#231 Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature- David Foster
Wallace
This is among the shorter pieces that David Foster Wallace
published, but no less brilliant. Simple concepts and plot buried in a
spider-web (literally in this case) of context and character layering.
“Mother won a small product liability settlement and used
the money to promptly go get cosmetic surgery on the crow’s feet around her
eyes. However the cosmetic surgeon botched it and did something to the
musculature of her face which caused her to look insanely frightened at all
times.”
The rest of the piece are the son’s thoughts while riding
the bus with his mother on their way to the lawyers office; the attempts to
obscure her face to oncoming riders are particularly funny, as is the DFW-esque
macro lens on the miserable life of the drivers:
“I have evolved the theory that the driver peruses his
newspaper and reluctantly refolds it and replaces it in the hutch on green to
signal the paralyzed dislike he feels about his paid job and a court-appointed
psychologist might diagnose the newspaper as a cry for help.”
The son has just been released from jail due to an incident
caused by an accidental release of his poisonous spider collection, a
collection he now carries with him on the bus as a weapon to fend off potential
attackers.
Fun Stuff!
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