Hello, Summer of Jesters’
I just want to say something w/r/t to wtf is going on as I am way older than most of you, granted, ok?
My son called me yesterday (he’s your age, most of you, born late 1983); and we talked, as we do maybe 2xs a month (if I’m lucky); and he was worried, sort of, b/c he’s teaching Summer School to a batch of “Special Needs” kids & we had had talked about it earlier, and “They” (=Admin) that were taking advantage of his nature (which is so accomodating, unlike me.) [fuck spelling at this point.] And he told me what he is doing, which is making them THINK!! He gives them thought experiments as in DFW’s stuff and Chuck Klosterman stuff (please read if you haven’t) and they RESPOND!! Like, oh God, somebody actually gives of a shit about what I think!!!; But of course he’s worried, that the shit’s gonna hit the fan, that someONE will complain and then Admin will come down on him b/c they are part of the MACHINE; and he will lose his job and get fired and then what will he do and I tell him: “FUck Them. Children need to learn to think, of and for themselves. And he said,
“Thanks Dad.” And so I just wanted to share that.
So the point is: He asked me, “Why fucking bother?” and I told him to look no further than his own essay w/r/t to Infinite Jest that he wrote: That the impact won’t be immediate, you can’t measure it .. but for the having opened up a mind(s) there will be consequences, and they will be for the greater good. And then we symbolically clinked glasses and will talk later.