I have a particular affinity for dead writers and make a lot of time to listen to them on my walks to work; I find it particularly useful when I need to reset to having a wider perspective on things than just my life. They also offer me a way of understanding how much (or how little) issues have changed since we began documenting them audio-visually.

I listen to a lot of these folks on YouTube, so it is safe to say that I am not the only one who listens to dead people. But as I don’t trust myself to relocate my bookmarks to these talks, at least not as much as I can trust myself to visit my own blog, I am creating this evolving document with embedded links. The page is indexed by speakers’ names.

Alan Watts

Below, Watts talks of many things but I liked his focus on some aspects of Japanese culture that, I feel, still remain unchanged. For example, the idea of rolling up beds to maintain uncluttered homes, or the design phoilosophy of their gardens from the 1640s, and so on.

The talk below is one of the few I’ve heard that describes Huxley’s transition from a sardonic writer to one more spiritually acculturated to the Eastern philosophies. It is one confirmation of my suspicions that he became less pessimistic after Brave New World.

Aldous Huxley

Short interview on BBC around the time Island was going to be published (links well to above videe of Watts on Huxley).

Anoter BBC snippet that I have watched and forgotten:

Also, some good stuff here on art in Eastern cultures; again, it’s been a while since I listened to this. I know he talks about Nataraja’s depiction (because of the thumbnail), but, if my memory serves me right, he also talks about Chinese depictions of nature (or something loosely about China).

What a Piece of Work is Man

The below is the lecture that I covered at Inkhaven here, here, and here.

There is another talk I liked but I don’t know which number it was; if I re-listen to it, it will go in here.

David Foster Wallace

I have listened to a lot of DFW but have read very little. Even so, I like what he has to say and I know I will be biased to liking his books because of the personality he transmits in all these interviews. I remember liking all of the below, especially the interview with the German channel, but have forgotten the content in all these videos. I will update if/when I ever listen to them again.

Charlie Rose

Interview with German television station, ZDF, in 2003

The entire interview with a German television station is very enjoyable; his hyper-self-awareness really leads to some poignant descriptions of modern culture, which are both humorous and stark. But let’s just do bite-size ones for now:

Full talk is below: