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You know how Rick on Rick and Morty is a genius who can think arbitrarily deep, but operates by “don’t think about it” and strikes a precarious irony-sincerity balance that races 1 step ahead of nihilism? I think David Foster Wallace is what you get if you *do* think about it
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dfw directly contrasted these two approaches in a (hilarious) short story called "good old neon", where his own self-insert reflects on a successful classmate's suicide And yeah, a lot of people have addressed this dilemma in art
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Tolkien and CS Lewis both thought there was something evil about irony/cynicism/postmodernism To talk today about edgelords, real talk, the degree to which you're Online, or the Discourse is to continue in their fine tradition, horrifying as that prospect may be
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Major yikes on this idea. DFW most definitely had the ability to listen to the "realer, more sentimental part" of himself over the chattering intellect But consider that heroin addiction increases your likelihood of suicide by ~1400% for pretty unmysterious physiological reasons
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though to be fair (to be fair🎶) the super-intellectual irony-poisoning thing definitely exists, and he was really interested in it. I just would hesitate to declare him a victim of it
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Not sure Rick’s heuristic of “don’t think about it” equates to that exactly, the emotional modulation thing you’re gesturing at. I think it’s closer to “not being bothered by ironic paradox” rather than EQ. DFW clearly couldn’t leave ironic paradox alone and nagged at it
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For eg, in the episode where Morty finds out he’s running a civilization inside the battery of his spaceship to power it and points out the hypocrisy of “slavery with extra steps” he ignores it when directed at him by Morty, but glibly uses the exact same line to subvert others
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Morty is actually a good foil character, since he repeatedly tries to think about it, but fortunately is not smart enough to do it well, so he fails in a way that doesn’t end in suicidal despair (ie out of incompetence rather than nihilistic success)
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