Brief Interviews opens up the possibility of multiple viewpoints for the reader to adopt, though this is not always a pleasant experience. I think of the text as a form of social commentary – one that makes the reader hyper-aware of the notion of self-consciousness in fact, I view this aspect as pivotal to the text because if the reader is willing to engage, there is much to be gained from a reading of it. The stories can be very dark at times and at other times just plain bizarre, and yet there are also some lighter moments. The content varies massively from one story to the next, which creates a kind of dizzying effect when reading. It’s a hotchpotch of styles, voices, and registers. For the benefit of anyone who hasn’t read Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, can you give us a sense of what it is like?īrief Interviews is a 1999 collection of 23 short stories, with 4 of the stories titled “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men” (across which there are 18 actual “interviews” in total). David Foster Wallace’s 1999 book Brief Interviews with Hideous Men presents a provocative view of male misogyny and its effects on women. In this brief interview with READ, which expands upon his recent Postgraduate English article, Matthew Alexander suggests that Wallace’s work is an important text for our times, especially in the light of current debates about rape culture.
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