Somebody at Salon.com Gets It Right

I am, simply put, not a fan of salon.com. However, this article on David Foster Wallace and his prescient views on the effects of irony on art & culture contained the following brilliant excerpt:

'To make something new, to transcend, one must have an honest relationship with what is: history, context, form, tradition, oneself. Dishonesty is the biggest obstacle to making original, great art. Dishonesty undermines a work’s internal integrity — the only standard by which a work can succeed. If the work becomes a vehicle for one’s ego, personal or political agenda, self-image, desire for fame, adulation, fortune — human as these inclinations may be — the work will be limited accordingly.'

 Like I said, brilliant.