Pleasure becomes a value, a teleological end in itself. It’s probably more Western than U.S. per se.
Meaning of the quote
This quote is saying that people in Western countries, like the United States, often see pleasure as the most important goal in life. They focus on feeling good and having fun, rather than on other important things like helping others or working hard. The writer is suggesting that this way of thinking is more common in Western cultures than it is in other parts of the world.
About David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace was an acclaimed American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor. His 1996 novel Infinite Jest was one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005, and his posthumous novel The Pale King was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Despite his literary success, Wallace struggled with depression and died by suicide in 2008 at the age of 46.
More quotes from David Foster Wallace
I often think I can see it in myself and in other young writers, this desperate desire to please coupled with a kind of hostility to the reader.
American fiction writer and essayist
Nuclear weapons and TV have simply intensified the consequences of our tendencies, upped the stakes.
American fiction writer and essayist
Pleasure becomes a value, a teleological end in itself. It’s probably more Western than U.S. per se.
American fiction writer and essayist
I just think that fiction that isn’t exploring what it means to be human today isn’t art.
American fiction writer and essayist
What TV is extremely good at – and realize that this is “all it does” – is discerning what large numbers of people think they want, and supplying it.
American fiction writer and essayist
The interesting thing is why we’re so desperate for this anesthetic against loneliness.
American fiction writer and essayist
We’re kind of wishing some parents would come back. And of course we’re uneasy about the fact that we wish they’d come back – I mean, what’s wrong with us?
American fiction writer and essayist
The other half is to dramatize the fact that we still “are” human beings, now. Or can be.
American fiction writer and essayist
The problem is that once the rules of art are debunked, and once the unpleasant realities the irony diagnoses are revealed and diagnosed, “then” what do we do?
American fiction writer and essayist
It seems important to find ways of reminding ourselves that most “familiarity” is meditated and delusive.
American fiction writer and essayist
The great thing about irony is that it splits things apart, gets up above them so we can see the flaws and hypocrisies and duplicates.
American fiction writer and essayist
Rap’s conscious response to the poverty and oppression of U.S. blacks is like some hideous parody of sixties black pride.
American fiction writer and essayist
This diagnosis can be done in about two lines. It doesn’t engage anybody.
American fiction writer and essayist
For these cultures, getting rid of the pain without addressing the deeper cause would be like shutting off a fire alarm while the fire’s still going.
American fiction writer and essayist
It looks like you can write a minimalist piece without much bleeding. And you can. But not a good one.
American fiction writer and essayist
One of the things that makes Wittgenstein a real artist to me is that he realized that no conclusion could be more horrible than solipsism.
American fiction writer and essayist
Fiction’s about what it is to be a human being.
American fiction writer and essayist
This is so American, man: either make something your God and cosmos and then worship it, or else kill it.
American fiction writer and essayist
It can become an exercise in trying to get the reader to like and admire you instead of an exercise in creative art.
American fiction writer and essayist
We’re not keen on the idea of the story sharing its valence with the reader. But the reader’s own life “outside” the story changes the story.
American fiction writer and essayist
This might be one way to start talking about differences between the early postmodern writers of the fifties and sixties and their contemporary descendants.
American fiction writer and essayist
To be willing to sort of die in order to move the reader, somehow. Even now I’m scared about how sappy this’ll look in print, saying this.
American fiction writer and essayist
I think TV promulgates the idea that good art is just art which makes people like and depend on the vehicle that brings them the art.
American fiction writer and essayist
This is nourishing, redemptive; we become less alone inside.
American fiction writer and essayist
The reader becomes God, for all textual purposes. I see your eyes glazing over, so I’ll hush.
American fiction writer and essayist
TV’s “real” agenda is to be “liked,” because if you like what you’re seeing, you’ll stay tuned. TV is completely unabashed about this; it’s its sole raison.
American fiction writer and essayist