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The full text of the article can be downloaded in PDF at In memoriam by David Foster Wallace (Harper's Magazine). All of the articles he published for that magazine are available there.
“A Democratic Spirit is one that combines rigor and humility, i.e., passionate conviction plus sedulous respect for the convictions of others. As any American knows, this is a very difficult spirit to cultivate and maintain; particularly when it comes to issues you feel strongly about. Equally tough is a D.S.‘s criterion of 100 percent intellectual... [More]”
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These are just rough notes to accompany the citations; the book was in German, but yours truly does not yet feel comfortable enough with his grasp of that language’s grammar to formulate the accompanying notes and thoughts in it. So, English it is. Apologies to all those who can only read half.
This small book quickly—so quickly—establishes the gulag life as normal that one hardly notices how restricted and miserable the lives of the inmates actually were because Schuchow’s[1] attitude was... [More]
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Fabio Viale’s Hyper-realistic sculptures are all marble, but of everyday objects and with exquisite detail. Click on the images for more detail. Check out the site for much more. (Including a marble boat!)
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“A problem with so many of us fiction writers under forty using television as a substitute for true espial, however, is that TV “voyeurism” involves a whole gorgeous orgy of illusions for the pseudo-spy, when we watch. Illusion (1) is that we’re voyeurs here at all: the voyees behind the screen’s glass are only pretending ignorance. They know perfectly well we’re out there. And that we’re there is also very much on the minds of those behind the second layer of glass, the lenses and monitors via... [More]”
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“[…] fern und leise rauschte die heilige Quelle, die einst nahe gewesen war, die einst in ihm selber gerauscht hatte. Vieles zwar, das er von de Samanas gelernt, das er von Gotama gelernt, das er von seinem Vater, dem Brahmanen, gelernt hatte, war noch lange Zeit in ihm geblieben: mäßiges Leben, Freude am Denken, Stunden der Versenkung, heimliches Wissen vom Selbst, vom ewigen Ich, das nicht Körper noch Bewußtsein ist. Manches davon war in ihm geblieben, eines ums andre aber war... [More]”
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“Seven-tenths of the free population of the country were of just their class and degree: small “independent” farmers, artisans, etc.; which is to say, they were the nation, the actual Nation; they were about all of it that was useful, or worth saving, or really respect-worthy, and to subtract them would have been to subtract the Nation and leave behind some dregs, some refuse, in the shape of a king, nobility and gentry, idle, unproductive, acquainted mainly with the arts of wasting and... [More]”
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“The world breaks everyone and afterwards many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break, it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these, you can be sure it will kill you too, but there will be no special hurry.”
'It is the body that is old. Sometimes I am afraid I will break off a finger as one breaks a stick of chalk. And the spirit is no older and not much wiser.‘
‘You are wise.’
‘No, that is the great... [More]
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“It was time to yield, to let this simple craving be his guide. Beyond their accusation. Beyond their indictment. Beyond their judgment. Learn, he told himself, before you die, to live beyond the jurisdiction of their enraging, loathsome, stupid blame.”
“Nor was he a radical or a revolutionary, not even intellectually or philosophically speaking, unless it is revolutionary to believe that disregarding prescriptive society’s most restrictive demarcations and asserting independently a free personal... [More]”
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“A ‘code’ of ethics is a myth. It is only in the most convoluted of circumstances that ethical dilemmas arise. Up to that point, there is no moral quandary. Simply because there exist cases for which a simple, straighforward, common-sense ethics has no answer is no reason to doubt its validity where it does apply. Social interaction is not mathematics; one example does not suffice to disprove its correctness. Therefore, for most matters, there is only one ethics to which all can adhere − that... [More]”
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Page 130 − “It was not until the instant of this experience that I understood what he had meant by the ‘wordless truth’. It happened, yet I cannot describe it.” − Chenoeh
Page 162 − “[The military] believe that by risking death they pay the price of any violent behavior against enemies of their own choosing. They have the invader mentality. [They] don’t believe [themselves] responsible for anything done against aliens.” − Leto II
Page 196 − “The mind imposes this framework which it calls... [More]”
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Page 123 − “At the quantum level our universe can be seen as an indeterminate place, predictable in a statistical way only when you employ large enough numbers. Between that universe and a relatively predictable one where the passage of a single planet can be timed to a picosecond, other forces come into play. For the in-between universe where we find our daily lives, that which you believe is a dominant force. Your beliefs order the unfolding of daily events. If enough of us believe, a new... [More]”
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Page 68 − “All of us are descendants of people who did nasty things, Rabbi. Remember, it is the victors who breed. … victory is sometimes acheived at a moral price. … Barbarism is not even the proper word for some of the evil things our ancestors did.” − Jessica, Jewish Wild Reverend Mother
Page 78 − “Rules are often an excuse to ignore compassion” − Odrade
Page 103 − “Many things we do naturally become difficult only when we try to make them intellectual subjects. It is possible to know so... [More]”
