Octet | David Foster Wallace Pdf

True or false: You have, at some point in the last week, performed happiness for an audience of one — a spouse, a parent, a cashier, a pet. You have smiled the smile that costs calories. You have said “fine” when fine was a lie so large it had its own gravitational field.

If your answer is “I don’t know” or “That’s a stupid question” or “Why am I reading this,” you are correct. The correct answer is always a question. octet david foster wallace pdf

If you wrote “I need help,” you are sentimental but not wrong. If you wrote “I don’t know who I am when you’re not looking,” you have been in therapy. If you wrote nothing, you are either very healthy or very dishonest. The octet’s eighth member, a woman named Louise who hasn’t spoken for three meetings, finally whispers: “I’m not sure I exist when no one’s watching.” The bearded facilitator nods. “That’s the octet’s thesis,” he says. “You exist as a function of attention. Including your own. Which is why loneliness feels like disappearing.” True or false: You have, at some point

Why did you keep reading? Be honest. Was it the form? The voice? The low-grade dread of being seen? Or was it simpler: because the screen was bright and the room was quiet and the alternative was just sitting here, with nothing between you and the sound of your own pulse? If your answer is “I don’t know” or

Fill in the blank: The hardest thing to say to another person is not “I love you” or “I’m sorry” or even “You were right.” The hardest thing is ____________.