“But there was something to be said for a life in the moment; for a dalliance in California, for concerts and failed screenplays, for a little fun before the fall. And the truth is, we were always more purposeful – more responsible – than our fathers and uncles and grandmothers realized.”
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"But there was something to be said for a life in the moment"
New Yorker: The Unfinished – David Foster Wallace’s struggle to surpass “Infinite Jest.”
“I get the feeling that a lot of us, privileged Americans, as we enter our early 30s, have to find a way to put away childish things and confront stuff about spirituality and values. Probably the A.A. model isn’t the only way to do it, but it seems to me to be one of the more vigorous.”
“Bliss—a-second-by-second joy and gratitude at the gift of being alive, conscious—lies on the other side of crushing, crushing boredom. Pay close attention to the most tedious thing you can find (Tax Returns, Televised Golf) and, in waves, a boredom like you’ve never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride these out, and it’s like stepping from black and white into color. Like water after days in the desert. Instant bliss in every atom.”
When I read ‘Infinite Jest’ a few years ago I became fascinated with David Foster Wallace, probably like several people at the time. Reading it, I just felt like this was an original thinker and artist, someone who could hardly contain all the ideas in his head. Turns out he couldn’t.