I am a huge David Foster Wallace fan. I should probably get that right out there.
I read Brief Interviews With Hideous Men. It was an experimental collection of short stories, many times reaching out directly to the reader. Wallace used an unconventional method of one-sided interviews to engage the reader- we can imagine what the questions are and we can pretend we’re asking them. The thrill of moral ambiguity and the judgements Wallace is making by calling all the interviewees “hideous” pervades the collection- what makes each person hideous? Some people’s hideousness is obvious- like the man who hates his child his whole life- but there are characters whose flaws and atrocities are semi-hidden or revealed late in the interview. There is also a very humorous satire of a conversation between two comparative literature grad students who use psychoanalysis and literary jargon to uphold and justify their sexist and sometimes prehistoric beliefs. Wallace is calling them hideous, and the inherent pre-judgement of each interview makes the them like a treasure hunt. But we’re searching for the gross parts of human character.
I find Wallace to be best at his best when creating a complete character- such as the Hal Incandenza parts of Infinite Jest. This book was a collection of mini character creations so naturally I loved it. There was one section of “pop quizzes” and one of them was about Wallace’s struggle with this section of his book. And it felt like you were talking to him about writing. This was in the middle of reading his work- and his insecurity and curiosity about what readers like to read is strangely personal in the midst of all the hideousness.
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