Dave Wallace Doesn't Drink, Explained：out of respect

What's really going on

The tape recorder makes everything a negotiation. Before they begin, Wallace lays down a rule: "I need to know that anything that I say five minutes later not to put in, that you're not gonna put it in." It sounds like an eccentricity, but it is really about the terms of being seen. He has already told Lipsky why he went unlisted — not because he dislikes people, but because "I really hate to hurt people's feelings," and the people who tracked down his parents ended up frightening him. At lunch the matter gets smaller and sharper. Lipsky orders a Diet Rite and notes, "You don't drink." Wallace neither denies it nor explains; he simply says "No, I do not drink," then chooses the same drink "out of respect." It is a courtesy, but also a boundary: he won't perform the easy intimacy of sharing a round, and he won't let his sobriety become the subject. Two writers, both careful, both watching each other.

Theme

このチャプターで学べること

• Asking for an off-the-record rule is really a plea for trust.
• Wallace unlists his number because strangers keep finding him.
• A single soda can be a quiet act of courtesy.
• The profile idea turns the journalist into the subject.

発音のポイント

• been unlisted — The n in been slides into unlisted, linking the two words.
• crack of dawn — Crack of links into one sound, with stress landing on dawn.
• You hungry — The are is dropped, so it lands as one word, you-hungry.