David Foster Wallace
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On bravery and Uncle Max
Uncle Max was a good dog.
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On courage, parenting, and Sergio de la Pava’s ‘Lost Empress.’
It takes real courage to do something hard day after day with nobody watching, nobody cheering.
a meaningful life, accounting, brain damage, bravery, concussion, courage, David Foster Wallace, Dorothy Dinnerstein, emotional pallet, fatherhood, Fatherhood in Pieces, finite bravery, football, good parenting, heroism, how we act when no one is watching, interminable tasks, Lost Empress, meaning, Michael Chabon, parenting, Pops, raising children, raising kids, Sergio De La Pava, Sisyphus, sports, suicide, The Mermaid and the Minotaur, The Pale King, writing
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On college, chance, and Elif Batuman’s ‘The Idiot.’
In Batuman’s ‘The Idiot’ — as in all our lives — seemingly inconsequential moments shape the future.
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On psychedelic drugs as medicine.
Would a sudden jolt away from our minds’ ruts help treat depression? Or — complacency in general?
acid, acid trip, addict, addiction, autism, ayahuasca, CBT, CIA, clinical trials, cognitive behavioral therapy, David Foster Wallace, depressed, depression, DMT, drugs, ecstasy, entheogen, experiments on children, experiments on orphans, habit, In Search of Lost Time, Infinite Jest, Intoxication, involuntary experimentation, junkie, Lauretta Bender, learning, lost love, LSD, lysergic acid, Marcel Proust, MDMA, mescaline, MK Ultra, molly, mushrooms, neurology, organic synthesis, orphans, peyote, placebo, placebo effect, psilocin, psilocybin, psychedelic, Remembrance of Things Past, Ronald Siegel, Schedule I, shrooms, suicide, virtuous cycle, William Burroughs, you must change your life
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On Eka Kurniawan’s ‘Beauty Is a Wound,’ mythology, and misogyny.
Kurniawan’s interests mirror my own — why wouldn’t I love his book?
Annie Tucker, Beauty is a Wound, David Foster Wallace, Eka Kurniawan, feminism, feminist, Flo the Progressive Insurance girl, Franzen, geek, geek culture, girl, Heartbreak, Kurniawan, Mahabharata, Mark Leyner, misogyny, mythology, neg, Neil Strauss, Purity, repetition, Scott Aaronson, sexual assault, The Game, The Pale King, The Sugar Frosted Nutsack, Translation
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On how there isn’t enough lyrical writing about insurance … and taxation in The Pale King.
There’s a little bit about insurance in my novel. Not much. Just enough to get people excited. But there used to be more. Honestly, I think it’s a shame there’s so little lyrical writing about insurance out there in popular literature. Insurance is fascinating. A good insurance product is a beautiful thing. Which, right. Let…
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