The Pale King
by David Foster Wallace | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: Global Overview for this book
ISBN: Global Overview for this book
1 journaler for this copy...
Max's copy...his recommendation.
Really enjoyed this one (and learned who are DFW fans).
"As citizens we cede more and more of our autonomy, but if we the government take away the citizens' freedom to cede their autonomy we're now taking away their autonomy. It's a paradox. Citizens are constitutionally empowered to choose to default and leave the decisions to the corporations and to a government we expect to control them. Corporations are getting better and better at seducing us into thinking the way they think--of profits as the telos and responsibility as something to be enshrined in symbol and evaded in reality. Cleverness as opposed to wisdom. Wanting and having instead of thinking and making. We cannot stop it. I suspect that what 'll happen is that there will be some sort of disaster--depression, hyperinflation--and then it'll be showtime: We'll either wake up and retake our freedom or we'll fall apart utterly. Like Rome--conqueror of its own people."
Really enjoyed this one (and learned who are DFW fans).
"As citizens we cede more and more of our autonomy, but if we the government take away the citizens' freedom to cede their autonomy we're now taking away their autonomy. It's a paradox. Citizens are constitutionally empowered to choose to default and leave the decisions to the corporations and to a government we expect to control them. Corporations are getting better and better at seducing us into thinking the way they think--of profits as the telos and responsibility as something to be enshrined in symbol and evaded in reality. Cleverness as opposed to wisdom. Wanting and having instead of thinking and making. We cannot stop it. I suspect that what 'll happen is that there will be some sort of disaster--depression, hyperinflation--and then it'll be showtime: We'll either wake up and retake our freedom or we'll fall apart utterly. Like Rome--conqueror of its own people."
mailing back to Max.