That last one’s9 of especial value, I think. As exquisite verbal art, yes, but also as a model for what free, informed adulthood might look like in the context of Total Noise: not just the intelligence to discern one’s own error or stupidity, but the humility to address it, absorb it, and move on and out therefrom, bravely, toward the next revealed error. This is probably the sincerest, most biased account of “Best” your Decider can give: these pieces are models — not templates, but models — of ways I wish I could think and live in what seems to me this world.
— 2007
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trichome—hairlike or bristlelike outgrowth Trimurti—Hindu trinity of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer; Hindu version of the trinity: sits in chair w/three faces facing three different ways triskelion—figure w/three arms or legs coming out of a common center (exotic sex resembling a triskelion) triturate—to rub, crush, or grind into fine powder: to pulverize troche—small medicated or flavored tablet truckle (v.) — to be servile or submissive; (n.) bed w/casters for rolling stuff trunnion—pin or cylindrical projection on which (e.g.) a cannon pivots; also fans, PC monitor try square—carpenter’s right-angled ruler T-top—auto w/removable roof panels Tu enim Caesar civitatem dare potes hominibus, verbis non potes—saying: “Caesar, you can grant citizenship to men but not to words” uncus—a hook-shaped part (biology); nose? toe? uvulitis—inflammation of the uvula; special kind of sore throat vadose (adj.) — relating to water that’s above the groundwater table but in the ground vail (v.) — to doff cap; to lower your flag in submission valetudinarian—sickly, weak, morbidly health-conscious person vaunt—brag, boast; “an air of vaunt around him” venatic—of or related to hunting venery—pursuit or indulgence of sexual appetite; sexual act vermiculate—wormish vermiculation—wormlike movements; wormlike marks or carvings as on masonry vermiferous—wormy, worm-riddled vernalization—subjecting seeds or seedlings to low temperatures to speed up plant development vernation—the arrangement of young leaves within a bud vernissage—private showing held before art exhibition opens verso—left-hand page of book vestal—chaste, pure videogenic—like photogenic or telegenic but w/video vidette—mounted sentinel stationed in advance of an outpost vituperations—angry remarks volute—spiral formation as in whelk shell; spiral scroll-like ornament as on Ionic column welt—raised seam between sole and upper of shoe whelm—to cover with water, submerge whinstone—hard, dark kinds of stone like basalt and chert widdershins/withershins—in a counterclockwise or contrary direction wiggan—stiff fabric used for stiffening windrow—long row of cut hay or grain left to dry after harvest before bundling windrow—row of snow or leaves heaped up by wind wonky—shaky, feeble; wrong, awry woodbine—climbing vine with yellowish flowers wrack (n.) — damage from devastation, violence/ruin WYSIWYG (adj.) — desktop-pub./computer term for screen showing exactly what the printed page will look like wyvern—(heraldry): a two-legged dragon w/wings and a barbed tail yashmak—veil worn by Muslim women yawp (v.) — to talk coarsely or loudly yean—to bear young yenta—person/wom an into gossip, meddling (Yiddish) Yggdrasil—in Norse mythology, the huge ash tree that holds together earth, heaven, and hell by its roots and branches ylang-ylang—oil from Asian tree used in perfume
JUST ASKING
Q: Are some things worth dying for? Is the American idea1 one such thing? Who’s ready for a thought experiment? What if we chose to regard the 2,973 innocents killed in the terrorist attacks of 9/11 as heroes and martyrs, “sacrifices on the altar of freedom”?2 That is, what if we decided that a certain minimum baseline vulnerability to terrorist attack is part of the price of the American idea? That ours is a generation of Americans called to make great sacrifices in order to preserve our way of life — not just of our soldiers and money on foreign soil, but the sacrifice of our personal safety and comfort? Maybe even of more civilians’ lives?
What if we chose to accept the fact that every few years, despite everyone’s best efforts, some hundreds or thousands of us may die in the sort of terrible suicidal attack that a democratic republic cannot 100 percent protect itself from without subverting the very principles that make it worth protecting?
Is this thought experiment monstrous? Would it be monstrous to refer to the 40,000-plus domestic highway deaths we accept each year because the mobility and autonomy of the car are worth the price? Is monstrousness why no serious public figure now will speak of the delusory trade-off of liberty for safety that Ben Franklin warned of more than 200 years ago? What exactly has changed between Franklin’s time and ours? Why now can we not have a serious national conversation about sacrifice, the inevitability of sacrifice — either of (a) some safety or (b) some portion of the rights and liberties that make the American idea so precious?
Q: In the absence of such a conversation, do we trust our current leaders to revere and safeguard the American idea as they seek to “secure the homeland”? What are the effects on the American idea of Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, PATRIOT Acts I and II, warrantless surveillance, Executive Order 13233, corporate contractors performing military functions, the Military Commissions Act, NSPD 51, etc., etc.? Assume for the moment that some of these really have helped make our persons and property safer — are they worth it? Where and when was the public debate on whether they’re worth it? Was there no such debate because we’re not capable of having or demanding one? Why not? Have we become so selfish and frightened that we don’t even want to think about whether some things trump safety? What kind of future does that augur?
— 2007
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The David Wallace Literary Trust and the publisher wish to thank Sam Freilich, Vanessa Kehren, Victoria Matsui, Steve Kleinedler, Margaret Anne Miles, and Joseph Pickett for their invaluable help.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Foster Wallace was born in Ithaca, New York, in 1962 and raised in Illinois, where he was a regionally ranked junior tennis player. He received bachelor of arts degrees in philosophy and English from Amherst College; his senior English thesis, the novel The Broom of the System, was published in 1987, and his senior philosophy thesis was published as Fate, Time, and Language in 2010. He earned a master of fine arts at the University of Arizona. His second novel, Infinite Jest, was published in 1996. He also published the story collections Girl with Curious Hair, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, and Oblivion; the essay collections A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again and Consider the Lobster; a book about hip-hop, written with his friend Mark Costello, Signifying Rappers; and a book about infinity, Everything and More. Over the years, Wallace taught at Emerson College, Illinois State University, and Pomona College. He was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, and the Whiting Writers’ Award and served on the Usage Panel for The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. He died in 2008. His last novel, The Pale King, was published in 2011 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.