You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
David Foster WallaceRead
Look, man, we'd probably most of us agree that these are dark times, and stupid ones, but do we need fiction that does nothing but dramatize how dark and stupid everything is?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote questions the value of fiction that solely highlights negativity in the world.
In this quote, David Foster Wallace critiques the tendency of contemporary fiction to merely reflect the bleakness and absurdity of modern life. He suggests that while it is important to acknowledge the darker aspects of reality, literature should also offer more than just a representation of despair; it should inspire thought, reflection, and perhaps even hope amid the chaos.
Themes
FictionNegativityDarknessHopeLiterature
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the purpose of literature in society during a book club.
More from David Foster Wallace
All quotes →Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence.
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It seems important to find ways of reminding ourselves that most 'familiarity' is meditated and delusive.
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Under fun's new administration, writing fiction becomes a way to go deep inside yourself and illuminate precisely the stuff you don't want to see or let anyone else see, and this stuff usually turns out (paradoxically) to be precisely the stuff all writers and readers share and respond to, feel.
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Acceptance is usually more a matter of fatigue than anything else.
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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.
David Foster WallaceRead
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And okay, fair enough, but there is this unwritten contract between author and reader and I think not ending your book kind of violates that contract.
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You want in all cases for the story to get through the writing.
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