Catatan Kepada David Foster Wallace (I)

David Foster Wallace

[Dear David,

Dalam kebosanan saya mengharungi kebosanan setiap halaman The Pale King, saya sampai ke bab 44, dan di situ saya menemui aforisme kebosanan tentang kebosanan:

"I learned it at just twenty-one or twenty-two, of the IRS's Regional Examination Center in Peoria. where I spent two summers as a cart boy. This, according to the fellows who saw me as fit for a Service career, put me ahead of the curve, to understand this truth at an age when most guys are starting only to suspect the basics of adulthood - that life owes you nothing; that suffering takes many forms; that no one will ever care for you as your mother did; that the human heart is a chump.

...

The underlying bureaucratic key is the ability to deal with boredom. To function effectively in an environment that precludes everything vital and human. To breathe, so to speak, without air.

...

It is the key to modern life. If you are immune to boredom, there is literally nothing you cannot accomplish."

David, adakah kamu menulis bab ini ketika kamu dirasuk kebosanan? Adakah kamu murung dalam kebosanan? Dan adakah kamu menulis untuk memberontak dengan kebosanan hidupmu?

James Wood berpendapat yang kamu terlalu self-conscious dalam penulisanmu. Mungkin betul juga David: saya nampak benang Flaubert terikat di kedua-dua kakimu di beberapa tempat. Tapi bukankah seni di zaman kita ialah seni yang menuntut pengarangnya menjadi self-conscious?

Barangkali secara berlebihan. Ke tahap obsesi.]