'Up, Simba': David Foster Wallace on the Presidential campaign trail & UK Citizenship

I've been re-reading some of David Foster Wallace's essays and journalism in the collection 'Consider the Lobster and Other Essays' (2005). Last night, I couldn't sleep until the small hours - and years of insomnia have taught me that the thing to do is accept it, get up and read (rather than, say: stay laying down in a state of somewhat wakefulness, conscious of the night, of the silence, of the changing cadence of the street outside (this can drag for hours, and almost never leads to sleep)). So I spent a few hours of the night getting absorbed in Wallace's piece of journalism 'Up, Simba', originally written for Rolling Stone magazine; an account of the 2000 Republican nominee campaign trail following John McCain, who at the time was up against his main competitor and now ex-President George Bush Jr.

At this point, through not wanting to misrepresent myself, I should point out that following the details of presidential or state-centric individuals is not something I'll often indulge in - and yes both US statesmen previously mentioned are from a section of the political mainstream that's a world apart from my own interests, and I am and have been politicised and politically mobilised against their actions and policies in office, as they richocheted across the Atlantic, between the US and the UK, circa early-to-mid 2000s. What interests me in an article like this is the quality of the writing. David Foster Wallace was a master of his craft. I've previously read the majority of his fiction - his most famous novel (Infinite Jest) and his earlier novel (The Broom of the System (n.b. this one is not so good. I agree with his own later criticism that this reads like something a super-intelligent teenager might have written)), and I once started his posthumously published unfinished novel (The Pale King), as well as having explored much of his journalism and essays - and all concepts and ideas aside, in a technical sense as a writer, I'm part of a readership that really enjoys his execution and delivery, the points of focus in the text, the time taken and detours taken to build up the picture and the sense of what he's looking to convey. Wallace was a master at crafting text that meanders, discovers and hones in on ideas and reflections. The subject matter is in some ways maybe even secondary to this experience of the text itself.

One thing this particular text leaves me thinking about is: citizenship, or a sense of citizenship. In particular, US citizenship and its contrast in the UK.

I've only ever lived long-term in the UK, and my small experience of the US comes through media, friends/connections, and some few weeks spent backpacking the States a good few years back (where I felt most at ease in parts of the West Coast). But what's always been apparant when reflecting on the US state machinery is how it has a narrative of intentionality behind it, and that intentionality appears to stretch between state and subject; politician and citizen. Rightly or wrongly, I get a sense in US politics that there is at least, or can be, a feeling among citizens that there is this loop between themselves and (local) governance, government office, state legislature, etc. This is way different from the UK. Although both states are born of history, and historic struggles of various kind, there's a material content to the state that sets out its own constitution, compared to the immateriality of the citizenship/subjecthood of the state that maintains a largely 'unwritten' constitution that we have in the UK. And the impact here, in the UK, on the sense you have of... involvement... in parliamentary/state processes... is notable. Here in the UK, I get the feeling that the only feeling of involvement in even local governance, or central government, is something that's still largely held by people of inherited wealth, establishment. Don't get me wrong, there's stickers all over South London at the moment stating 'you are nobody's subject', in reference to the absurd recent coronation of another royal. And I'm not here suggesting we should wish to be anyone's subject or citizen*. But what I am wondering, is whether there seems to be a *sense of* citizenship/involvement in some threads of US mainstream/everyday politics that is weaker, or absent, in the UK. And I wonder how much that has to do with the narrative of intentionality on which the US state is propped up on.

*an old anarchist joke I came across in a social centre one time - a sign next to a sink encouraging people to wash up for themselves:

> 'Anarchists wouldn't let the place get into a State'

~ flow

Tags: #state #government #davidfosterwallace