Quack this way is a transcript of a 67-minute-long interview
between David Foster Wallace and Bryan A Garner. David Foster Wallace is a writer
of extraordinary renown. He is a hero amongst the younger writers while
practicing his art as a novelist, short story, and magazine writer. He is known
as a real polymath: he was a mathematician, philosopher, and logician. Bryan
Garner, whose name was not well known to
me, wrote the definitive American Usage dictionary titled: Garners Modern American Usage. It has been favorably
compared to Fowler’s Usage Dictionary for American English. I had not known
about the usage dictionary until I read about Garner and as soon as I learned
about it I bought it. It is a treasure
trove for anyone who even pretends to be a writer.
What started the friendship was that David Foster Wallace
wrote a very complimentary review of the Garner’s Dictionary of American Usage.
Harpers condensed it to a publishable length and published it. Wallace felt
that they had cut out what he considered to be essential in his review, so he
published it in his own book of articles called Consider the Lobster in
its full length. He felt very strongly about that review. Garner and Wallace became good friends and they kept in
touch through emails and phone calls; they've actually only met twice in person.
This is the transcript of the second time. Garner was able to film their
conversation in an LA hotel to preserve
for eternity, and we are lucky to still have this recording.
If you were to tell me that I would be geeking out over a
book about English usage I would call you crazy, but it is indeed a crazy kind
of intellectual stimulus that makes me happy these days. The transcript is short, but chock full of very
deep insights and repartee. The interview took place in February of 2006, the
subject is language and writing. They started out with Garner asking Wallace
about the advice Wallace ˗
who was teaching writing at Claremont College at the time ˗ what key things he wants
to get through to his students. Much of what he had to say is philosophical in
nature, he does get into the nitty
gritty details of communicating in English and it's obvious that he loves what
he does, the intricacies, the mental turns, and the technical details. In fact,
both of them have the passion; that came
through clearly in the interview.
Wallace riffs about the writer’s job, amongst other things.
How he needs to teach the very bright and
gifted students and how he enjoys the challenges. He does go off into the wild
about some esoteric writing foibles as well as specific types of writing, such
as writing for the law and marketing. As
an example, he also delves into the use of passive versus active voice, as he
is not an absolutist in that regard, and he makes the point that it is all
about what you need to convey which should finally dictate the voice.
Eventually, Garner and Wallace gets into the book review
that brought them together. Wallace talking about the deeper points that he
wanted to make with the review, but which was edited out by the Harper’s editors.
Reading this transcript made me wish to have been present
for the conversation itself and to have the chance to interject, asking both Wallace
and Garner questions because as an enthusiastic amateur, I am just beginning to
appreciating the black art of communicating
in English through writing, I'm now coming
around to being able to understand enough to be able to understand the art, beyond
just appreciating.
