Well, we all knew it...the blog is just like the world in revealing the many aspects of human nature. But it happens to be different than the world in that any individual can have their ignorance and stupidity crystallized and revealed for the rest of the world in the way of all fast media.
Therefore, without further ado, I have the displeasure of outing this particularly self-insular and self-centered piece of writing by a young man who had never heard of David Foster Wallace until Wallace's recent sad death.
On the blog, as on in the real world, not knowing something doesn't always imply that the person is not famous; it can just be a pointer at one's own lack of knowledge in certain arenas. Given that all of us are necessarily limited in knowledge due to the limitations of the human brain and time on this earth (I fully admit my ignorance of all things related to pop culture, mathematics and science), there's no problem with that. However, what is a problem is mistaking a serious writer who suffered from a debilitating mental disease as a sensation- and fame-seeker.
Mr. Matthew T. Sussman could only have made such a mistake in ignoring his own ignorance of a very well-known American writer and foolishly deciding to turn his ignorance into a sensation- and fame-seeking piece on David Foster Wallace. He should feel ashamed for his lack of intellectual curiosity as well as a lack of intellectual honesty. In both traits, he is the exact opposite of David Foster Wallace whose writing is much admired for displaying an energetic curiosity towards all things and all beings in the world as well as the ability to work through intellectual questions in a discerning manner.
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2 comments:
I discovered recently through my post on sexual harassment at Comic-Con that there is no dumb-ass, self-serving, absolutely clueless thing that someone won't say on the internet.
Good for you that you did something about it. The behavior you outlined in your post is really surprising, and it would be a shame to let that kind of behavior become representative in the least of the comic and graphic novel scene. It's too bad that some people can't understand that tolerating such behavior would be worse than Comic-Con as well as just sleazy and unethical. I am so glad that you did something about it. I will post on my blog as well, even though I know your blog gets way more traffic, in the hopes of adding what I can to such a good cause.
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