David Foster Wallace's "The Pale King" is an exploration of boredom in the 21st century. In this clip. Wallace talks about the loss of boredom in modern culture, and what it means to our intellectual and emotional life.
I work a mind-numbingly boring day job; gallery attendant at an art museum. Countless hours spent every day standing up and not doing much of anything. It’s so boring that new hires often quit after a few weeks because it’s too still and unstimulating, but I love it. I love having a place that forces me to sit and be. Boredom can be amazing if you can learn to work with it. It’s like a skill, I rarely ever get bored anymore, it’s always fuel for future creative projects.
I don't buy this as a universal trend. For example, in the professional classical music world, performance abilities and standards have gone up tremendously and regularly in the past few decades; this would not be possible without young practitioners being willing to sit alone and be intensely involved with a process which appears boring to outside observers.
I read Girl with curious hair and oblivion and I've watched his interviews. He's a hack, IJ is not worth the time of a 3 year old. Pale King should be burned in a flaming pile of pornography. Not bitter just annoyed how many better writers are out there that don't get the same attention.@@WriteConscious
