Last night, my boyfriend and I went to see Jonathan Franzen give a speech at the Melbourne Town Hall. As we drove the hour and a half into Melbourne I turned to him and said, "I'm so excited." As we sat in a café on Exhibition Street having a coffee I said, "I'm so excited." As we sat in a pub on Little Bourke Street having a pot I said, "I'm so excited." And as we walked down Collins Street towards the venue it occurred to me that technology is not, and never will be, king. There are probably dozens of Jonathan Franzen speeches on YouTube, but I'm not interested in looking any of them up. Some things you don't want to do vicariously. Some things you only want to do yourself. 

Afterwards, as we lined up with other patrons to have our copy of Freedom signed, we overheard someone say, "He's funnier than I thought he would be." My boyfiend and I looked at each other as if to say, Well der, intelligent people generally are. Pseudo-intelligent people, meanwhile, are generally dull as doornails.