Author and Rolling Stone contributing editor David Lipsky won a National Magazine Award for writing about the late author David Foster Wallace last year. We talk to Lipsky about his recent book, "Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace," and his travels with the author. We also hear from Wallace's sister, Amy Wallace-Havens, on her brother's legacy.
Lipsky, who went back to his tapes from the trip after David Foster Wallace committed suicide, also gave us exclusive audio of some of their conversations. Here are some clips, not all of which made it to air in the show, from Lipsky's personal archive of sound from his time with David Foster Wallace. In all of the clips here, Wallace is the main speaker. Take a listen:
1. Art and artists are magic
2. Quitting your job as a towel boy
3. How pop culture can offer profundity and beauty
4. Along with luck, an obligation to do the best you can.
5. "Someone who has been unbelievably burned by no-one other than me."
And we want to hear from you. Tell us which author you'd like to take a road trip with and why? Where would you go? What would you talk about? Call us at 877-8-MYTAKE or leave a comment below.
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The show is a co-production of WNYC Radio and Public Radio International, in collaboration with New York Times Radio and WGBH Boston.
Major funding provided by:
Comments [13]
Bret Easton Ellis through L.A. would be pretty banging, methinks.
Oops -- there's also a DFW "****" in the third clip that wasn't bleeped.
This silliness should go -- can you put these clips back up without the editing?
The bleeping feels like an ugly intrusion.
But if there's to be bleeping, why are DFW's "****s" bleeped and David Lipsky's "**** pop culture" (third clip) isn't?
Sarah Ornery Jewett, through theMaine countryside and to Boston, so I could see what her relationship withAnnie Fields was really like.
The fourth audio clip does not appear to be working.
[Thanks! Just fixed. Should show up in a few minutes - Ed.]
Why, oh, why do you ****** the ******.
Was that edit really necessary?
I'd want to go whale watching with Herman Melville
Thanks for the brackets. Unfortunately, "Foster Wallace" remains. And "yourself" is written as two words in the caption.
Your pull quote refers to Wallace as "Foster Wallace," and inserts that reference with parentheses instead of brackets. Both of these errors would have appalled Wallace.
[You're right! Fixed now. Sorry. -Ed.]
I would love to take a car trip with David Sedaris either through the Carolinas or the French countryside. I know I would never stop laughing and he would regal me with the kind of stories that only a local could know.
Easily, Mark Twain!
Ever taken a look at his Extracts from Adam's Diary? The Garden of Eden has never been so beautifully illuminated by anyone else, and Adam and Eve were the most human as Twain rendered them.
As Adam put it, 'wherever Eve was, there was Eden.'
Beautiful , no?
Sarah Dessen. Why? Well not only is she my biggest inspiration, her books are truly amazing. I would love to go on a road trip with her, she writes the genre that I write, and she seems like a really laid back person. I would love to hear how she writes her books and where she gets her ideas. It would be an awesome experience. One I know I would cherish.
I would definitely take a trip with YA authors, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. I couldn't pick just one b/c they write together. They are the authors of Beautiful Creatures and the soon to be released Beautiful Darkness, which are set in the south. So, I would love to go with them to the small towns in the Carolinas that were the inspiration for the town in the books, Gatlin.
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