Episode 181: The Fraudulence Paradox (David Foster Wallace's "Good Old Neon")

Very Bad Wizards

Our whole lives we’ve been frauds. We’re not exaggerating. Pretty much all we’ve ever done is try to create a certain impression of us in other people. Mostly to be liked or admired. This episode is a perfect example, Tamler pretending to be a cinephile (check out his four favorite pieces of 2019 “pop culture” in the first segment), David trying to connect with the people (Baby Yoda, Keanu Reeves etc.) – and of course what could be more fraudulent than a deep dive into a David Foster Wallace story, rhapsodizing over the endless sentences, the logical paradoxes, the seven-layer bean-dip of metacommentary (Jesus Christ I’m surprised there aren’t like eight footnotes in this episode description), and meanwhile the Partially Examined Life dudes refresh their overcast feeds and wonder through the tiny keyhole of themselves how David and Tamler have sunk so low that they’d ramble on about “Good Old Neon” like a couple of first year Comp-Lit grad students trying to impress that girl who works at the Cajun bakery.

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Links:

• What is Baby Yoda? | TechRadar
• High Life (2018 film) - Wikipedia
• Watchmen (TV series) - Wikipedia
• Keanu Reeves Is Too Good for This World | The New Yorker
• Midsommar (film) - Wikipedia
• Homecoming (TV series) - Wikipedia
• 'Joker' is first R-rated movie to make $1 billion at global box office - Business Insider
• Under the Silver Lake - Wikipedia
• Kanye West’s 'Jesus Is King' Divides the Christian Community | Time
• How Often Do Women Talk in Quentin Tarantino Films? | Time
• David Foster Wallace - Wikipedia
• Good Old Neon (PDF) - Stephen Miller
• The Real Question | Fiction Writers Review