Sign in with Facebook
David Lipsky
Author profile
born
The United States
gender
male
genre
|
Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace
— published 2010 — 8 editions |
|
|
Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point
— published 2003 — 6 editions |
|
|
The Art Fair
— 3 editions |
|
|
Late Bloomers: Coming of Age in Today's America, the Right Place at the Wrong Time
by David Lipsky, Alexander Abrams — published 1994 |
|
|
Three Thousand Dollars: Stories
— published 1989 |
|
|
The Parrot and the Igloo
— expected publication 2013 — 2 editions |
|
|
Der Zufallslover Roman
by David Lipsky, Regina Winter — published 1998 |
|
|
The Pallbearer
by David Lipsky, Martin S. Lipsky — published 1996 — 2 editions |
|
|
Zanzibar Quarterly No. 1
by Jim Shepard , Norbert Spehner , Louis Skoreki — published 2010 |
|
|
|
The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook
by Jeana Wirtenberg, William G Russell , David Lipsky — published 2008 — 2 editions |
|
Upcoming Events
No scheduled events.
Add an event.
“My ambition is to not embarrass myself--which, if you know me, is a pretty serious ambition.”
― David Lipsky, Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace
― David Lipsky, Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace
“David Foster Wallace: I think the reason why people behave in an ugly manner is that it’s really scary to be alive and to be human, and people are really really afraid. And that the reasons…
That the fear is the basic condition, and there are all kinds of reasons for why we’re so afraid. But the fact of the matter is, is that, is that the job that we’re here to do is to learn how to live in a way that we’re not terrified all the time. And not in a position of using all kinds of different things, and using people to keep that kind of terror at bay. That is my personal opinion.
Well for me, as an American male, the face I’d put on the terror is the dawning realization that nothing’s enough, you know? That no pleasure is enough, that no achievement is enough. That there’s a kind of queer dissatisfaction or emptiness at the core of the self that is unassuageable by outside stuff. And my guess is that that’s been what’s going on, ever since people were hitting each other over the head with clubs. Though describable in a number of different words and cultural argots. And that our particular challenge is that there’s never been more and better stuff comin’ from the outside, that seems temporarily to sort of fill the hole or drown out the hole.
Personally, I believe that if it’s assuageable in any way it’s by internal means. And I don’t know what that means. I think it’s fine in some way. I think it’s probably assuageable by internal means. I think those internal means have to be earned and developed, and it has something to do with, um, um, the pop-psych phrase is lovin’ yourself.
It’s more like, if you can think of times in your life that you’ve treated people with extraordinary decency and love, and pure uninterested concern, just because they were valuable as human beings. The ability to do that with ourselves. To treat ourselves the way we would treat a really good, precious friend. Or a tiny child of ours that we absolutely loved more than life itself. And I think it’s probably possible to achieve that. I think part of the job we’re here for is to learn how to do this.”
― David Lipsky, Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace
That the fear is the basic condition, and there are all kinds of reasons for why we’re so afraid. But the fact of the matter is, is that, is that the job that we’re here to do is to learn how to live in a way that we’re not terrified all the time. And not in a position of using all kinds of different things, and using people to keep that kind of terror at bay. That is my personal opinion.
Well for me, as an American male, the face I’d put on the terror is the dawning realization that nothing’s enough, you know? That no pleasure is enough, that no achievement is enough. That there’s a kind of queer dissatisfaction or emptiness at the core of the self that is unassuageable by outside stuff. And my guess is that that’s been what’s going on, ever since people were hitting each other over the head with clubs. Though describable in a number of different words and cultural argots. And that our particular challenge is that there’s never been more and better stuff comin’ from the outside, that seems temporarily to sort of fill the hole or drown out the hole.
Personally, I believe that if it’s assuageable in any way it’s by internal means. And I don’t know what that means. I think it’s fine in some way. I think it’s probably assuageable by internal means. I think those internal means have to be earned and developed, and it has something to do with, um, um, the pop-psych phrase is lovin’ yourself.
It’s more like, if you can think of times in your life that you’ve treated people with extraordinary decency and love, and pure uninterested concern, just because they were valuable as human beings. The ability to do that with ourselves. To treat ourselves the way we would treat a really good, precious friend. Or a tiny child of ours that we absolutely loved more than life itself. And I think it’s probably possible to achieve that. I think part of the job we’re here for is to learn how to do this.”
― David Lipsky, Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace
“David Foster Wallace: What writers have is a license and also the freedom to sit—to sit, clench their fists, and make themselves be excruciatingly aware of the stuff that we’re mostly aware of only on a certain level. And that if the writer does his job right, what he basically does is remind the reader of how smart the reader is. Is to wake the reader up to stuff that the reader’s been aware of all the time. And it’s not a question of the writer having more capacity than the average person. It’s that the writer is willing I think to cut off, cut himself off from certain stuff, and develop…and just, and think really hard. Which not everybody has the luxury to do.”
― David Lipsky, Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace
― David Lipsky, Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace
Topics Mentioning This Author
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Challenge: 50 Books: Edgar's 50 books for 2012 | 89 | 123 | Dec 28, 2012 12:50am |
Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and invite David to Goodreads.
