David Foster Wallace and New Sincerity Aesthetics: A Reply to Edward Jackson and Joel Nicholson-Roberts

Abstract

<p class="p1">This essay responds to the critique of my work advanced by Edward Jackson and Joel Nicholson-Roberts in “White Guys: Questioning <em>Infinite Jest</em>’s New Sincerity,” published in <em>Orbit</em> in March 2017. In addition to refuting their misrepresentations of my work, I provide a positive re-articulation of my core reading of the New Sincerity aesthetic, outlining its connection to concepts such as affect, intention, undecidability, literature, and neoliberalism.