The Pale King: An Unfinished Novel

by David Foster Wallace

Enduring tedium over real time in a confined space is what real courage is. Such endurance is, as it happens, the distillate of what is, today, in this world neither I nor you have made, heroism.

‘Gentlemen, welcome to the world of reality—there is no audience. No one to applaud, to admire. No one to see you. Do you understand? Here is the truth—actual heroism receives no ovation, entertains no one. No one queues up to see it. No one is interested.’

Routine, repetition, tedium, monotony, ephemeracy, inconsequence, abstraction, disorder, boredom, angst, ennui—these are the true hero’s enemies, and make no mistake, they are fearsome indeed. For they are real.’

‘The whole mess and disorder of the desk on the left is, in fact, due to its excess information.’ ‘A mess is information without value.’ ‘The whole point of cleaning off a desk is to get rid of the information you don’t want and keep the information you do want.’