"I'm starting to see just why turn-of-the-last-century Americans' biggest fear was of anarchists and anarchy. For if anarchy actually wins, if rulelessness become the rule, then protest and change become not just impossible but incoherent. It'd be like casting a ballot for Stalin: you are voting for an end to all voting."
At his best, David Foster Wallace's writing evokes a more-poignant, less-funny Hunter S. Thompson, and parts of "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" feature Wallace at that best.
"Lonely people tend, rather, to be lonely because they decline to bear the psychic costs of being around other humans."
His depictions of a midwest state fair ("Getting Away from Pretty Much Being Away from It All") and a luxury Caribbean cruise are hysterically covered, and among the finest essays I've read. And his musings on tennis -- the sport that defined so many of his formative years -- show his love of the topic.
"The general sensation is that of being in the middle of an armpit."
"There's an atmosphere in the room -- not racist, but aggressively white."
Admittedly, his tendency to make up words can be off-putting, and he doesn't always win the battle of not taking himself too seriously. However, the essay format is where he thrives, letting him dabble before letting the density of a story drag him down.
"They're all the kind of men who look like they're smoking cigars even when they're not smoking cigars."
"It turns out she sort of likes to toss off a horrific detail and then get all vague and blase when a horrified listener tries to pump her for details."
"The very best way to describe Scott Peterson's demeanor is that it looks like he's constantly posing for a photograph nobody is taking."
The work is shot through with prescient renderings of middle America's mouth-breathing, Trumpian morons, revealing the author's keen observational talent.
"They're the type you see slapping their kids in supermarket checkouts. They are people who work at like Champaign's Kraft and Decatur's A.E. Staley and think pro wrestling is real. I'm sorry, but this is all true. I went to high school with KMart People. I know them. They own firearms and do not hunt. They aspire to own mobile homes. They read the Star without even a pretense of contempt and have toilet paper with little off-color jokes printed on it."
Overall, Wallace appears to be having more fun here than in "Infinite Jest." His ability to both immerse himself in and yet set himself apart from an experience just might be his wheelhouse -- and "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" best captures his brilliance in this format.
