David Foster Wallace / Rick Moody

Posted on November 29, 2005 by Tito

It was a dark and stormy night…

I was the rag part of a ragtag crew that braved the San Francisco weather for a conversation between David Foster Wallace & Rick Moody as a fundraiser for 826 Valencia, hosted by the local City Arts organization. My only previous foray into the world of City Arts was a talk with Umberto Eco, which I enjoyed about 8.5/10. Given the opportunity, I jumped at the opportunity to see one of a¹ generation’s seminal writers (and Rick Moody).

Prior to signing on for this excursion:

• the sum total of my DFW reading consisted of:
1. His Consider The Lobster essay in Gourmet. Loved It! [2 snaps]
2. About 1/2 of his short stories in Oblivion. At best, I liked some of them, at worst I wanted to transmogrify the book into a fish.
3. His essay Host from Atlantic Monthly
4. After urgings from friends old & new, I began reading Infinite Jest in the lead up to the event. I am currently about 2/3 done³.
• the sum total of my Rick Moody reading consisted of:
1. His essay Writers and Mentors in The Atlantic’s fiction issue, which I enjoyed.

Enough about me, on to my thoughts & reactions [maybe some others will weigh in with their takes]…

A little after the scheduled 8:00 start, the most bored, monotone introduction evar kicked things off, courtesy of a lady from City Arts? Not sure. I don’t remember if she introduced herself, all I remember is that she mentioned this was a fundraiser for 826, something about the Bowery Ballroom and an experimental format in which Moody & Wallace would simultaneously interview each other, or die trying.

Hodgpodge reactions⁴:

• The talk began with DFW asking Moody if they should work under the assumption that the audience by and large hadn’t read Moody’s latest, The Diviners. A quick poll of the assemblage proved this assumption valid. They promised to not “give anything away”.
• Wallace began be reading from The Diviners, followed by questions – initially vague & open-ended, but continually honing in for explanation & clarification. While I personally liked this style, it seemed at times that Wallace was going through sincere explorations in search of some specifics where Moody seemed more eager for flippant responses that didn’t hold up (to me) on cross-examination by Wallace. Particularly, in one exchange Moody began talking about some seismic shift in the literary landscape from th 1990’s to the 2000’s. When pressed for specifics, Moody struggled for 1990s examples (with the exception of quickly citing Infinite Jest & evenutally his own Purple America “if he were feeling particularly generous”). After implying that the 2000’s batch of novels were inferior, insteading of citing examples he hemmed & hawed, with a complicit Wallace finally declaring tthe wouldn’t “dis” any novels. So I was left unconvinced on this point.
• Later the talk turned to the role of literature in times the more “eeyore-ish” Wallace called the nadir of American politics (specifically citing Bush’s re-election). Moody seemed to take a longer view that I generally side towards – basically that all things will pass. However, he did note that he felt obliged to act politically & speak out, as to remain silent is an endorsement of the status quo. Regarding literature, they agreed that writers should be most careful when walking a political line, because of the risks to the aesthetic of their writing. Nothing new here. Wallace seemed particularly distressed when facing the small role that literary fiction plays within America at large all the way to his own circle of friends who ask “what he writes about”. This came after a reading from The Diviners in which one character (unnamed) resmbling Judge Scalia gave a rant about power & the natural order of things. Wallace surmised that whatever “political” tones they may take were likely mere preachings to the converted. Moody decided it was worthwhile if for no other reason than to clear his own concscience. This line of though continued for much of the talk with Wallace thinking out loud a lot – commenting to the audience that he should be paying us $100/hour to listen – where the presence of a moderator and structure was missed.
• Wallace also read an opening “poem” from The Diviners that opens with a description of the rising sun illuminating the Earth on a westward track, finally shining in on a specific scene (which I forget). There was a lot of Mediterranean sites listed. When asked the thought behind this scene, and specifically whether this was an homage to Dickens’s Bleak House, Moody replied this was a common question. While it was his favorite Dicken’s novel, he noted he wasn’t thinking of Bleak House, but actually came up with the poem because he was thinking of movie credits – specifically Psycho – and wanted to see if he couldn’t ape the visual. I was left a little disappointed there was no intended affect for the reader other than the writer’s own admiration for Hitchcock. An unfair expectation on my part, possibly, but it seemed little empty as much as I love Hitchcock.
• Moody also mentioned he was taking a course on Dante, specifically the Purgatorio, which led to the 33 chapters of The Diviners. Later, when Wallace noted that the novel both opened and closed with light, with much of the story unsurprisingly dealing with water, Moody admitted that he hadn’t thought that part of the book’s construction out – and it simply worked out that way, with no master plan behind that aspect.

I’m sure I’m leaving plenty out, but at some point the house lights abruptly came up and we kicked into the Q&A, with several audience members wisely heading for the doors. We were treated to many ususal questions, and only one adulatory non-question from the upper deck. There was some good riffing that one could expect from the speakers even if the questions weren’t alwasy up to snuff.

One question followed up on the theme of politics & literature by noting William Vollmann’s recent recognition with the National Book Award for Europe Central, to which Moody& Wallace unsurprisingly admitted to having not read. Given Moody’s earlier comments about the complicity that literature can play in politics, culture, etc… I was tempted to ask if they’d either read Roberto Bolaño’s By Night In Chile and if whether U.S. writers could could take cues from foreign writers present & past who have already been through their fair share of political & social nadirs. In the end, I chickened out because I didn’t feel prepared/conversant in the topics from the novel and didn’t want to basically pull a Chris Farley Show and ask if they remembered that part in Bolaño’s book about the politics, and the literary critics, and wasn’t it awesome.

Irregardless[sic], I’m confident I’ve gone on too long. Anybody else who was there, please correct me. If you weren’t there and have any questions let me know, and I’ll see if I can’t remember anything more.

Oh yeah, neither writer reads blogs – Wallace apparently for the same reason he doesn’t read reviews (they mess with his mind) and Moody because they seem to rushed, preferring the conferred, steeped dignity of editors & slower printed publications.

To my disappointment, at 9:15ish, the Q&A round proved to be the end of the event with no return for Moody to focus on interviewing Wallace. A slight bait & switch, but I’d be lying if I said we didn’t get a good dose of Wallace mixed in with the Moody.

UPDATED: Scott and Ed have written.

UPDATED 2:
See Rober Ellis’ comments below for radio rebroadcast information – including sattelite radio stations around the United States.

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¹ not quite mine – but close enough I guess.
² {number [2] intentionally left blank}
³ While I occasionaly laugh my ass off and am blown away by aspects of the book, I suspect my final view won’t be as venerated as others… but who knows? Maybe once I read the rest of the story, my mind will change. I call this the Paul Harvey affect, and am not entirely convinced it is even possible.
⁴ Going by memory here, please clue me in on any glaring mistakes.

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