Ambiguity and conflict and flux – De komst van de filosofische roman (IV/V)

David Foster Wallace

‘It’s amazing to me that no one much talks about this – about the fact that whatever our founders and framers thought of as literate, informed citizenry can no longer exist, at least not without a whole new modern degree of subcontracting and dependence packed into what we mean by ‘informed’.

 (…)

‘Part of our emergency is that it’s so tempting (…) to retreat to narrow arrogance, pre-formed positions, rigid filters, the ‘moral clarity’ of the immature. The alternative is dealing with massive, high-entropy amounts of info and ambiguity and conflict and flux; it’s continually discovering new areas of personal ignorance and delusion. In sum, to really try to be informed and literate today is to feel stupid nearly all the time, and to need help.’

David Foster Wallace, Deciderization 2007 – a Special Report, [een inleiding bij, M.K.], The Best American Essays 2007 (Houghton Miflin 2007;p.XII-XIII).

Klonk het niet zo klef – op zondag nog wel – dan zou je zeggen: we hebben elkaar nodig.

Portret David Foster Wallace: Gary Hannabarger/Corbis.

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