Thursday, February 10, 2011

Quote of the Damn Day: David Foster Wallace

Try as he might, he could not this last week help envisioning the inward lives of the older men to either side of him, doing this day after day. Getting up on a Monday and chewing their toast and putting their hats and coats on knowing what they were going out the door to come back to for eight hours. This was boredom beyond any boredom he’d ever felt.

11 comments:

Big Mark 243 said...

Life's of drudgery that served to conceal the contempt for the things that brought them to the monotony of work. The wife at home, complaining of her endless housework, with the plateware still ecased by a film of half-washed grease yet passed of as 'clean'. Then there are the children, the oldest daughter who's surliness is a marked improvement from her otherwise outright contempt for him and what he represent to her -- repression.

An existence so uninteresting that even the fruits and vegtables were themselves bored of it all.

Jeannie said...

I can not envision it either. Such is the life.

Denny Coates said...

I've done that. Hard to keep from becoming a zombie. My trick was to initiate things that I cared about. But ultimately, I had to make a radical career change, where I called my own shots and pursued my passion each day.

Ms. Moon said...

I feel much better now.

Steph(anie) said...

Where's the razor blades?

Sarcastic Bastard said...

Big Mark,
You are a really good writer. I hope you know that.

Denny,
That was a brave but WISE leap you took. Unfortunately due to poor financial decisions, I am tied to my place of work currently and for a good while.

Ms. Moon,
GOOD!

Steph,
I know, I know. This passage hits home for me currently. A bitch can't be funny all the damn time.

Gleds,
Actually, no, DFW was a very compassionate person, and he was pretty much in awe of people who somehow manage to do the same drudgery day after day. His forthcoming (and final) book is about monotany and boredom and how people manage to deal with it.

Anonymous said...

This is why I ignore any thoughts of other peoples inward lives-my own is bad enough. ~Mary

Petit fleur said...

This makes me want to crawl back into bed... and never come out.

Have a great weekend SB!
xo pf

Sarcastic Bastard said...

Mary,
I hear you, girl.

PF,
I know, but it's HONEST.

Kathleen Scott said...

Oof--I get paid just a pittance for my travel articles but it's a high to love the activity.

So glad you're back at Hill Country Mysteries, SB! I've missed you.

...but will admit to hibernating the last few weeks so I haven't been over to see you. Now that we're thawing I'm crawling out of the anxiety cave and happy.

Syd said...

It is the life of so many people. Not everyone can be a writer or an artist. I do feel a lot of compassion for those who work at the same thing day after day. Hell, in my work there were days that I had to get up and go for a walk or get out of the office. After so many years there are moments of drudgery in everything.