David Foster Wallace on Pretentious People

Today we are hearing from David Foster Wallace about the concessions intelligent people have to make in the modern world. We were told since childhood that knowledge is power, but what if that was true then why aren't we all kings?
Discover over 100 of David Foster Wallace's favorite books and the three books he wrote with by his side below
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[@FrancisGo.]

Last night, I learned Akira Toriyama had passed away. He was the creator of Dragon Ball, and he helped instill millions of men and women of all different backgrounds with the sense that they could keep striving to transcend their limits and reach new heights.

[@kentjensen4504]

I always love discovering that other people know things I don't know. I barely knew Dragonball was a thing. I'll look into it.

[@jackson633]

​@@kentjensen4504 It's impossible to articulate the effect he had on manga and anime. If you read and watch some of the most popular shonen manga and anime before Dragon Ball (1984) and then read and watch the most popular shonen anime after it became popular up until the "modern era" of manga and anime (maybe 2004) you'll see his influence for what it really is. He came on the scene and brought everything he could to it. He's responsible for so much of the beauty and creativity in comics, cartoons, and even video games (with his art for Chrono Trigger and the Dragon Quest series, the latter of which informed the cel shaded beauty of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker). Not to be a complete and total snob but I would recommend you watch it in Japanese with subtitles or read the manga. This is especially important for Dragon Ball as so much of the crude, honest humor got washed out during the localization process. For Dragon Ball Z, you could just as easily watch the English dub if that's what you're most comfortable with because there was so little lost in the dubbing process. You have a whole world of Japanese art spanning decades to experience to fully appreciate Toriyama's contribution. There is so much of his art that seems almost corny in retrospect but he was a true pioneer for so many years. If you want to go even further back, his manga Doctor Slump is peak ridiculousness and there's even an episode or two of Dragon Ball where the main character visits the place Toriyama's first popular manga takes place in. I hope I was articulate enough to convince you of his importance for the creative arts. I have long since aged out of the group for which his creations were made but I feel like so much of my soul was curated and molded by his art and I've always appreciated his influence.

[@alejandroaulestia]

Dude ​@@kentjensen4504 you got to watch dragon ball it is amazing

[@AJPzaworld]

This is something even I’m guilty of, and yeah, it’s a thing where being smart is not welcomed and see as a sign of an ego because of the populace at large being incredibly, incredibly fed up with pretension. You delve into philosophy? Pretentious. You read? Pretentious. You care about prose, syntax, and characterization beyond tertiary arcs? Pretentious. Not fond of a layman analysis? Pretentious. I get it. I hate annoying people too, but a call for deeper logos and understanding of things is something we should praise, not reject.

[@bathcat3759]

Yeah it all comes down to how you communicate your intelligence. Sometimes it’s best to just cut your losses and realize you won’t make any ground with these people

[@kentjensen4504]

Wallace is a very appealing character, the more I learn about him.

[@racine1967]

I am a Wallace fan and have read him but I can’t help but think how over the top self involved he is. It’s like he feels the need to express every thought. Also, I do not think it is so smart to obsessively relay how smart he is. He says it repeatedly in interviews. Maybe he was just super insecure?

[@chairmanmeow958]

Great video as always Ian, I wish I would’ve had an amazing and invested teacher like you in high school who would’ve shown me the importance of art and literature and I didn’t have to wait to learn it myself until my late 20s. Keep the great content coming brother almost 10K subs. Everyone reading this better subscribe right now

[@TheHundredHeads]

I was talking with one of the owners of a bookshop, (I’m in the bookshop), and some late-middle age fat customer said I’m reading too many books, that too many books are bad for me, that I need to do more independent thinking. Almost told him straight up that Cormac McCarthy has an unconscious association between the A-bomb and his pubescent sexual awakening

[@EntertheGam3]

What do you think Cormac's answer to this problem would be?

[@Vidal-zf4kb]

It's not that you're not allowed to be smart. Talk about whateve you want just don't levitate off the ground. That's inteliigence or knowledge is tricky because it inflates the ego. You have to keep it at arms length and keep yourself grounded because you will float off the ground.

[@esteban8532]

Great videos, just started IJ after watching and listening to DFW talk, so far i love the book but the only thing that makes me feel stupid is that i read the paper copy while listening to the audio book. It’s a great experience but does that even count?

[@jtrealfunny]

Excellent. It's all true. Take it from the man.

[@diorblunt]

I’ve come to notice that people who confuse passion as pretension are typically just being cynical.

[@enriccoc7794]

At some point you might have to stop reading the KZbin comments because quite often they are just going to try to tear you down. You can't take them seriously, it would be nice to have a strategy to not let it bother you at all.

[@DavidSmith-cg7qk]

Hey, man. I enjoyed this video and I love your content. But I took some offense at what you said about your student joining the military. I did my degree in philosophy and my two favourite authors are Cormac McCarthy and DFW. I also spent fifteen years in the army then resigned so I could fight in Ukraine. And there are a lot of soldiers like me. This idea that only anti-intellectuals are dumb enough to join the military is untrue and kind of ridiculous. Only those who lack the courage to fight - actually fight - for what they believe in could cling to such a stereotype.

[@WriteConscious]

Did you hear the story? I had a very talented student whose parents pushed him into a position where he is a glorified security guard for six years for their vision. I see it all the time. However, I encourage my students to go into whatever they want to and have had hundreds go to the military because that's their dream.

[@ainslie187]

Our culture and social norms are pretty absurd. Also, it’s funny how most people’s concept of ideal health is bulging muscles and the carnivore diet. It’s just as ridiculous as militant veganism.

[@Vgallo]

Nah you’re wrong, Nixon was a legit intellectual.

[@lunchhooks2253]

I suppose that suicide is the deprecat ultimo.

[@greblaksnew]

It sounds like you're weathering some attacks from that video you made. Don't let it get to you. I've been accused of pretension several times in my life. They were in middle school graduate school and most recently these days with my own writing. I will spare the stupid details but It stems from the refusal to bend the knee to The gatekeepers. Finally, the crisis of artificial intelligence is upon us and it is manifesting in a real epistemological crisis. People think it's coming but like you said it's already here.

[@TheGoodMD]

Ian just came on here and height checked the shit out of us. “I’m 6’3” he says. Ian “Top G”

[@slave_to_cinema]

I dont see how name dropping "influencers" on youtube or Patreon for no apparent reason somehow illuminates us into breaking into a new age intellectualism. I just think it makes you seem low and of low character. All you had to do is mention someone like Benjamin McCevoy in a negative light and you lose just a little bit of respect. I am part of his bookclub. And if i dont respect you how will i even take you seriously? If we wanna contribute perhaps we should lift eachother up and create a culture of constructive ideas. You gain nothing by calling out or name dropping respectable people.

[@WriteConscious]

I've been a part of his bookclub too before and listened to a lot of his content. I have nothing but good things to say about his depth of content. My criticsm of him and other booktubers is that they're scared to polarize. They zoom the camera in close, speak monotone, and never rock the boat. My goal is a literary renissance. Sitting around and simulating the Greek symposium is not the solution.

[@slave_to_cinema]

@@WriteConscious well all teachers have their own strategies

[@christophechalaye2361]

I used to be accused of being "pretentious." Today, I probably still am, but I've stopped caring. If anything, I've amped up my "pretentiousness" tenfold as a form of revolt against emotionally fragile groupthinkers who regurgitate the same trite words and phrases (words like "toxic") and attempt to adhere to the same asinine, planet-9 perspectives and ideologies (like those who think "homeless" is offensive, but "unhoused" is so much better). There was a period in Europe called the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the 21st century needs its own title: the Age of Ignorance.

[@christophechalaye5357]

It’s not that I don’t understand them; they hardly have the courage to understand themselves. And yes, there is a contingent of folks out here in California, where homelessness is rampant, who firmly believe that “homeless” should be changed to “unhoused.” Ridiculous, but fact.

[@christophechalaye2361]

@@antonij2451 I don’t disagree with you… but we’re digressing. I was merely expressing agreement with Ian’s thesis. This thread isn’t about me. If I wanted to delve further into my own pretentiousness, I’ll hire a goddamn therapist. That said, let’s redirect our focus to the topic at hand: any person living in our modern, post-literate culture who exhibits any intellectual ambition, displays any interest in serious literature, or utilizes vocabulary deemed by the Thought Police as even remotely erudite, is labeled “pretentious” by the TikTok-drugged hoi polloi. I should add that the word “pretentious” is only understood - again, like “toxic” - due to its rampant overuse. It certainly wasn't in vogue 25 years ago, but now it's part of our cultural lexicon.