I Just Read About That…

[LISTENED TO: November 18, 2010] Consider the Lobster

This was the final audio book that DFW read.  As with Brief Interviews, this is a collection of selected, unedited essays [actually it says “Text slightly edited for audio, with changes approved by the author.”  I don’t know these essays verbatim, but it seems like the changes simply acknowledge that this an audio essay and not a written one].

The only problem with the entire package is how few essays were selected.

I don’t know if it’s because this collection was recorded later and DFW felt more comfortable reading or because DFW had more fun reading these essays or that these essays lend themselves to more animated reading, but this collection is absolutely stellar.

The audio book includes

• Consider the Lobster
• The View from Mrs. Thompson’s
• Big Red Son
• How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart

and, sadly, that’s it.

Not included are

• Certainly the End of Something or Other One Would Sort of Have to Think
• Some Remarks on Kafka’s Funniness from Which Probably Not Enough Has Been Removed [you can hear a strange-sounding audio of this at the DFW Audio Project]
• Authority and American Usage
• Up, Simba [you can hear part of this in a This American Life segment]
• Joseph Frank’s Dostoevsky
• Host [I can’t imagine how this would be read aloud, although I just found out that the online version from the Atlantic is still available and the boxes in the print version come as pop-up windows…how fun!]

The opening of the audio book offers “A Note for the Listener” which addresses the issue of footnotes in the book.  He tells the listener that the footnotes will sound different (a more compressed, tinny version of DFW’s voice).  And he notes that if you hate the whole thing, please note, it’s not his fault.

For all four of these essays, DFW’s reading brings the stories to life.  I haven’t read them in a couple of years, but I feel like these readings brought a real spark to these stories.  His reading is alive and vibrant.  The footnotes (whether it’s the recording tone or his tone) bring a wonderfully alive snark to the proceedings and generally make all of the essays a lot of fun.

The only question I have is how/why these particular essays were chosen for the audio book (but I’ll make some guesses).

Consider the Lobster
It’s fairly obvious why this one was chosen (title of the book and all).  Plus I believe it is one of the more respected articles that he’s written.

There are a lot of footnotes in this essay and they bring out all kinds of interesting aspects to the main story.  In the article he notes that some of the more philosophical/lengthy questions will likely be edited from the magazine piece.  But it’s not mentioned in the audio book whether the stuff was cut in the original (my library copy of the audio book does not have a booklet–I assume there isn’t one–so it’s interesting to note that it never says if this is an expanded version of the original).

There’s something about hearing the essay’s moral aspects w/r/t the destruction of lobster life that makes it even more gruesome than reading it.  I’m sure much of that is that DFW’s voice draws you in and makes you really want to hear what he’s saying, even as it repulses you.

The View from Mrs Thompson’s
Another audio version of this essay (truncated) is available from the David Foster Wallace Audio Project.  In the Audio Project version, DFW opens by saying this is the least re-written thing he’s ever done (he only had a few days to work on it).  He admits that when he re-read it, the immediacy of the piece really struck him.  And I think that comes through in this version as well.

Although DFW is very much a proponent of honesty, in this essay he feels especially naked.  His voice is not like the “personae” that he employs for “Lobster” and the others, it is just him in his neighborhood, meeting people that he knows and likes.  And, also someone he dislikes.  “Dwayne” in the story is really rather abused (“It always seems to be important to have at least one person in the vicinity to hate”).  And it comes across as so very hostile–honest but hostile–and surely the real Dwayne must know that the piece is about him.  I mean, how could he not?

Then, the part where he is comforted by the Kwik-N-EZ clerk is very moving in this reading.  And, my God, having him describe the scene of the dots falling from the tower….

It’s also understandable because of the importance of the event that he would include this essay.

Big Red Son
(This was published bi-pseudonymously in Premiere under the names Willem de Groot and Matt Rundlet).  [Note: Glenn Kenney tells the tale of this article on his blog. He notes that “it was only when [David] handed in the manuscript of the piece that I discovered he was going to use a dual pseudonym and write in the first person plural.”  (Awesome!)  The blog post also addresses just who Dick Filth and Harold Hecuba are].

I have to assume that he wanted to read this (very long–it’s a disc and a half!) essay because it was so much fun to read it aloud.  How many times does one get to speak (much less record) oneself saying things like “double penetration” (or the hilarious title NYDP Blue) or “latex dildo” or so many other wonderful porny phrases.

Despite the length of this audio, it never dulls and never flags (unlike the correspondents themselves, apparently, as they seem pretty worn down by the end of the proceedings).  This essay is kind of a plea for understanding about the porn industry–I found it rather moving during the segment about how porn actors occasionally slip and show their “true self” on-screen while professional actors never do.  But despite that it’s clear that there’s still a lot of mockable figures here (some absolutely justifiably so).  The article may seem mean-spirited at times, but I think as a whole, the industry is held up to some kind of respectful lens as well.

All the way through, the tone is perfect, and I laughed many many times during the reading.

How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart
This essay was also surprisingly moving.  I think hearing him read some of the quotes in the story proved to be more effective than reading them myself.  (Although that essay does stand out from when I last read CtL).  Indeed when he reads Tracy’s words, you can really hear the disappointment in his voice, and that adds an extra impact to our understanding of the way he feels.

The essay also seems to be somewhat epiphanic for him, and I have to wonder if he did give up on reading sports memoirs after this one.

I guess looking at the remaining articles, which are mostly book reviews, one could see that maybe they weren’t essential for an audio book, but it would still have been great to hear them.  A part of me is saddened now that there’s no other reading available that I haven’t heard (well, of course, the internet is endless, and I’m sure I’ve missed some), but especially in an official context, the end is here.

Neverthless, this is an outstanding audio book and should be heard by any fan of DFW.