🚀 Do you want help finishing Infinite Jest? Or want a complete guide to follow while reading? Join my Infinite Jest Course and Book Club here: writeconscious.substack.com 📚 Explore over 400 of Wallace’s favorite books in my free guide to his favorite books Access here: writeconscious.ck.page/8956ce90fc 📖 Want to WRITE better? Join my free writing school: www.skool.com/writeconscious Insta: instagram.com/writeconscious 📕My Best Books of All-Time List: writeconscious.ck.page/355619345e 🔥Want to READ my wife’s fire poetry? Go here: marigoldeclipse.substack.com 🤔David Foster Wallace’s Favorite Book on Writing amzn.to/4eVmjAI
As a young teenager i was at a park with family playing softball and got bored and went out to the fields and layed down in the shade. I just paid attention to the wind in the grass and the clouds and then next thing i knew i was talking to the wind. I asked questions and the wind would blow in a conscious response. This was my first experience with meditative stillness in nature, Ive since read about inanimate matter most likely having a conscious just like us. Silence allows us to speak to our setting
Ain't nothin' boring about that mid video shirt change. Dopamine overload. Suprise lit bros, All the Pretty Horses T to pale blue leaf pattern button up in your face!
Beautiful work, as always. You're my favorite liberal reactionary philosopher athlete. I suspect you might one day be one of my favorite writers. One thing, though; you have way too few basketball analogies. Please do way more basketball analogies. I can also work with golf or cross-country skiing analogies. Your call.
I’d check out the book, The transitive Vampire. It’s short and it’s a good launching pad for books like, Artful Sentences, or, Garner’s Usage Dictionary.
Great content bro. It's really comforting to know there are others on a similar path. I found your channel because I'm a huge DFW fan and I'm staying because we have very similar mindsets and goals.
Hahaha this is the legitimate perfect channel. Truly paradigm shift level thinking. I’m going to teach English, probably high school level, and it’s incredibly resonating to see this channel.
“Yet this incessant movement and progression which all things partake could never become sensible to us but by contrast to some principle of fixture or stability in the soul. Whilst the eternal generation of circles proceeds, the eternal generator abides. That central life is somewhat superior to creation, superior to knowledge and thought, and contains all its circles. For ever it labors to create a life and thought as large and excellent as itself; but in vain; for that which is made instructs how to make a better.” -Emerson
Hey man, just wanted to say thank you for this video. It really clicked for me. When you said you were addicted to caffeine or whatever and you had a date with a girl and you just couldn't feel excited, this reminded me of a lot of vivid experiences I had where I was supposed to feel something but I didn't, not at all. From, just like yours, a date with a girl, to a funeral. This video makes me wanna change my current situation, my current vice, and be able to enjoy life again, or in many cases, for the first time.
I've always thought that the balance worked the other way. Like we get a pain tolerance, where the pain has to get more and more to balance out our normal dopamine. That's why the pain is so intense and it feels insurmountable and makes you depressed.
Fascinating! I think you have explained they keys to fulfillment here. I'm thinking about tying my kids down and making them watch this over and over. But it's for me I know. Attraction rather than promotion. I LOVED this video!
My number one retort these days to most things political, “Have you studied Aristotelean validity and soundness, let alone some basic philosophy when it comes to logical fallacies?!” The response is usually silence, a blank face, or some dig against my intelligence, as god forbid!
from what I've read we engage in dopamine heavy activities because it suppresses our emotions, which makes sense if you also believe that the modern world is bombarding us with news and advertising that is designed to make us feel bad and afraid. I'm hoping the solution is to try to create a world for yourself where you can cultivate positive emotions and then you won't crave the dopamine behaviours. if anyone has tricks that work I would love to hear them.
I feel like I'm in the same boat: I've learned about how all the ways dopamine and modernity is fucking is up dopamine-wise through porn, social media etc., stopping or minimizing that stuff. I'm also now trying to figure out what to do to "change my life" as it were. And everything I'm reading and watching is saying now: you have to actually do something. And what that is is probably pretty simple. I think for me, it will be reading more books, getting more into hobbies, and trying new things. Its small things, but they make up your life. E.g., I'm going to go to Barnes and Noble tomorrow instead of ordering a book online. Maybe go for a walk in the evening. Super banal stuff, but I think its about just getting out of a comfortable routine and having experiences in the real world, actually feeling alive etc. I'm reading this blog post that explains all of this modernity (as he calls it, I think most people would call it post or post-postmodernity): jdemeta.net/2019/09/15/exiting-modernity/
@cstacksineedthat The next step, at least for me, has been pushing myself to do things that I don't want to do. I love sitting in silence and being bored, it's not a challenge anymore. Being a balanced person seems to be the path that feels right.
Damn, this is a great one. I feel like you really nailed a lot of topics from media saturation, to relationships with yourself, meditation, addiction, and of course silence, which is the wellspring of creativity. I think you should explore these topics more, especially silence and solitude. Bukowski called isolation "a gift." Keep up the good work, my friend.
A number of years ago I heard a lecture from George Steiner on silence, and ever since then I try to seek out a bit of silence each day. I usually find it in my truck when driving for work, though it’s hardly silent, as strangely enough I have found that absolute silence is impossible to find, as even the planets are sending off a slight vibration, even my refrigerator is humming, that damn clock is ticking, or the fish tank in the corner is percolating! That’s why mediating is so interesting to me, as when I meditate I aim for silence of the mind, I work hard to stop all thought, and for those moments when it happens, it’s quite glorious! Anyhow, I could go on, but I’ll leave it here.
To some people, myself included (sometimes), silence or sitting along with your thoughts is existential dread. It forces you to face your own mortality. The constant distractions of the 21st century dull the pain, so people lean on it as a salve for actually living.
I was also into McLuhan but when I got into Shakespeare studying, turns out he had some interesting stuff to say on Thomas Nash and Gabriel Harvey, deep rabbit hole.
Do audiobooks count? That is to say if you read audiobooks does that count as instruction or actually trying to get into these things. Like for example, would you say reading infinite just over audiobook counts?
Two examples of sitting with silence. Sitting at a campfire with your dog watching the coals burn and shimmer. Working underneath an SUV and taking a break and just lay there doing nothing.
🚀 Do you want help finishing Infinite Jest? Or want a complete guide to follow while reading?
Join my Infinite Jest Course and Book Club here: writeconscious.substack.com
📚 Explore over 400 of Wallace’s favorite books in my free guide to his favorite books
Access here: writeconscious.ck.page/8956ce90fc
📖 Want to WRITE better? Join my free writing school: www.skool.com/writeconscious
Insta: instagram.com/writeconscious
📕My Best Books of All-Time List: writeconscious.ck.page/355619345e
🔥Want to READ my wife’s fire poetry? Go here: marigoldeclipse.substack.com
🤔David Foster Wallace’s Favorite Book on Writing amzn.to/4eVmjAI
As a young teenager i was at a park with family playing softball and got bored and went out to the fields and layed down in the shade. I just paid attention to the wind in the grass and the clouds and then next thing i knew i was talking to the wind. I asked questions and the wind would blow in a conscious response. This was my first experience with meditative stillness in nature, Ive since read about inanimate matter most likely having a conscious just like us. Silence allows us to speak to our setting
Isn’t it profound when the wind starts picking up when you’re finding peace?
@DiogenesNephew no I don’t believe they are in that sense, but rather present and spiritual in a sense. Higher dimension connecting back to us.
Ain't nothin' boring about that mid video shirt change. Dopamine overload. Suprise lit bros, All the Pretty Horses T to pale blue leaf pattern button up in your face!
Beautiful work, as always. You're my favorite liberal reactionary philosopher athlete. I suspect you might one day be one of my favorite writers. One thing, though; you have way too few basketball analogies. Please do way more basketball analogies. I can also work with golf or cross-country skiing analogies. Your call.
I love how you’ve been bringing up “the Trivium” lately, it’s absolutely crucial learning, and boy is Aristotelean Logic a slog! but well worth it.
The updated Wallace reading list is amazing - thanks!
Will you please do a fundamentals course on english. Cover the basic mechanics that every one should know. Help us out.😊
I’d check out the book, The transitive Vampire. It’s short and it’s a good launching pad for books like, Artful Sentences, or, Garner’s Usage Dictionary.
Appreciate the late-night upload!
Great content bro. It's really comforting to know there are others on a similar path. I found your channel because I'm a huge DFW fan and I'm staying because we have very similar mindsets and goals.
Comforting is a great word for it. Cheers. It’s Soothing.
Meaning is not fixed but created through words and symbols and continuously constructed via our own ever-evolving interpretations
Yes!
Hahaha this is the legitimate perfect channel. Truly paradigm shift level thinking. I’m going to teach English, probably high school level, and it’s incredibly resonating to see this channel.
The boredom and silence of growing up in the Canadian wasteland helped shape me into the experimental musician that I am today.
Sitting here at 2 am, not valuing silence and boredom
Bro, I'm in the exact same situation.
@@aanuoluwanikolawole6082what a paradox, him been engaging.
“Yet this incessant movement and progression which all things partake could never become sensible to us but by contrast to some principle of fixture or stability in the soul. Whilst the eternal generation of circles proceeds, the eternal generator abides. That central life is somewhat superior to creation, superior to knowledge and thought, and contains all its circles. For ever it labors to create a life and thought as large and excellent as itself; but in vain; for that which is made instructs how to make a better.” -Emerson
Hey man, just wanted to say thank you for this video. It really clicked for me. When you said you were addicted to caffeine or whatever and you had a date with a girl and you just couldn't feel excited, this reminded me of a lot of vivid experiences I had where I was supposed to feel something but I didn't, not at all. From, just like yours, a date with a girl, to a funeral. This video makes me wanna change my current situation, my current vice, and be able to enjoy life again, or in many cases, for the first time.
I've always thought that the balance worked the other way. Like we get a pain tolerance, where the pain has to get more and more to balance out our normal dopamine. That's why the pain is so intense and it feels insurmountable and makes you depressed.
not me playing this video while eating cuz i can’t eat in silence.
💀 same
Man, I'm in bathtub.....
Fascinating! I think you have explained they keys to fulfillment here. I'm thinking about tying my kids down and making them watch this over and over. But it's for me I know. Attraction rather than promotion. I LOVED this video!
My number one retort these days to most things political, “Have you studied Aristotelean validity and soundness, let alone some basic philosophy when it comes to logical fallacies?!” The response is usually silence, a blank face, or some dig against my intelligence, as god forbid!
Guys and gals - is there a Write Conscious Discord, or something like it?
from what I've read we engage in dopamine heavy activities because it suppresses our emotions, which makes sense if you also believe that the modern world is bombarding us with news and advertising that is designed to make us feel bad and afraid. I'm hoping the solution is to try to create a world for yourself where you can cultivate positive emotions and then you won't crave the dopamine behaviours. if anyone has tricks that work I would love to hear them.
I feel like I'm in the same boat: I've learned about how all the ways dopamine and modernity is fucking is up dopamine-wise through porn, social media etc., stopping or minimizing that stuff. I'm also now trying to figure out what to do to "change my life" as it were. And everything I'm reading and watching is saying now: you have to actually do something. And what that is is probably pretty simple. I think for me, it will be reading more books, getting more into hobbies, and trying new things. Its small things, but they make up your life. E.g., I'm going to go to Barnes and Noble tomorrow instead of ordering a book online. Maybe go for a walk in the evening. Super banal stuff, but I think its about just getting out of a comfortable routine and having experiences in the real world, actually feeling alive etc. I'm reading this blog post that explains all of this modernity (as he calls it, I think most people would call it post or post-postmodernity): jdemeta.net/2019/09/15/exiting-modernity/
@cstacksineedthat The next step, at least for me, has been pushing myself to do things that I don't want to do. I love sitting in silence and being bored, it's not a challenge anymore. Being a balanced person seems to be the path that feels right.
Love this channel.
I had a dejavu rn
Absolutely insane thumbnail
Damn, this is a great one. I feel like you really nailed a lot of topics from media saturation, to relationships with yourself, meditation, addiction, and of course silence, which is the wellspring of creativity. I think you should explore these topics more, especially silence and solitude. Bukowski called isolation "a gift." Keep up the good work, my friend.
Strangely enough discovered the power of silence when skipping high school my senior year
A number of years ago I heard a lecture from George Steiner on silence, and ever since then I try to seek out a bit of silence each day. I usually find it in my truck when driving for work, though it’s hardly silent, as strangely enough I have found that absolute silence is impossible to find, as even the planets are sending off a slight vibration, even my refrigerator is humming, that damn clock is ticking, or the fish tank in the corner is percolating! That’s why mediating is so interesting to me, as when I meditate I aim for silence of the mind, I work hard to stop all thought, and for those moments when it happens, it’s quite glorious! Anyhow, I could go on, but I’ll leave it here.
Even in most forests traffic noise is audible.
To some people, myself included (sometimes), silence or sitting along with your thoughts is existential dread. It forces you to face your own mortality. The constant distractions of the 21st century dull the pain, so people lean on it as a salve for actually living.
Just out of curiosity, how many books of Harold Blooms cannon of classic literature have you read?
I was also into McLuhan but when I got into Shakespeare studying, turns out he had some interesting stuff to say on Thomas Nash and Gabriel Harvey, deep rabbit hole.
I had a concussion and was into drugs when I read Infinite Jest, DFW seems to attract a type lol
I come for the literary content, I stay for the JJ Reddick references.
Do audiobooks count? That is to say if you read audiobooks does that count as instruction or actually trying to get into these things. Like for example, would you say reading infinite just over audiobook counts?
31:53 grrrr... alright fine, you win! See ya there
Two examples of sitting with silence. Sitting at a campfire with your dog watching the coals burn and shimmer. Working underneath an SUV and taking a break and just lay there doing nothing.
Do audiobooks count?
Bro the library by my house is literally treated like a cafe. IS NOTHING SACRED
Hey, don't knock me and Red Dye No. #40.
Try the Anatomy of Meloncholy - it is is funny because Burton knows how biring it is.
That jean billihard
I think you might have had some consent manufactured.
It’s impossible to be bored when you “exist” in infinite consciousness, and not the tiny object within consciousness known as mind.