the issue of
I think, if the book is about anything, it's about the question of "Why?" Right.The End of the Tour · 2015 — 第 4 / 17 章 · 3'10" · C1
Wallace on Why We Feel Empty, Explained：channel surfing
David Foster Wallace tries to explain what Infinite Jest is about: why people with comfortable, well-paid lives still feel miserable. 'Why do we feel so empty and unhappy?' he asks, then compares watching TV to masturbation — harmless in small doses, deadly as a diet — while David Lipsky keeps the tape rolling.
あらすじ
At a restaurant on the book tour, David Foster Wallace records an answer about what his novel is really asking. He describes affluent, educated people watching the best equipment money can buy and still feeling empty, then argues that television and masturbation are fine in low doses but fatal as a staple. David Lipsky pushes back and keeps the interview going.
注目の表現
money can buychannel surfingmasturbationdick
00:00 / 03:10Space 再生 · ← → セリフ移動 · R リピート
いま
このシーンの表現
channel surfing
flipping through TV channels
Lipsky lightens Wallace's heavy question with a joke about flipping channels, naming the modern form of doubt.
He spent the evening channel surfing instead of studying.
このシーンの他の表現
- money can buy
the best that money can get
- masturbation
the act of masturbating
- dick
a jerk
- get used to
become accustomed to
このシーンのメモ一覧
49 行のセリフに 24 件のメモ
this junk — Crude; fine among friends, never in formal talk.
"Why am I watching all this shit?"what makes it so
And what's so American about what I'm doing?time clause: The minute works like as soon as, linking the moment he starts talking to what happens next.
The minute I start talking about this stuff, it sounds, number one, very vague, and number two, really reductive.the comfortable middle class
mostly white, upper middle class,highly educated
obscenely well educated, doing really interesting jobs,The y in empty links into and, so the phrase runs together.
Why do we feel so empty and unhappy?In fast speech kind of reduces to kinda, with of barely heard.
Right. It's kind of like Hamlet except with channel surfing.not worth the time
I'm not saying that watching TV is bad or a waste of your time...just as little as
any more than, like, masturbation is bad or a waste of your time.passive progressive: Is being performed stresses that the action is happening right now, in the passive.
Except at least with masturbation, some action is being performed, right?talk into the mic
No, I'm not going to, but, if you can, speak into the mike.masturbating — Vulgar slang; never in formal speech.
Yes, you're performing muscular movements with your hand as you're jerking off.an imagined relationship
You're having a fantasy relationship with somebody who is not real...computer-simulated reality
and virtual reality pornography becomes a reality, we're gonna have to develop some real machinery inside our guts...switch off
to turn off pure, unalloyed pleasure.parenthetical: The parenthetical sets his own stance apart before he says what he will do.
Or, I don't know about you, I'm gonna have to leave the planet.steadily improving
'Cause the technology is just gonna get better and better.because — Casual spoken form; keep it out of writing.
'Cause the technology is just gonna get better and better.going to — Everyday speech; avoid it in formal writing.
'Cause the technology is just gonna get better and better.increasingly
and more and more convenient and more and more pleasurable...in small amounts
And that's fine in low doses, but if it's the basic main staple of your diet, you're gonna die.The l in staple links into of, and of your fuses too.
And that's fine in low doses, but if it's the basic main staple of your diet, you're gonna die.go to the toilet
Actually, can I... Can I use your bathroom for a second?「Wallace on Why We Feel Empty」を読み解く
What's really going on
This is the film's thesis delivered as riff. Wallace keeps saying he has no 'diagnosis' and no 'system of prescriptions,' then offers exactly that: a diagnosis of comfortable modern life. His target is not TV or pornography but the appetite they train — 'given to us by people who do not love us but want our money' — and the way easy pleasure crowds out anything that matters. The comparison to masturbation is the argument's sharpest move: not a moral taboo but a question of proportion, 'fine in low doses, but if it's the basic main staple of your diet, you're gonna die.' Lipsky plays the straight man, defending him from his own self-reduction, and the comedy keeps the sermon watchable. What stays is the plain question underneath: 'Why do we feel so empty and unhappy?'
Theme
PhilosophyWallace turns a marketing question into an argument about why comfort and endless pleasure leave people empty.
LonelinessThe whole riff is about feeling empty and unhappy despite having everything money can buy.
このチャプターで学べること
- The question why carries the whole book.
- Comfort itself is not the danger; dependence is.
- The masturbation analogy keeps a heavy idea physical and funny.
- Easy pleasure is sold by people who want your money.
発音のポイント
- empty and unhappy — The y in empty links into and, so the phrase runs together.
- kind of — In fast speech kind of reduces to kinda, with of barely heard.
- staple of your — The l in staple links into of, and of your fuses too.
Why do we feel so empty and unhappy?The question Wallace says his novel is really about, and the one driving the whole monologue about comfort and consumption.
And that's fine in low doses, but if it's the basic main staple of your diet, you're gonna die.His proportion argument: easy pleasure is not evil in itself, but it becomes deadly once it is what you live on.
Right. It's kind of like Hamlet except with channel surfing.Lipsky's wry summary of modern anomie: the same old existential paralysis, now played out with a remote control.
In a meaningful way, you're going to die.Wallace's dark punchline, insisting that endless distraction is not just sad but a kind of death.
このシーンについての質問
What is Wallace saying Infinite Jest is about?
He says that if the book is about anything, it is about the question 'Why?' — specifically why people with comfortable, educated lives still feel empty and unhappy.
Why does Wallace compare watching TV to masturbation?
Both are pleasurable ways to pass a few minutes, he says, and both involve a fantasy rather than a real relationship. His point is about proportion, not about either being evil.
Is Wallace saying television is bad?
No. He explicitly says it is not bad and not a waste of time, and that it is fine in low doses. His warning is against making easy pleasure the main staple of your life.
What does 'dick' mean here?
It is an insult meaning a jerk or a nasty person. Wallace jokes that printing his comments would make him look like a real dick, which is why he tries to walk them back.
人生はローリングストーン · 全 17 章
すべて見る →
次のチャプター · 第 5 章comes with the territoryWallace on Why He Isn't Married
第 1 章once in a generationLipsky Pitches the Wallace Story
第 2 章out of respectDave Wallace Doesn't Drink
第 3 章shape the impressionWallace and Lipsky First Meeting
再生中 · 第 4 章channel surfingWallace on Why We Feel Empty
第 5 章comes with the territoryWallace on Why He Isn't Married
第 6 章in a heartbeatDave Wallace Offers Lipsky a Room
第 7 章security blanketLipsky Asks About the Bandanna
第 8 章about as sexy asWallace Recalls His Eight Days
第 9 章all downhill from hereWallace Reads at The Hungry Mind
第 10 章make eyes at someoneWallace Calls Lipsky's Girlfriend
第 11 章self-absorbedWallace on Being Shy and Egotistical
第 12 章come on to someoneWallace Tells Lipsky to Stay Away
第 13 章fauxWallace and Lipsky's Parking Lot Fight
第 14 章sleepwalk throughWallace Fears Liking the Attention
第 15 章autobiographicalLipsky Asks Wallace About Heroin
第 16 章spiritual crisisDavid Foster Wallace on Depression
第 17 章put my foot downWallace Dances at a Baptist Church第 4 / 17 章 · 残り約 53 分