End of the Tour docudrama about DFWs IJ book tour

Old news worth mentioning: mostly positive reviews have come out of the Sundance film festival regarding End of the Tour, the movie based on David Lipsky's Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself -- a long interview, essentially; or an oral biography, if you will -- covering the five day road trip he took with Foster Wallace in 1996 while the author was on a book tour promoting his then newly released second novel Infinite Jest.

I remember thinking Lipsky's book was so good, partly, because it did not romanticize the monotonous and mundane in the life of an up-and-coming author on a not-very-dramatic book tour through the Midwest. There weren't any groupies or hangers on, apparently, clamoring for Wallace's attention. Wallace even lamented with Lipsky that he'd so far "not gotten laid" on the book tour. Wallace was still largely a cult figure in literary circles when Infinite Jest came out (and remained so for many years thereafter). It was his suicide that's made him the supernova he's become today, I suspect. Should be interesting to see if and how the filmmakers captured him in that pre-star stage when hardly anyone, outside of academia and the most dorky of hardcore readers/fans, had even heard of him.

Oh that sounds like a must see and a must read.

End of the Tour has gotten a lot of praise at the Sundance Film Festival. Here's the movie trailer: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/05/27/the_end_of_the_tour_trailer_shows...

I hope the movie's good and DFW finds more readers. That said, the negative aspects of mass entertainment was a concern to DFW and not many films manage to be good, complex and successful with mass audiences. I'm looking forward to seeing the film; I've been wondering what percentage of the audience (depends on theater location) have read any of DFW and how many have read IJ?

A fascinating analysis of "End of the Tour" and the Literary Industry:

https://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/david-foster-wallaces-closed-circuit-the-end-o...

In this vein, Salinger’s “phony-slayers,” mumblecore’s “slackers,” and Wallace’s “weenie-Americans” can be seen as one and the same. They share the white male privilege of demurral, hesitation, and noncommitment. They share the institutionally guaranteed authority of the mumble — an authority parading as authenticity.

Excellent piece there, Karl. A less excellent piece by image-conscious bad boy Bret Ellis, whom David Foster Wallace described as "ghastly" in Infinite Jest (during Madame Psychosis' radio show), on, among many other erroneous tidbits of tomfoolery, the alleged disingenuousness of Wallace. The piece is Ellis' takes on The End of the Tour ~

http://thetalkhouse.com/film/talks/novelist-and-screenwriter-bret-easton-ellis-t...

I've read American Psycho and that's it from Ellis. Ellis comes off as plastic and fake, whereas DFW wrestled with what it meant to be "authentic" (along with the insidious concept of "fake authenticity"):

http://hilobrow.com/2010/06/01/fake-authenticity/

I think I'm not alone in my disgust and revulsion at those who parade their self-anointed authenticity. Unfortunately, it seems we as a culture seem immune to differentiating between authenticity and false authenticity. No wonder people seem to gravitate to the toxic candor of Donald Trump and The Tea Party

While American Psycho is good and a jaundiced portrait of go-go capitalist madness of the 1980s. Then again, it's no An American Dream by Norman Mailer.