Starting this month, Matt Bucher and David Laird, scholars and fans of David Foster Wallace have created the first regular Podcast devoted to Wallace. And the intro and closing music is from Parquet Courts’ “Instant Disassembly” which is also pretty cool.
This introductory episode serves as an introduction to Bucher and Laird, their love of Wallace’s work, and what they hope to do in future episodes.
Matt Bucher lives in Texas, not far from the Ransom Center where the Wallace archives have been settled (he assures us that he moved there before the site was selected). David Laird is from Kelowna, in British Colombia (4 hours east of Vancouver). The claim to fame of Kelowna is the mythical lake monster Ogopogo. But in Infinite Jest, a character is spoken of as being addicted to a thick apple juice that comes from BC.
Bucher also runs Sideshow Media Group which published Elegant Complexity, Nature’s Nightmare, and Consider David Foster Wallace. He says he and his brother founded the press because no one would publish Elegant Complexity, and he felt it needed to get out there.
The topics in this initial episode center around favorite authors and going to the Wallace conference in 2015. They also speak a bit about the Ransom Center and how for some people, it is a passionate location of excitement–the chance to hold one of Wallace’s papers (the Center is open to anyone). But for many academics, who want to be cold and dispassionate in their studies, it’s hard to deal with the fanboys.
Bucher likes a lot of authors, but doesn’t cite too many. He says that he has written a lot about Roberto Bolaño (he and I have a bunch in common).
Laird mentions a few authors who he especially likes (many of the McSweeney’s crowd–so he and I have a lot in common too). He mentions Chris Adrian and Adam Levin’s 1,000 page book The Instructions–a book I have been putting off, but I will now have to read because of how fun (and quick) he says it is.
They both agree on Cormac McCarthy, a writer I have not read and don’t really want to–I think he may be too dark for me. But they cite Blood Meridian and The Crossing in particular.
As the podcast draws to a close, they talk a bit about Bucher’s paper on Fogle in The Pale King. And about Laird’s paper on Jonathan Lethem’s Chronic City, which apparently has all kinds of Wallace references to it. I might have to look into that book as well.
They end by talking about Wallace in popular culture. And how IJ is showing up in lots of unexpected places.
It’s a good starting point, and I am delighted to have heard about it after the first episode, so that I’m not going back after ten or twelves and having to listen to them all at once. I also got a kick out of Laird apologizing for the audio quality (which is not great), because I imagine that the vast network of Wallace fans will contribute suggestions (and maybe even gear) to make it a high quality production by episode two.
Finally, the image above (the podcast’s image) was created by Robyn O’Neil and is called “The final hours embrace at last this is our ending, this is our past.” O’Neil is a huge Wallace fan and may be on a future podcast.
Great job guys, I look forward to listening in.
You can hear the podcast on iTunes or their own site.
I Just Read About That... 
Thanks for listening, Paul! We are still working out the audio quality stuff, but eventually we will have it all figured out.