12:47 pm  •  18 September 2012  •  13 notes

"Steeply’s face had assumed the openly twisted sneering expression which he knew well Quebecers found repellent on Americans …. “What if sometimes there is no choice about what to love? What if the temple comes to Mohammed? What if you just love? without deciding? You just do: you see her and in that instant are lost to sober account-keeping and cannot choose but to love?’
Marathe’s sniff held disdain.
“Then in such case your temple is self and sentiment. Then in such an instance you are a fanatic of desire, a slave to your indvidual subjective narrow self’s sentiments; a citizen of nothing. You become a citizen of nothing. You are by yourself and alone, kneeling to yourself."

— Marathe and Steeply, Infinite Jest pg 108

#damn #david foster wallace #infinite jest #rereading IJ is a sad time sometimes

5:47 pm  •  7 August 2011  •  766 notes
THE MADE SHOP: aesthetically uninteresting

themadeshop:

It seems to me that the intellectualization and aestheticizing of principles and values in this country is one of the things that’s gutted our generation. All the things that my parents said to me, like “It’s really important not to lie.” OK, check, got it. I nod at that but I really don’t feel it. Until I get to be about 30 and I realize that if I lie to you, I also can’t trust you. I feel that I’m in pain, I’m nervous, I’m lonely and I can’t figure out why. Then I realize, “Oh, perhaps the way to deal with this is really not to lie.” The idea that something so simple and, really, so aesthetically uninteresting — which for me meant you pass over it for the interesting, complex stuff — can actually be nourishing in a way that arch, meta, ironic, pomo stuff can’t, that seems to me to be important. That seems to me like something our generation needs to feel.

-David Foster Wallace

(Source: yourewater)

#David foster Wallace