Saturday, June 27, 2015

"Son, you're a body son.  That quick little scientific-prodigy's mind she's so proud of and won't quit twittering about: son, it's just neural spasms, those thoughts in your mind are just the sound of your head revving, and head is still just body, Jim.  Commit this to memory.  Head is body.  Jim, brace yourself against my shoulder here for this hard news, at ten: you’re a machine a body an object, Jim.” - a father explaining some of the facts of life to his son, Jim, in David Forster Wallace's Infinite Jest
For my summer reading project, I've committed myself to finally reading through DFW's IJ, purchased at Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon in 2008, started many times since and abandoned just as any times after less than 50 or so pages.  I'm going strong now, my commitment and discipline focused on the task at hand, and the above passage is from page 159, so I've already made it past my former barriers.

More about potential soon, but I wanted to first share Wallace's comments on non-duality and the whole body/mind schism.

No comments: