Chapter 7 of 17 · 5'03"
David Lipsky breaks the ice by asking David Foster Wallace about his bandanna, and the joke backfires: 'Because now I'm worried it's going to seem intentional,' Wallace says. A harmless accessory becomes a spiral about image, sincerity, and whether he can do anything without it reading as a commercial choice.
❝ Monologue · 9 lines Lipsky Asks Wallace About His Bandanna
❝ Monologue · 13 lines Wallace's Worst Jobs on the Tour
On the book tour, David Lipsky asks David Foster Wallace why he wears a bandanna, after hearing people call it a pitch to younger readers. Wallace worries the question has made the bandanna look calculated, then explains it began in Tucson as protection from sweat and became a comfort object. The interview turns personal, then moves to the airport.
The bandanna is a small thing that Wallace cannot leave small. Lipsky asks a light question, and Wallace immediately hears the interview itself: 'now I'm worried it's going to seem intentional,' he says, caught between wearing it and not wearing it. What he describes is the trap of being watched — every ordinary choice becomes a statement once a journalist is in the room. His answer is unusually honest: the bandanna started as a practical fix for sweating in Tucson and became 'a security blanket ... whenever I feel nervous,' not a style or a trademark. That honesty is exactly what the scene tests. When Lipsky turns the questions on Wallace's parents, Wallace draws a line — 'I hereby request that you don't' — reminding us who is in control of the story, and who is only pretending to be.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“There's this enormous hiss of egos at various states of inflation and deflation.”
It turns a whole room of writers into one hissing sound of pride rising and collapsing.
Informal
“I would perspire so heavily, drip into the electric typewriter.”
One concrete detail, sweat dripping into a typewriter, says heat better than any adjective.
Informal
“I was, in effect, a towel boy.”
One flat phrase strips the fancy title down to the humble job underneath.
Informal
“It's more of a foible, the recognition of a weakness that I'm kind of afraid my head is gonna explode.”
The exploding-head image makes an abstract anxiety physical and darkly funny.
Neutral
In Tucson. It was, like, a hundred degrees all the time. I would perspire so heavily, drip into the electric typewriter. I was nervous I was gonna give myself a shock. And then, at some point, I realized I felt better with them on. I know that it's a security blanket for me whenever I feel nervous... or, like, I gotta keep myself together. Makes me feel kind of creepy, people view it as an affectation... or a trademark or something. It's more of a foible, the recognition of a weakness that I'm kind of afraid my head is gonna explode.
I was a towel boy at this chichi health club. You were a towel boy? I was called something other than a towel boy. I was, in effect, a towel boy. Occasionally trusted with checking people in. "Show your ID." Anyway, one day I'm sitting there. Who should walk in to get their towel but this guy, this writer that I knew who won a Whiting writer's award the same year I had. Oh, God. Yeah. So there I am. I'm sitting there. I'd been on a rostrum with this guy... Holy shit. Having Eudora Welty give us an award.
Up next · 08about as sexy asThe scene: Wallace Recalls His Eight DaysBecause now the question is out there, any choice he makes — wearing it or not — can be read as intentional. He says it feels like 'a whole crazy circle' he has to go around.
He started wearing it in Tucson, where it was about a hundred degrees and he sweated so much it dripped onto his typewriter. Over time it became a comfort object that helps him stay steady.
He says they are very private people and that he would have a problem with it. He asks Lipsky not to, a plain reminder that he can still decide what goes into the story.
In college he wrote papers for other students and found he could imitate anyone's voice. He calls that ability a little scary, as if he could counterfeit someone else's writing.
