"This diagnosis can be done in about two lines. It doesn't engage anybody"
About this Quote
Wallace’s bluntness here is a kind of moral triage: if your “diagnosis” fits in two lines, you’re probably not diagnosing so much as performing expertise. The phrase has the snap of workshop talk and the sting of cultural criticism. “About two lines” isn’t just a measurement; it’s a jab at the neat, quotable take, the TED-ready insight that tidies up a messy human situation into something you can repeat at a party.
The subtext is pure Wallace: attention is the real scarce resource, and shallow analysis doesn’t just fail intellectually, it fails ethically. “It doesn’t engage anybody” lands harder than “it’s wrong,” because engagement is his standard for seriousness. He’s suspicious of commentary that flatters the commentator while leaving the listener untouched - no felt stakes, no vulnerability, no invitation to wrestle with the thing itself.
Contextually, this tracks with Wallace’s ongoing war against default settings: our reflex to reduce, to summarize, to hide behind cleverness. He’s pushing back on criticism (and maybe therapy, and maybe journalism, and maybe MFA culture) that treats complexity as an inconvenience rather than the whole point. The line’s power is how it polices a boundary: if your diagnosis doesn’t change the air in the room, if it can’t hold another person’s attention, it’s probably not insight. It’s just compression masquerading as clarity.
The subtext is pure Wallace: attention is the real scarce resource, and shallow analysis doesn’t just fail intellectually, it fails ethically. “It doesn’t engage anybody” lands harder than “it’s wrong,” because engagement is his standard for seriousness. He’s suspicious of commentary that flatters the commentator while leaving the listener untouched - no felt stakes, no vulnerability, no invitation to wrestle with the thing itself.
Contextually, this tracks with Wallace’s ongoing war against default settings: our reflex to reduce, to summarize, to hide behind cleverness. He’s pushing back on criticism (and maybe therapy, and maybe journalism, and maybe MFA culture) that treats complexity as an inconvenience rather than the whole point. The line’s power is how it polices a boundary: if your diagnosis doesn’t change the air in the room, if it can’t hold another person’s attention, it’s probably not insight. It’s just compression masquerading as clarity.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sarcastic |
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