David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2018

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One of the biggest novels of the late twentieth century - both literally and figuratively - was published in February 1996. Infinite Jest by American author David Foster Wallace is nearly 1100 pages long, but the ground-breaking work of literary fiction also became a bestseller.

Lucy Burns speaks to the editor of Infinite Jest, Michael Pietsch.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC
0:35.4	Sounds.
0:36.4	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:40.9	My name's Linda Davies and I commissioned
0:43.0	podcast for BBC Sounds.
0:45.0	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality,
0:49.0	featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:54.4	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
1:00.9	poltergeist, cricket and conspiracy theories, Cricket, and Conspiracy Theories.
1:04.3	And that's just a few examples.
1:06.2	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected,
1:09.4	find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. Hi, and for downloading Witness the History Podcast from the BBC World Service.
1:17.0	I'm Lucy Burns and today I'm taking you back to February 1996 and the publication of one of the biggest books of the late 20th century,
1:26.0	both literally and figuratively, David Foster Wallace's infinite jest. I first met David on the page.
1:38.6	I knew his literary agent and she began sending me some short stories that were being published in at first kind of out of the way magazines
1:46.4	that were just mind-blowingly complex and funny and daring and rich and I became you know one of his early fans.
1:55.0	This is Michael Peach.
	...

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