Pages 663–665

E.T.A., Ennet House, and the A.F.R., cross-cut · first-time reader guide · all scenes

Endnote 269 arrives on page 665 — it gets its own page.

When you've finished these pages: three things worth a second look, at the bottom.

Three documents, no narrator, each dated only "November Y.D.A.U.": a letter "From the Desk of Helen Steeply, Contributing Editor, Moment Magazine" (address: 13473 Blasted Expanse Blvd., Tucson) to Marlon K. Bain of Saprogenic Greetings, Inc., Waltham MA; Bain's reply on company stationery; and Steeply's follow-up. Bain you've met in passing — Orin's old E.T.A. doubles-era friend, one of the boys with the phenomenal lobs (pp. 42–49, 283–299). The whole scene is under three pages; most of what it does, it does typographically.

Terms, in order of appearance

Saprogenic (p. 664) — real word: produced by rot or decay. A greeting-card company named "born of putrefaction."
WHEN YOU CARE ENOUGH TO LET A PROFESSIONAL SAY IT FOR YOU (p. 664) — the real Hallmark slogan is "When you care enough to send the very best."
ACMÉ Family of Gags 'N Notions (p. 664) — a Waltham novelty concern "with 'N in the name" has appeared before, on pp. 579–581; the echo is yours to weigh.
V.D. (p. 664) — Bain's entire valediction.
endnote 269 (p. 665) — the answers to the thirteen invisible questions; a very long flip, and the scene's real payload.

After you read: three things

1. The text abbreviates itself — that's the content. Steeply's courtesies compress to "Etc. etc. etc."; her second letter's thirteen questions print as "Q, Q, Q (Q, Q[Q], Q, Q, Q), Q, Q (Q), Q, Q." The book has been keeping this office's questions invisible all along; here the redaction becomes pure typography. The answers do exist — endnote 269 — and flipping to them is not optional reading so much as the other half of the scene.

2. Trace the chain. "It has been my good fortune to meet your adolescent friend, Mr. Orin J. Incandenza" (p. 663): this letter is downstream of the Phoenix interviews, and the profile bait — "independent film circa metropolitan Boston, past and present" — names, without naming, the filmmaker and the film this whole operation is actually about. You can read the cover story and the mission in the same sentence.

3. Count the good faith in Bain's two words. His full reply: "Fire away." — over a motto about professionally outsourced sincerity, addressed to "Ms. Helen Steepley / And So On." The misspelled name and the shrugged-off address block suggest exactly how seriously Bain takes the journalist cover; he's answering anyway. Both correspondents are professionals letting someone else say it for them.

Written only from this scene and earlier pages. Safe to read before you start.