Tuesday, March 22, 2005

David Foster Wallace is a Flirt!

I'm serious! I am enjoying this article more than I think I've enjoyed any other magazine article. It's just a feature piece on the world of a talk-radio host, but it's engaging and entertaining, and I've found that I'm reading slowly because I don't want it to end.

Why is this? I'll tell you why: You know those footnotes in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again? Well, they aren't there because DFW is self-indulgent, or because his editor is spineless--they're DFW's way of flirting with his readers!! Think about it--those footnotes are nothing more than DFW whispering an aside in your ear.

They're all through this Atlantic article (at least in the print version--in fact, if you want to read the article, use the link and then download the PDF because the extra commentary isn't in the on-line version) in the form of highlighted phrases that link to boxes filled with interesting and charming asides. I feel like each highlighted portion was added by DFW just because he knew it was exactly what I'd want to know!

Can this be true?

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