#477 Oblivion- David Foster Wallace
Oblivion is a paradox about a dream, or it’s a dream about a
paradox, or it’s a story about a dream about a paradox. It’s one of those
things, or it’s none of them. What it is, is another brilliant example of the
genius of DFW.
Imagine a fight you’ve been having with your significant
other, a fight that has persisted for months, neither side making headway and
no chance of a resolution. You both firmly believe you are in the right and
that the other one is just oblivious. Now imagine, as we all do sometimes, are
sitting somewhere having the argument play out in your mind, all the anger and
vitriol spinning and overflowing until you are about to explode. That’s what
this story is.
The paradox turns out to be a Bizarro-Gift-Of-The-Magi-esque
circumstance that has kept both parties from a good night’s sleep for quite a
while. Wife is kept awake by her husband’s apparent snoring, sits up and
screams for him to turn over or sleep in the other room. The husband is
flabbergasted because he apparently hasn’t fallen asleep yet so could not have
been snoring. After months of fighting they agree to be observed at a sleep
clinic. Their analysis astounds both of them.
Then again, none of this may have been real.
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