Episode 181: The Fraudulence Paradox (David Foster Wallace's "Good Old Neon")

Very Bad Wizards

Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro

Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2020

⏱️ 129 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Our whole lives we've been frauds. We're not exaggerating. Pretty much all we've ever done is try to create a certain impression of us in other people. Mostly to be liked or admired. This episode is a perfect example, Tamler pretending to be a cinephile (check out his four favorite pieces of 2019 "pop culture" in the first segment), David trying to connect with the people (Baby Yoda, Keanu Reeves etc.) – and of course what could be more fraudulent than a deep dive into a David Foster Wallace story, rhapsodizing over the endless sentences, the logical paradoxes, the seven-layer bean-dip of metacommentary (Jesus Christ I'm surprised there aren't like eight footnotes in this episode description), and meanwhile the Partially Examined Life dudes refresh their overcast feeds and wonder through the tiny keyhole of themselves how David and Tamler have sunk so low that they'd ramble on about "Good Old Neon" like a couple of first year Comp-Lit grad students trying to impress that girl who works at the Cajun bakery.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Very bad wizards is a podcast with a philosopher, my dad, and a psychologist, Dave Pizarro,
0:05.9	having an informal discussion about issues and signs and ethics.
0:09.3	Please note that the discussion contains bad words that I'm not allowed to say,
0:13.6	and knowing my dad some very inappropriate jokes.
0:30.0	Hey, no attention to that man behind the curtain.
0:41.4	Who are you?
0:43.4	Who are you?
0:45.1	I'm very bad man.
0:46.6	I'm a very good man.
0:48.4	Good man.
0:52.6	Placing deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have.
0:56.1	Play no attention.
0:58.1	Come on, man.
1:02.5	Anybody can have a brain.
1:06.5	You're a very bad man.
1:09.0	I'm a very good man.
1:10.5	Just a very bad wizard.
1:13.3	Welcome to very bad wizards.
1:15.0	I'm Tamler Summers from the University of Houston.
1:17.9	Dave, the Oscar nominations were announced recently,
1:21.5	and some people are saying that Greta Gerwig was snubbed.
1:25.6	Not getting a best director nomination for Little Women.
	...

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