16. Finding the quiet in a noisy world (and a noisy World Cup)
Ted watches Japan vs Sweden in the dead of night during one of Britain’s recent heatwaves, and recalls David Foster Wallace’s parable of fish unaware of water. But the potential joy of watching a simple game of World Cup football is drowned out by political noise, punditry, commercial spectacle, fears and worries. As the match progresses in silence, he listens to WhatsApp voice messages from his friend, Adrian, who reflects on David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King, and Ireland’s ’Saipan’ incident from the World Cup of 2002, and attention and nostalgia, and the joy of… well, of just not…
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