Are You Watching?

This wordcloud was made from the 44 pages of text that compose the essay “E Unibus Pluram” by the late David Foster Wallace. Originally published in 1993, the essay is a criticism of the way we consume television and how televisual content and fiction has evolved over time to adopt a ubiquitous application of irony in order to maintain an audience. This essay was chosen because I believe that we can still apply this to content on the internet. From ironically clickbait-ish YouTube thumbnails to the absurd social amalgamate of so called “zoomer humor”, one may notice that much of what we consume online depends upon being familiar with the cultural norms of cyberspace. I chose this cloud shape and color palette to reflect the sensory excess of entertainment broadcasting. The font, some classic Arial, was chosen to reflect the frankness of Wallace’s ideas, as a large portion of his writing was meant to deconstruct pretentious writing methods.

Looking at this wordcloud seems to emphasize a rather banal “television is inherently bad” sentiment, which is not the original intent of the essay. The most prominent words in this cloud are of no surprise. One could say the entire essay is just an observation of people observing. What this cloud does lack is the prescription offered to combat the consumer cycle of irony, which is presented as unadulterated sentimentality. These factors may lead a reader to disregard the article as cliché upon first glance.

As some added fun, here is a cloud of the text in this article you have just read.