Related Authors: David Foster Wallace | A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays | Arguments
Related Topics: angst, banality, death, despair, dread, ennui










I felt despair. The word’s overused and banalified now, despair, but it’s a serious word, and I’m using it seriously. For me it denotes a simple admixture — a weird yearning for death combined with a crushing sense of my own smallness and futility that presents as a fear of death. It’s maybe close to what people call dread or angst. But it’s not these things, quite. It’s more like wanting to die in order to escape the unbearable feeling of becoming aware that I’m small and weak and selfish and going without any doubt at all to die. It’s wanting to jump overboard.
Related Authors: David Foster Wallace | A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays | Arguments
Related Topics: angst, banality, death, despair, dread, ennui
© Vibe Quotes 2026 All Rights Reserved.