CHILLIN' WITH MY BUD, D

Like I was relaxin, dude, slammin' Jaeger shots, lol, and DFW is like, Dude, what is it with literature, and I'm like, Dude, shut up, yer wasted, and DFW is like, Dude, I want to convince you that irony, poker-faced silence, and fear of ridicule are distinctive of those features of contemporary U.S. culture (of which cutting-edge fiction is a part) that enjoy any significant relation to the television whose weird pretty hand has my generation by the throat. I'm going to argue that irony and ridicule are entertaining and effective, and that at the same time they are agents of a great despair and stasis in U.S. culture, and that for aspiring fictionists they pose terrifically vexing problems. And I'm like, Dude, shut up. LMAO



So I'm slammin Jaeger shots and DFW is all, whatever, and I'm like, Dude, shut up about aspiring fictionists with their vexing problems, I've got problems of my own, and DFW is like, Dude, 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. And I'm like, Whoa, what about these extreme jalapeno poppers, and he's like, You ever read a book, and I'm like, Sure, plenty of times. And he's like, Dude, if you don't bother to read, and you're bored and disgusted by politics and don't bother to vote, you are in effect voting for the entrenched Establishments of the two major parties, who please rest assured are not dumb, and who are keenly aware that it is in their interests to keep you disgusted and bored and cynical and to give you every possible reason to stay at home doing one-hitters and Jaeger shots. And I'm like, Dude, why do you have to be such a dick?