David Foster Wallace — American Writer born on February 21, 1962, died on December 12, 2008

David Foster Wallace was an American author of novels, short stories and essays, as well as a professor of English and creative writing. Wallace is widely known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, which was cited by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005... (wikipedia)

The great thing about irony is that it splits things apart, gets up above them so we can see the flaws and hypocrisies and duplicates.
It seems important to find ways of reminding ourselves that most 'familiarity' is meditated and delusive.
This might be one way to start talking about differences between the early postmodern writers of the fifties and sixties and their contemporary descendants.
I think TV promulgates the idea that good art is just art which makes people like and depend on the vehicle that brings them the art.
Rap's conscious response to the poverty and oppression of U.S. blacks is like some hideous parody of sixties black pride.