagree with you, but it might be that you were mislead by people who were so impressed with themselves for reading the whole thing that they felt the need to talk it up. I didn't think much of the book from any larger perspective, but I'm not good at analyzing books that way anyhow. The writing was really very good; anything other insights are probably influenced by personal perspective (not to say they're wrong).

>>9178710
> I've never heard anyone talk about this book before

Is it your first day? It gets discussed here all the time, like almost every day. If you've already read it, you're fine.

It was probably entertaining reading about tennis since you played it yourself, but imagine reading about, say, cricket in the same excruciating detail. I would drive you nuts, unless you're secretly a fan of it or something.

>>9178258
the guy was clearly on pills during this interview though. even through all his clear autism symptoms he still made some great points.

>>9178314
>>9178309
he used it because he had huge anxiety attacks everytime he was in public. it catched his sweat so his forehead didnt become wet.

>>9178730
I think he meant he never heard it discussed before he came to this board.