padla

David Foster Wallace quote ✍️

Quote

To me, at least in retrospect, the really interesting question is why dullness proves to be such a powerful impediment to attention. Why we recoil from the dull. Maybe it’s because dullness is intrinsically painful; maybe that’s where phrases like ‘deadly dull’ or ‘excruciatingly dull’ come from. But there might be more to it. Maybe dullness is associated with psychic pain because something that’s dull or opaque fails to provide enough stimulation to distract people from some other, deeper type of pain that is always there, if only in an ambient, low-level way, and which most of us spend nearly all our time and energy trying to distract ourselves from feeling, or at least from feeling directly or with our full attention. Admittedly, the whole thing’s pretty confusing, and hard to talk about abstractly…but surely something must lie behind not just Muzak in dull or tedious places any more but now also actual TV in waiting rooms, supermarkets’ checkouts, airport gates, SUVs’ backseats. Walkman, iPods, Black Berries, cell phones that attach to your head. This terror of silence with nothing diverting to do. I can’t think anyone really believes that today’s so-called ‘information society’ is just about information. Everyone knows it’s about something else, way down.
David Foster Wallace attention boredom life

Related Quotes

She says it’s wrong to be frittering away my hours asking questions when there’s work to be done. But I don’t see how a question can be wrong. Can you, Pa? Ma says the Bible sets o…
Victoria Forester The Girl Who Could Fly cows purpose
There are people who are destined to taste only the poison in things, for whom any surprise is a painful surprise and any experience a new occasion for torture. if someone were to …
Emil M. Cioran On the Heights of Despair pain poison suffering
Dr. Talbon was struck by another very important thing. It all hung together. The stories Cheryl told — even though it was upsetting to think people could do stuff like that — they …
Cheryl Hersha Secret Weapons: How Two Sisters Were Bra… accountability alter assassin attention control

Similar Crossword Answers

Answer Clues
ALTER 412 clues
LIFE 399 clues
PAIN 396 clues
CONTROL 237 clues
COWS 121 clues
PURPOSE 107 clues
ATTENTION 106 clues
BOREDOM 104 clues
SUFFERING 97 clues
POISON 91 clues
ASSASSIN 56 clues
ACCOUNTABILITY 18 clues

Similar crossword clues

  1. David Foster Wallace trademark 80.00%
  2. David Foster Wallace novel of 1996 74.07%
  3. "Endless Streams"? [David Foster Wallace] 71.43%
  4. Writer Wallace 70.59%
  5. "Who are you, David Foster f-in' Wallace?" 70.18%
  6. Noah or Wallace 68.57%
  7. Douglas or Wallace 68.42%
  8. Actor Wallace 66.67%
  9. David for one 66.67%
  10. Ayres or Wallace 66.67%
  11. Reporter Wallace 66.67%
  12. Ogden or Wallace 66.67%
  13. "JFC, get to the point, David Foster Wallace!" 65.57%
  14. Franz who influenced Foster Wallace 65.45%
  15. Jodie Foster alma mater 65.12%
  16. Alcindor and Wallace 65.00%
  17. Jodie Foster was one 65.00%
  18. McCann or Wallace 64.86%
  19. Jodie Foster role 64.86%
  20. Author Wallace. 64.71%
✏️ Suggest new clue

Related word tools

Unscramble DAVID5-letter words that start with D5-letter words that end in D5-letter words containing AV5-letter words containing ID5-letter words with D and A
Poet’s word, with inverted comma, for the end of the day
?
E
?
E
?
N
Hint 1 meaning
The old plural of Eye.
Hint 2 anagram
NEE
Hint 3 another clue
AND STILL ___
Play Crossword
75 +1

New Crossword Suggestion

Clue
Answer (solution)