I'd Like That Redacted

Book Review of prelude to a SUPER AIRPLANE by Brian Spaeth

I am afraid to fly. My first airplane trip occurred at age four when most of our family moved across the country. I do not recall this experience in any detail. My second airplane trip was at age twenty-one during Spring Break. At this point I still followed the flight attendant's detailed instructions for turning off my electronic device for the majority of the hour-long flight. I find I have no problem once the plane is actually airborne, it's the takeoff and landing that makes my heart skip several beats. If I am stuck in the aisle seat and cannot see the ground when the plane is taking off, my anxiety levels increase and I don't want to stare past the person in the window seat. I detest "puddle-jumper" planes and always hit my head on their small overhead compartments. All this to say, prelude to a SUPER AIRPLANE has renewed my childish sense of wonder and amazement regarding the creation of flying machines. Although I just returned from vacation wherein our plane inexplicably sat on the runway for two hours, then sputtered to life, I no longer think of flights with quite the anxiety-inducing terror of my past. Plus, the TSA employing robots would be incredible.

Spaeth's tome draws the reader in to the magical colliding worlds of super airplane construction, finding love in airports, instant messaging via Facesbook (so no one will sue), self-proclaimed orphans, authorial intrusion, Mayan prophesies, and the cabal of energy-drink addicts. From the man who "also knew that this [deed] would propel him into the national spotlight as a war hero, even though America's Secret War With Brazil was a secret" to the psychiatrist who "was suggesting ill-conceived courses of action to her patients, so that their problems became larger than hers", the characters come alive through their bizarre and idiosyncratic actions. This book is perfect for the self-referential, ADD crowd of the twenty-first century, who still express Native American history incorrectly, have thumb blisters from Blackberry addiction, and want to live on a 47-story super airplane. Spaeth causes the reader to ruminate on such heady topics as how the most awesome name ever in the history of horse-naming is a horse called Pencils, and how Warmth For Monstero would be a good name for a rock band, all while trying to piece together each character's path to the super airplane.

In reading prelude to a SUPER AIRPLANE, I was taking a break from my summer commitment to read 1100-page Infinite Jest. The short paragraphs, short sentences, and absence of fatal drug overdoses in Spaeth's book piqued my interest, but I was soon caught up in comparing him to Wallace. First, they both use the word "twitter" at least once in their books, as in, "to utter a succession of small, tremulous sounds, as a bird." At least, I'm sure that's how Wallace meant it, as Infinite Jest was published in 1996, long before our generation's incessant need to share what we had for lunch. Next, they both use glorious footnotes[1] to further delineate important expositions to the reader. After these come footprintnotes[2], and many chapters set in the future--whether it be 2012 or the Year Of The Trial Sized Dove Bar--with newfangled technology predicted. Brad Radby's complete filmography might be largely comparable to Incandenza's own film career--the indescribable footnote 24 in Infinite Jest. Escapism is good for the soul, and in prelude to a SUPER AIRPLANE we can all fly away together.

[1]. I don't know how to make numbers appear smaller and footnotey in Blogger.
[2]. I made up that word.[1]

[1]. It means a footnote of a footnote. Alternately, toenotes.

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End of Part 1:
1. Me. Women are the only gender who can multitask, therefore I could think about airplanes whilst attending to my normal activities. (Ex. I was just thinking about airplanes, reading your book, watching The Daily Show, replying to an email, and on the phone with my sister).
2. Cheese, musicians, peanut butter, time-travel, gingers.
3. Cheese: it can be easily eaten on an airplane.
4. Fork. It cannot be easily transported on an airplane because of its weapon-like qualities.
5. Yes, it's me, Demi Lovato.

copyright: me, 2009.