For these cultures, getting rid of the pain without addressing the deeper cause would be like shutting off a fire alarm while the fire's still going.

quote by David Foster Wallace
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What TV is extremely good at - and realize that this is ""all it does"" - is discerning what large numbers of people think they want, and supplying it.

quote by David Foster Wallace
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We're kind of wishing some parents would come back. And of course we're uneasy about the fact that we wish they'd come back - I mean, what's wrong with us?

quote by David Foster Wallace
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This might be one way to start talking about differences between the early postmodern writers of the fifties and sixties and their contemporary descendants.

quote by David Foster Wallace
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TV's ""real"" agenda is to be ""liked,"" because if you like what you're seeing, you'll stay tuned. TV is completely unabashed about this; it's its sole raison.

quote by David Foster Wallace
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The problem is that once the rules of art are debunked, and once the unpleasant realities the irony diagnoses are revealed and diagnosed, ""then"" what do we do?

quote by David Foster Wallace
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