During this week when I've been writing my own literary essay (seriously, someone might have to surgically remove me from my desk chair), I can't help but think back to reading what I think is the best literary essay ever. (Especially since the opening paragraphs are about fiction writers as voyeurs-- and we are-- and that's what my paper is about.) So allow me to beat my David Foster Wallace drum just one more time. It sort of also goes with my post about writers getting the literal and metaphorical support they need.
I'm not quite sure under what auspices this entire essay is allowed to be posted here... but it's the top hit on google, so I am thinking perhaps there must be some legit permission it has to be completely posted. Either way, I highly recommend (as always) that you just purchase A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
. This essay is worth it, as is the rest of the book. The essay is basically about TV and Creativity and our values. And when I re-read it this summer, on sweaty mornings on late-running subway cars, I kept thinking, "God, even in the 90s, DFW knew exactly what was wrong with America!"
I have so so many highlighted passages in this thing there's no way I could do them all, (plus, you're just going to read it for yourselves!) but I will leave you with a few.
"For 360 minutes per diem, we receive unconscious reinforcement of the deep thesis that the most significant quality of truly alive persons is watchableness, and that genuine human worth is not just identical with but rooted in the phenomenon of watching. "
And my favorite, "I want to persuade you that irony, poker-faced silence, and fear of ridcule are distinctive of those features of contemporary US culture (of which cutting-edge fiction is a part) that enjoy any significant relation to the television whose weird pretty hand has my generation by throat. I'm going to argue that irony and ridicule are entertaining and effective, and that at the same time they are agents of great despair and stasis in US culture, and that for aspiring fiction writers they pose especially terrible problems."
It was election week in the states this week and I tried not to get too upset. I don't actually miss America. But I do miss David Foster Wallace.
We are now in the political post analysis stage on TV after being in the pre analysis stage for three months plus commercial breaks of political BS. (thank god those are over) I think I'll just watch the marsh some more and keep ordering my netflix! Did see Cinderella Man and it was very good, just FYI.
ReplyDeletePS. I just realized that analysis starts with anal...how apropos!