Chuck Palahniuk talks about David Foster Wallace

Chuck Palahniuk talks about David Foster Wallace on The Bret Easton Ellis Show

[wolvesetc]

Wow this is the worst take on suicide I've maybe ever heard

[ABooktubeChannel]

tfw people think major depressive disorder can be cured with coloring books.

[pod]

Well that was David’s problem Chuck. He couldn’t not care. That’s what made him special.

[itstoogooditswaytoogood]

i get that this is a bit and they're playing off each other but clinical depression is almost an entirely different reality from the one regular people live. people largely exist in a palatable neutral region, not necessarily happy, not necessarily dejected, but with major depression you live your typical days in a submarine of melancholy and only sometimes can you peak above to see what anything else is like. The problem about suggesting what DFW "should" have done is that it's complete conjecture. What we know is that he was clinically depressed, and he committed suicide. What we know is what HE himself said about suicide (comparing it to jumping out of a burning building), and nothing Palahniuk is suggesting here was ever going to reduce the terror of the flames he felt.

[sportsportsport]

This is the definition of ignorance and insensitivity combined.

[R.L.Kramer]

Remember that your observations of the world are often confessions of the self. Go easy on chuck here. He may very well have just explained that writing coloring books saved his life

[babytuckoo]

Both of these people had Wallace’s post in our literary imagination in mind for themselves. I understand what chuck is trying to say here, but this is still deeply insensitive. He comes off sounding like a butthurt kid who received an honorable mention at an end-of-season tee ball banquet

[brennenspice]

Big yikes. Wallace committed suicide due to an intensive withdrawal from an antidepressant he had been on his whole life - Both Ellis and Chuck have never spoken kindly of his work and to also make such insensitive and ignorant comments about his personal life is a little disheartening. There's also a great deal of commentary regarding plath in infinite jest but I somewhat doubt either of these two picked up on it.

[rigsby]

Palahniuk should probably stop coloring and learn to write something decent. I like Bret

[buckylagrange]

Man, let’s hope in one of Chucks next pre pubescent attempts at getting on a podcast, he finally writes something worth reading, unlike the person he refers to in this video as being just a little too serious.

[selcuk]

People really seem to don't understand that depression isn't just psychological but also biologic...

[kp]

I like Palahniuk. Surprised at how shitty of a statement this is. Maybe I shouldn't be.

[jasonpayne]

There's things that gnaw at a man worse than dying.

[singalternative]

"I've seen the fight club, about twenty eight times...", direct quote from Fred Durst's lyrics. I'm not taking life advice from someone who inspired Fred Durst.

[Brandon-tkrw]

not surprising, as everything I've read by CP seems to come out of this very unsophisticated adolescent mind. he definitely has perpetual 12 yo boy mentality

[nunyabusiness]

I know this is insensitive, but part of me wants to try and defend it. Palahniuk is trying to say that for a writer, who devotes large amounts of time and focus to their craft, writing should be enjoyable. He thinks that if you hold yourself to a ridiculous standard of excellence you might find yourself drawing upon the personal issues you write about so much that you rely on them and begin reliving them to push yourself. And this could worsen what began as a biological problem. He is not saying that coloring books fix depression. I know those where the words he used, but it is a clearly a metaphor (however inappropriate). He is saying that the ability to stop yourself and put your name on something so simple and unambitious as a coloring book is something you should have.

[Ira__L]

I think Palahniuk isn't talking specifically about Wallace, he's just trying to imagine himself in his shoes, and so ultimately talking about himself. Perhaps he didn't know about Wallace's problems with antidepressants and finishing The Pale King, but he did get affected by Wallace's suicide. Palahniuk wrote about the morning he saw his obituary in the newspaper, and that it was only then that he found out they both were born on Feb 21, 1962. And yes, the way he enlists all the circumstances surrounding his death might sound a bit off, but he is clearly trying to convey his shock about this outcome and how tragic and absurd it was.

[pitfighter]

He describes a good life.



But wouldn't it be the ugliest bitch to have it all and not be allowed to enjoy it?

Wallace talked about not assuming anything in "This is Water" and how to be less arrogant and presumptive, using what he found in meditation to diffuse the spiral of negative associations connecting everything producing the pissed off "taking it too seriously" attitude
He also described in IJ, a building on fire and a man who jumps not because he wants to die or take things to seriously. He really feels deep distress, physically as he finally commits to jumping just to be rid of the pain.

[lmadaus]

it seems that a few commenters really care about what chuck palahniuk thinks, at least in this case. nice of you fellas to prove his point for him.

[jordanhyman]

whether or not you agree with Palahniuk's statement, it should be perfectly acceptable to criticize mental illness. I don't understand the defensiveness in the comments that seem to suggest that being mentally ill should somehow exempt you from being criticized. If it's your intent to de-stigmatize mental illness, then giving the subject matter special privileges as to how it can acceptably be publicly interpreted works against your intention.