Jennifer Egan

Thirty-three is still young enough to register as “young.”

Registering as “young” is especially welcome to those who may not register as “young” much longer.

by age nine, Alfred’s intolerance of fakery had jumped the life/art barrier and entered his everyday world

He worked in a bicycle repair shop and poured his every resource into making a three-hour-long documentary about the migratory patterns of North American geese.

my dissertation, an examination of authenticity in the digital era

Thus Alfred’s awakening to our Self-Surveillance Era.

This detail had so fascinated Alfred that he’d filled a bucket with water and ice cubes in the family basement and held his forearms under the surface until their acute aching almost made him puke. Yet none of it left so much as a mark.

Alfred began, on occasion, to scream in public: on the L train; in Times Square; at Whole Foods; at the Whitney.

Crave negative attention

Genuine human responses rather than the made-up crap we serve each other all day long.

“Jack was, like, legendary,” Alfred said, but the word was a poor vehicle for the legendariness he wished it to convey. “People just—loved him. He brought out the best in everyone, and sort of… completed every situation he was in.”