Before watching this movie, I saw David Foster Wallace's speech "This Is Water" at American University, which is quite famous in the United States. For this reason, I became interested in him. Then a series of searches for him led me to this movie.
The good thing about this movie is that through the lengthy dialogue between the Rolling Stones reporter and Wallace, he shows a David Foster Wallace who is lovable and deeply lonely.
ordinary people
In the beginning Wallace gave a kind and easy-going feeling. Compared with the opening of the film, which shows that he is famous among American civilians and critics, it gives the audience a slightly different association with his image. With the deepening of his dialogue with reporters and the development of the plot, you will find that he is no different from ordinary people. He is lustful, likes to be noticed, shy, sensitive in his heart, cares about what others think of him, likes watching TV, and Loves junk food, and can smoke and drink. This is no different from the next door, a big brother in his 30s who is not married and has children.
writer
It is Wallace's identity as a writer that makes him often separate himself from the identity of ordinary people, to reflect, to criticize, and to live prudently and alone. He loves TV, the only thing he's been addicted to in his life is TV. However, it is repeatedly emphasized that television, a product that represents technological progress, is too addictive, people depend (like masturbation), and thus deviate from their real life. He likes to be accepted and liked by others, but at the same time is afraid of being overly concerned by others. On the one hand, it will double the chance of him being hurt by gossip, on the other hand, it will make him unable to keep his detachment from real life and face the reality he has to face: he is 34 years old, and there is a pile of empty paper in front of him. .
This alternation of ordinary people and writers is the most fatal. Such a sincere, honest and lovely person without the image of the big boy next door, because he earnestly and persistently guards his identity as a writer, like a lunatic, he constantly strips himself from reality and throws himself into life like a guinea pig. In the laboratory, the stimulation was repeated and the response to the stimulation was recorded.
At the end of the film, through the reporter's words, we know that Wallace believes that the existence of books can make people forget loneliness. Yes, it is indeed the case, so he is like thousands of sincere writers throughout the ages, using his own loneliness to save the loneliness of others.
Salute to the writers!
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