Interview with author of "Infinite Jest"

Joe Barrera (joebar@MICROSOFT.com)
Sun, 6 Jul 1997 17:11:35 -0700


http://www.salon1999.com/09/features/wallace1.html

"It seems to me that the intellectualization and aestheticizing of
principles and values in this country is one of the things that's gutted
our generation. All the things that my parents said to me, like "It's
really important not to lie." Okay, check, got it. I nod at that but I
really don't feel it. Until I get to be about thirty and I realize that
if I lie to you, I also can't trust you. I feel that I'm in pain, I'm
nervous, I'm lonely and I can't figure out why. Then I realize, "Oh,
perhaps the way to deal with this is really not to lie." The idea that
something so simple and, really, so aesthetically uninteresting -- which
for me meant you pass over it for the interesting, complex stuff -- can
actually be nourishing in a way that arch, meta, ironic, pomo stuff
can't, that seems to me to be important. That seems to me like something
our generation needs to feel." - DFW

- Joe

Joseph S. Barrera III (joebar@microsoft.com)
http://research.microsoft.com/~joebar
Phone, Office: (415) 778-8227; Cellular: (415) 601-3719; Home: (415)
588-4801