[...] Watching an episode of Hawaii Five-0 leads J.D. to posit that the popular TV story of "white guys flying around in helicopters restoring order to his oriental island" reflects American anxiety over the Vietnam War (GCH 318). That is Wallace's invitation to read his novella--and its awkward inclusion of stereotyped "Orientals" at the Collision airport (GCH 302)--as an allegory of 1980s east/west competition: DeHaven, wearing the Ronald McDonald suit, represents a burger-flipping service economy but also, with his broken-down, homemade car, beleagured American auto manufacturing in the process of being overtaken, Wallace implies, by Japan. Hence the car full of Japanese people that speeds past the stranded, oilless main characters, leading to a racist rant from J.D. [...]