And this section I'm going to read to you is from when David is 29 years old and he's not yet the world famous author of Infinite Jest . He's, in fact, the kind of beaten up, tired, and exhausted kind of failed graduate student in Cambridge, Massachusetts. What happens is that David, he grows up in the Midwest in Champaign Urbana.
'Well done.' I nodded my head, now smaller, in gratitude. The Jesters turf, once grass, was now reduced to an oozy and foul-smelling black muck. From here, I could see the outermost edge of the sport's world. Lacrosse players bellowed on the next field over. Just across the rugby field's boundary, two guys were exercising attack dogs. A few street lamps, orange and hazy in the perpetual Portland mist, provided
And it sounds like it's jest . It really isn't jest . When you see the world through the lens of your children and grandchildren, it gives you a different perspective, including a long-term perspective.
And that devastated him. And yet when "Infinite Jest " is published and it's this enormous hit, like this phenomenon, and in some ways realizes all of David's dreams, it also becomes his nightmare.
wrapped up in their neuroses. So to have court jester come in and shift the whole scale kind of, in a way, the scale of the movie. Can you talk about your role, Reggie, in the film?
Grazie! Merci! Donde, how you say-- if you learn some English, yeah. Yo like Alex the jester on Facebook. No, I don't speak English.
Like, in the Middle Ages, the Court -- the King's Court, the Queen's Court -- had a jester. And the jester would make fun of other, you know, members of the royal family, or maybe he or she got beheaded for that. But you know, maybe like other things that the king knew about, they wanted to share this thing called microhumor -- things that were contextually relevant and funny to that group of people.
And I say, all the important things in life, I've learned from my children and I'm now re-learning from my grandchildren. And it sounds like it's jest . It really isn't jest .
I was surprised by so much. And if you read "Infinite Jest ," you can see that in a way, it is our life.
Yeah. Clowns exist in every culture. There's some kind of jester or joker. But we are definitely a foreign idea to these kids what we show up.
rough halfway house. Anyone who has read "Infinite Jest " will recognize immediately the halfway house is fictionalized. It really takes up almost half of "Infinite Jest ." Let me check the time. All right-- we're good.
I was surprised by so much. Some people have the date they started "Infinite Jest " and the date they finished "Infinite Jest " on their arms.
telephone. She said, "I have just won an all expenses paid trip to Switzerland for this summer." "Wow," I replied and I expressed by sincere congratulations then I added just in jest , "but if you stop to reconsider for a moment, wouldn't you rather work in my lab in Chicago doing fascinating biochemistry rather than traveling here and there in Switzerland?" She was silent for
That is the inside of a Vostok, it was called, sphere. Helicopters? Fast jests ? I don't know.
Don't worry about that, because you can build two of the people of the same class in very different ways. And we're seeing that now with Caduceus and Jester. They're both clerics, but they're two very different types of clerics.
If we go back to medieval times, there was something called a court jester. Round of applause-- how many people have heard of a court jester? How many people have at least heard of this concept?
Either one is OK. Does anyone know the role of the court jester? Does anyone know what the purpose of the court jester was?
Does anyone know the role of the court jester? Does anyone know what the purpose of the court jester was? Yes.
I went to a friend of mine's to get the picture, so that was at least good. But you can see that I'm a jester in that, as a comedian, but I've stolen a king's crown so to speak. Many, many people make arguments, right?
So here we are-- David's 28, he's a failed author, he doesn't know what to write anymore, and he goes to a very, very rough halfway house. Anyone who has read "Infinite Jest " will recognize immediately the halfway house is fictionalized. It really takes up almost half of "Infinite Jest ." Let me check the time.
I was surprised by so much. And I really recommend going and looking at the drafts of "Infinite Jest ." It's really stunning to see it.
I was surprised by so much. I mean, Don Gately in "Infinite Jest ," or Hal-- one reason I think we read David with more and more intensity now than we did even 15 years ago is because
And that one actually does have a Mars face on it. If something was said, it was said in camaraderie and jest and then quickly passed over.
When I was a child growing up in North London, we didn't talk about anti-Semitism. If it came up in conversation, it would likely have been in jest . Driving us around in our shabby Ford Popular-- none of you will know what that is; very ancient sort of car, fell to bits a lot--
So that was a great example. And he wrote, "Many a true word is spoken in jest ." So using humor to convey truth makes a lot of sense.
It's my pleasure to introduce DT Max today to talk about, in my opinion, one of the best writers of the generation, David Foster Wallace, who as you presumably know is the author of "Infinite Jest ," "The Broom of the System," "Oblivion," "A Supposedly Wonderful Thing I'll Never Do Again," a handful of other somewhat seminal works of the late 20th century.
for your next place you have to be. So, Wallace, author of Infinite Jest as Chris said-- brilliant, brilliant, brilliant novelist. I'm going to read you a short section from the book, and I'm going to do that just so you get sort of a sense of my
So in the midst of his misery, he was alive to the new information that he was getting. The communal house, he would later write in "Infinite Jest ," reeks of passing time. It is the humidity of early sobriety, hanging and palpable.
Holly Corbett: Yeah. Amanda Pressner: And-and then as far as, as far as the Lost Girls name which you'll see at the title of the book, we named ourselves that kind of in jest because we really felt lost about our futures.
In '97, '01, '02, they were the standard bearers for hacker culture. But they evolved multiple times from text file BBS operators in the beginning to kind of court jesters in infosec. And one of the things that's very interesting to me is that after the spotlight moved on, the people in the group wound up doing really important things
Some people are just there to get a laugh and other people want to say something more than something funny. If we go back to medieval times, there was something called a court jester. Round of applause-- how many people have heard of a court jester?
It's fine. So all of a sudden, it was not such a bad idea at this point in time to just go ahead with that. And so after all the kings have been slain, maybe the jester is the last one standing. I went to a friend of mine's to get the picture, so that was at least good.
all in the in the hallway he learned by trial and error Rec called Bobby Jeffers who later become Bobby Jay on CBS Radio who attended James Fenimore Cooper Junior High School on 120th Street and 5th Avenue in Harlem as did members of the jesters the school boys and the desires Jeffers sang in SE SE many Semi-Pro local groups we'd listen to the records someone would come in and say
it's not good, even as a joke, even in jest .
Wallace found it funny that a Marine hospital would be nowhere near water. The compound consisted of seven buildings-- seven moons orbiting a dead planet, as he would later describe it in "Infinite Jest ", all leased to various substance abuse groups. Wallace met Deb Larson, the director, at his new temporary home.
No one really cared for his cleverness. He was, to them, a type they'd seen before, someone who, as Wallace would later write in "Infinite Jest ," tries to erect denial-type fortifications with some kind of intellectualish showing off.
Wallace tried once at Granada House, he had told his friend Mark Costello, but it felt hypocritical. All the same, he liked to quote one of the veteran recovery members, the group known in "Infinite Jest " as the Crocodiles, who used to say, it's not about whether or not you believe, asshole, it's about getting down on your knees and asking.
He really, he really thinks he's archived something in the kitchen. Craig was in his mid-20s, sober and just huge, as Wallace would later write in "Infinite Jest ," looking less built than poured, with the smooth immovability of an Easter Island statue. And that is, by the way, all exactly how Big Craig looked.
Craig had grown up on the North Shore and been a burglar and Demerol addict. Friends closed elevator doors on his head for fun when he was a teenager, a detail Wallace would of course put into "Infinite Jest " too. But he turned out not only to come from a different world, but also to be quite sensitive, and it did not take
Reggie has a really great relationship with technology in general. And since I was kind of pointing out some the darker aspects, I wanted that to be balanced out with this kind of court jester character. And also, I mentioned that earlier, just narratively, it's functional because the main characters are all very self serious and are very
"It's amazing what you can learn with your head jammed between two rugby player's thighs. It was a dank October evening, and I was at work on a story about the Oregon Jesters women's rugby team. They invited me out to a practice, and at the coach's suggestion, I brought my soccer cleats. I soon found myself ordered to crouch to the scummy turf, then wedge my head between the legs of the two players in front of me. These women, a 'prop' and a 'hooker,
But this was the thing that we were all used to. Like, in the Middle Ages, the Court -- the King's Court, the Queen's Court -- had a jester. And the jester would make fun of other, you know, members of the royal family, or maybe he or she got beheaded for that. But you know, maybe like other things that