Support this work on Patreon

Read the full write-up on this archive on William Engels's Substack, Hemlock.

Part 1 of 2:

We all have our little solipsistic delusions, ghastly intuitions of utter singularity: that we are the only one in the house who ever fills the ice-cube tray, who unloads the clean dishwasher, who occasionally pees in the shower, whose eyelid twitches on first dates; that only we take casualness terribly seriously; that only we fashion supplication into courtesy; that only we hear the whiny pathos in a dog's yawn, the timeless sigh in the opening of the hermetically-sealed jar, the splattered laugh in the frying egg, the minor-D lament in the vacuum's scream; that only we feel the panic at sunset the rookie kindergartner feels at his mother's retreat. That only we love the only-we. That only we need the only-we. Solipsism binds us together, J.D. knows. That we feel lonely in a crowd; stop not to dwell on what's brought the crowd into being. That we are, always, faces in a crowd."

-Westward The Course Of Empire Takes Its Way", Girl With Curious Hair

In an act of desperate folly, I have collated (by my count, which could be wrong) twenty-nine different recordings of DFW, (29!) - and placed them in as strict a chronological order as the otherwise-degraded catalogues of 90s and 00s public radio metadata will allow. There are various (much older) DFW audio archive projects - which I have used to make this - but they are half the size/accuracy/detail of THIS behemoth. May its 14 hour bulk guide you through the 14-hour night of the Winter Solstice. Depending on latitude.

If you listen to this, you are empowered to say with a straight face that you have heard every interview that David Foster Wallace ever gave.

This is my holiday gift to all of you, and my sign-off for the year, as I head home for Christmas.

Enjoy.

Music Credits: Creative Commons: Chopin, Raindrop Prelude Op 28 No 15, CC-0 performed by Rousseau (YouTube)

Support this work on Patreon⁠

⁠Read the full write-up on this archive on William Engels's Substack, Hemlock.⁠

Part 2 of 2:

We all have our little solipsistic delusions, ghastly intuitions of utter singularity: that we are the only one in the house who ever fills the ice-cube tray, who unloads the clean dishwasher, who occasionally pees in the shower, whose eyelid twitches on first dates; that only we take casualness terribly seriously; that only we fashion supplication into courtesy; that only we hear the whiny pathos in a dog's yawn, the timeless sigh in the opening of the hermetically-sealed jar, the splattered laugh in the frying egg, the minor-D lament in the vacuum's scream; that only we feel the panic at sunset the rookie kindergartner feels at his mother's retreat. That only we love the only-we. That only we need the only-we. Solipsism binds us together, J.D. knows. That we feel lonely in a crowd; stop not to dwell on what's brought the crowd into being. That we are, always, faces in a crowd."

-Westward The Course Of Empire Takes Its Way", Girl With Curious Hair

In an act of desperate folly, I have collated (by my count, which could be wrong) twenty-nine different recordings of DFW, (29!) - and placed them in as strict a chronological order as the otherwise-degraded catalogues of 90s and 00s public radio metadata will allow. There are various (much older) DFW audio archive projects - which I have used to make this - but they are half the size/accuracy/detail of THIS behemoth. May its 14 hour bulk guide you through the 14-hour night of the Winter Solstice. Depending on latitude.

If you listen to this, you are empowered to say with a straight face that you have heard every interview that David Foster Wallace ever gave.

This is my holiday gift to all of you, and my sign-off for the year, as I head home for Christmas.

Enjoy.

Music Credits: Creative Commons: Chopin, Raindrop Prelude Op 28 No 15, CC-0 performed by Rousseau (⁠YouTube⁠)

SOCIALS

Will’s Patreon - patreon.com/c/hemlockpatreon

Will’s Substack (Hemlock) - williamengels.substack.com

Bad Role Models on YouTube: youtube.com/@hemlock-yt

The Big BRM Playlist on YouTube

Bad Role Models is a co-production of Richard Sinex, Thomas Vanek, and William Engels.

ERRATA:

I said "Nicholas Drake" when I meant "Thomas A. Drake" the pre-Snowden NSA whistleblower who condemned Stellar Winds (I said "Solar Winds") and the Trailblazer Project as unconstitutional.

REFERENCES

• The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West by Nicholas W. Zamiska and Alexander C. Karp

• The Philosopher in the Valley: Alex Karp, Palantir, and the Rise of the Surveillance State by Michael Steinberger

• The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power by Max Chafkin

• Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice by Virginia Roberts Giuffre

• The Collapse of Complex Societies: New Studies in Archaeology by Joseph A. Tainter

• Total Information Awareness (US Domestic Surveillance Proposal)

• Machines of Loving Grace (Hemlock Podcast Episode)