Rather than enjoy his life he is doomed to watch over his statue which is a symbol of his legacy.

It is likely she put a spell on him to make him feel phony because the feeling began after he told a lie and got his sister in trouble. His sister who is the biological child of his parents grows up to become a witch. (Maybe he suffers from Impostor Syndrome?) Neal was adopted. In spite of achieving much, he never feels like he is real. In the story “Good Ole Neon” in which the main character Neal, feels wasted his whole life being phony. It will like they never existed, just like everybody else. However, when the entire planet is destroyed by climate change even the famous dead people will be forgotten. But the others who did not make the school or who failed to make an impressive career that causes them to be newsworthy (such as curing cancer) fall away are unrecognized in a fate the author feels is worse than death because it amounts to not have ever existed. This leaves a very small group of students who then compete for the top grades at Harvard. Some of the eligible students do not wish to attend Harvard or maybe they cannot not afford to attend. Each child starts Kindergarten with the same possibility of going to Harvard, but as time passes the students with lower grades lose out and finally only the ones with the best grades are eligible.

I see it as similar the chances of going to Harvard. All they have to do is be themselves, but because there are so many people in the world, all of them can’t be on the Channel. They are encouraged to be unique and to be their own genuine selves. In order to be on the Channel people need to have done something interesting. The Suffering Channel is a Reality TV Channel in the essay which can be seen as a metaphor for human existence. Laurel Manderley is an intern at the Magazine. Protagonist, Skip Atwater works for a fictional magazine named “Style” in the offices at the World Trade Center. “The Suffering Channel” is a novella set in July 2001. He wanted the experience to be more significant and lasting as each one of us wants to be important or at least significant in terms of the world. The essay contained the author’s personal experience upon meeting David Foster Wallace. I read a deleted article by Andrew Altschul on Wayback which analyzed the story Suffering Channel in terms of Reality TV. All of these stories have something in common, the desire to be famous after death and what is reality beyond our existence. The best stories in the book Oblivion are “Good Old Neon,” “Oblivion,” “Mr. I like Oblivion and I consider it to be Wallace’s third best novel after Infinite Jest and The Pale King. I was looking for information on the David Foster Wallace story “The Suffering Channel” which is part of book called Oblivion. Warning: This review contains spoilers for the book Oblivion

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