Science Fiction Never Gets It Right

Pages Read: 34

Pages To Go: 944

Well, that was four pages of detailed description about medical conditions and teleputers and Muslim customs and husband-wife relations that could have just as easily been explained in a single sentence: The medical attaché is going to watch an unmarked cassette that came in the mail.

While it’s true that some of this digression provided biographical information about our new narrator so we have an idea of who he is, I am for the most part unimpressed. This was the first time I felt like DFW is wasting my time.

I guess I’m not a fan of medical jargon. Probably why I don’t watch medical procedurals.

It should be noted that there were several references thrown in that could be connections to the rest of the story:

  • Adult-design diapers
  • The aforementioned teleputer
  • Arizona
  • Tennis

I know the novel was written several decades ago, but I find it somewhat amusing that the medical attache has an automated recliner that will allow him to fall asleep watching TV and then be tucked in and fully reclined. There was actually a time when falling asleep watching TV was thought to be soothing and therapeutic. Now we know that screens, even tiny ones, emit a blue light that mimics daylight and actually makes it harder to fall asleep. I think this would have been a more accurate representation of the future if the medical attache were scanning channels in vain looking for anything to watch and refusing to fall asleep out of the misguided faith that there was something worthwhile, maybe even life-altering, on one of the many available channels.

Vocab Word: There was lots of medical jargon, but I’ll leave that to young George Clooney. I’m not interested..

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