Being a bad friend to David Foster Wallace

Re:Being a bad friend to David Foster Wallace by tlb on Thursday September 13, 2018 @02:57PM (#17981338)

I approve of people thinking they're smarter than they are, because that's a worthy aspiration. Compared to, say, people who think they're hipper or more attractive than they are. If it makes people read literature that stretches their mind, that's great.

Pretension can be the first step towards not needing to pretend.

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Re:Being a bad friend to David Foster Wallace by asdfman123 on Thursday September 13, 2018 @03:53PM (#17981899)

There's a difference between aspiring to something versus pretending to already have it -- one quality is much more admirable than the other.

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Re:Being a bad friend to David Foster Wallace by mcguire on Thursday September 13, 2018 @03:20PM (#17981556)

Pretension tends to be satisfied with appearances---carrying the literature around rather than actually reading it.

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Re:Being a bad friend to David Foster Wallace by thatcat on Thursday September 13, 2018 @07:04PM (#17983481)

Having it around is a prerequisite to reading it.

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