Infinite Summer

Back when I was first enchanted by this essay, I most closely tied it to the caller ID phenomenon: first, the phone companies offered, for a price, a caller ID option so one could identify who was calling; but then, if you wanted your identity blocked, you had to purchase an option to counter the caller ID option purchased by someone else; and then, customers were given the option of blocking calls from people who blocked the caller ID function; and also, there was caller ID trapping, where the recipient of a caller-ID blocked call could forward the call to a toll-free number (where caller ID could not be blocked) to get the info anyway.

Definitely a favorite section and one that made me LOL several times. It's a shame we will never get to read a DFW essay on the Facebook/MySpace/Twitter culture and the facades that all entail. It would be interesting to see how he'd analyze the idea of being too isolated, i.e. spending excessive time at a computer terminal/cell phone/iPhone, versus being too public in the sense of having so much personal information that can be dredged up via the internet.

I never enjoyed talking on the phone except to exchange crucial information (What bar? What time?). When I read this section I had the "shock of recognition". You know, that drug that us biblioholics drool for. DFW revealed to me the illusion of telephone conversations that I felt but remained unarticulated until now. The attentive presence of the other person, despite peridoic uh-huhs and mmms, is not guarenteed. When talking with my girlfriend for example, ranting about how f***ing awesome IJ is, she yawns, rolls her eyes a few times and look for drying paint to watch, I can change the subject and save for it for another time or person. But if we are veiled by a phone line I might go on and on and on wasting precious oxygen while she files her nails or checks her facebook.

This has always been one of the most enjoyable aspects of reading Wallace's work.... his ability to suddenly articulate things you;ve felt just below the surface but have been unable to put into words.