To be listened to later: David Foster Wallace and Scott Simon on NPR, talking about tennis superstar Roger Federer. Huh? So what gives, Davie Baby? You’ll talk to NPR about tennis, but you won’t talk with any literary interviewers other than John Freeman about your work? Color me puzzled in a Will Shortz kind of way. (via Pinky)
[UPDATE: DFW has an essay on Federer in today’s Times.]
[SOMEWHAT RELATED AND LIKELY TO BE OF INTEREST TO THE NPR-LISTENING LITERARY GEEK: T.C. Boyle on John Chever.]
Note that DFW has an article about Federer in Play magazine, and it’s online now.
Did you listen as DFW apologized for using porn as an analogy? Scott Simon responded, in his best churchlady voice, “well, if it’s apt, it’s apt.” Tut tut.
I’ve played tennis for more than thirty years so I kind of got was DFW was saying about Federer’s moves, but my wife didn’t have a clue. Guess a picture is worth a thousand words. Or to put it another way, if anyone but Wallace had written that piece the NYT would not even have responded.