Since our technology is really just an extension of ourselves, we donโt have to have contempt for its manipulability in the way we might with actual people. Itโs all one big endless loop. We like the mirror and the mirror likes us. To friend a person is merely to include the person in our private hall of flattering mirrors.
Jonathan FranzenI guess my life hasnโt always been happy, or easy, or exactly what I want. At a certain point, I just have to try not to think too much about certain things, or else theyโll break my heart.
Jonathan FranzenMr. Franzen said he and Mr. Wallace, over years of letters and conversations about the ethical role of the novelist, had come to the joint conclusion that the purpose of writing fiction was โa way out of loneliness.โ (NY Times article on the memorial service of David Foster Wallace.)
Jonathan Franzen