Editor's Note

by Michael Pietsch

§1

pastrol. the grass description

§2

claude sylvanshine arrives in Peoria

§3

what do you think of when you masturbate (convo at IRS center, presumably)

§4

news bulletin about an IRS worker (Frederick Blumquist) dead for four days

§5

about a young boy who everyone hates because he's too, idk, obedient, naive, "good"

§6

Lane Dean Jr and his gf. reminiscent of Hills Like White Elephants. republished as Good People

§7

Sylvanshine in the vehicle that used to belong to Mister Squishee

§8

Toni Ware's backstory

§9

Author's Foreword

the "author" explaining that it's all true. about how he got paid to write essays for other people in college, then got expelled, then ended up joining the IRS

§10

two short paragraphs: "The bureaucracy is not a closed system; it is this that makes it a world instead of a thing."

§11

weird, jargon-filled internal IRS memo listing various types of medical conditions associated with prolonged IRS posting

§12

Stecyk saying hello to a neighbour and this is really the most cringe-worthy scene in the whole book

§13

David "Sweatman" Cusk and his superhero origin story

§14

the IRS interviewing employees (transcripts, with empty Q's, as in Brief Interviews)

§15

Claude Sylvanshine being a fact psychic (this chapter is clearly about the overwhelming amount of information we all face in this era of late capitalism)

§16

Lane Dean Jr. goes on his break and wants to flap his arms

§17

a short monologue (unnamed speaker) on IRS employees as small-h heroes

§18

from the filmed IRS interviews, someone talking about Desk Names (Mike Hunt, Phil Mypockets, etc)

§19

elevator convo about civics and selfishness

§20

Toni Ware moves into a new neighborhood and scares her neighbor

§21

Some unnamed IRS employee confronts an unnamed entrepreneur who has been falsifying his W2s

§22

Chris Fogle on his conversion from nilhilism

§23

(unnamed) first-person recounting of a dream about boredom?

§24

another Author Here section. about his arrival for intake processing (sitting next to David Cusk, special welcome from Ms. Neti-Neti)

§25

two columns. people turn pages, etc

§26

third-person narrator on ghosts in the IRS office

§27

Third person. David Cusk is in orientation and imagines that the woman behind him is unspeakably gorgeous. Sylvanshine is in the same room. David Wallace is in a different room (for the Alternative Tax/Shelters Immersive Group)

§28

10 Laws of IRS Personnel

All GS-9 Examiners want to be GS-11 Examiners, etc

§29

people talking about shit (Fat Marcus the Moneylender)

§30

convo at the IRS office with Claude, Reynolds, etc about Glendenning and various other employees.

§31

weird short one about someone named Shinn leaving the IRS van? ends with him ruminating on what birds are really saying

§32

first-person, on the phone with his sister Julie, asking her to do an impression from The Exorcist (i think)

§33

third-person, about Lane Dean Jr in the absolute depths of boredom in the wiggle room. ghost shows up

§34

one paragraph from an internal memo about the AMT formula

§35

the group manager's fierce infant. first-person but unnamed narrator

§36

the boy who tries to press his lips to every square inch of his body

§37

awkward convo between a Russell and an unnamed speaker at a restaurant

§38

third-person, explaining the bug that conflated the two David Wallaces in the IRS' systems

§39

ostensibly about Claude but really focuses on Leonard Stecyk's backstory (the severed-thumb incident)

§40

David Cusk is enumerating his (water-based) fears in a therapist's office

§41

dialogue between Charlie? and an unnamed speaker about sending Cardwell to get 'him'?

§42

people talking about drugs (incl "Colorado Todd")

§43

first person, by David Wallace. about a terrorist attack in another IRS center

§44

first person, unnamed narrator who spent two summers as a cart boy in the Peoria office at 21/22: "I learned that the world of men as it exists today is a bureaucracy." (437) "If you are immune to boredom, there is literally nothing you cannot accomplish." (438)

§45

about Toni's mom and playing dead. "this girl is damaged goods"

§46

third person. happy hour at Meibeyer's. Meredith Rand and Shane Drinion talk about her beauty and her institutionalization.

§47

Toni Ware investigating some gas station? don't really understand the context but it's beautifully written

§48

someone (Sylvanshine?) talking about the picnic with some special agents from Chicago. don't really get this one

§49

Fogle being coached by Reynolds and Sylvanshine for his meeting with Dr Lehrl (Blue Devils)

§50

really weird but kinda poetic. second-person? in an office, being told you do have a body

Notes and Asides

a sample of the notes DFW left that weren't incorporated in the main text