Infinite Jest

by David Foster Wallace

My question is trying to say: if the most pleasure right now, en ce moment, is in the whole serving of Habitant, how is my self able to put aside this moment’s desire to make bonk on you and take this soup? How am I able to think past this soup to the future of soup down my road?’ ‘In other words delayed gratification.’ ‘Good. This is well. Delayed gratification. How is my U.S.A. type able in my mind to calculate my long-term overall pleasure, then decide to sacrifice this intense soup-craving of this moment to the long term and overall?’ Steeply sent out two hard tusks of smoke from the nostrils of his nose. His expression was one of patience together with polite impatience. ‘I think it’s called simply being a mature and adult American instead of a childish and immature American. A term we might use might be “enlightened self-interest.” ’ ‘D’éclaisant.’ Steeply, he did not smile back. ‘Enlightened. For example your example from before. The little kid who’ll eat candy all day because it’s what tastes best at each individual moment.’ ‘Even if he knows inside his mind that it will hurt his stomach and rot his little fangs.’ ‘Teeth,’ Steeply corrected. ‘But see that here it can’t be a Fascist matter of screaming at the kid or giving him electric shocks each time he overindulges in candy. You can’t induce a moral sensibility the same way you’d train a rat. The kid has to learn by his own experience how to learn to balance the short- and long-term pursuit of what he wants.’ ‘He...