det tråkiga och det hemliga

David Foster Wallace, amerikansk grymt hyllad författare, dog för ett tag sedan. Han lämnade efter sig en oavslutad roman, The Pale King, som trots allt har givits ut i ett skick som åtminstone gör att jag orkar läsa. Hittills är det en rätt så underbar bok. Den handlar om - arbete på skatteverket. Den handlar om arbete - och tristess. Wallace' stil är hyperironiskt slingrig. Här finns känsligt berättade historier om vardagens leda. Men här ryms också hel del skattetekniska redogörelser. Samt beskrivningar av hur man kan vrida på kontorsstela stjärmuskler när man sitter på flyget. I ett kapitel ser sig "författaren" tvungen att redogöra för omständigheterna, speciellt de juridiska, kring bokens sanningsvärde. Kapitlet landar i reflektioner kring varför ingen människa på klotet är speciellt informerad om de förändringar som skedde i beskattningsväsendet under åttiotalet. Ämnet är helt enkelt för tråkigt:

It is impossible to overstate the importance of this feature. Consider, from the Service's perspective, the advantages of the dull, the arcane, the mind-numbingly complex. The IRS was one of the very first government agencies to learn that such qualities help insulate them against public protest and political opposition, and that abstruse dullness is actualy a much more effective shield than is secrecy. For the great disadvantage of secrecy is that it's interesting. People are drawn to secrets, they can't help it. Keep in mind that the period we're talking was only a decade after Watergate. Hade the Service tried to hide or cover up its conflicts and convulsions, some enterprising journalists would have done an exposé that drew a lot of attention and interest and scandalous fuss. But this is not at all what happened. What happened was that much of the high-level policy debate played out for two years in full public view, e.g. in open hearings of the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Senate Treasury Procedures and Statutets Subcommittee, and the IRS's Deputy and Assistant Commissioners' Council. These hearings were collections of anaerobic men in drab suits who spoke in verbless bureaucratese - terms like 'strategic utilization template' and 'revenue vector' in place of 'plan' and 'tax' - and took days just to reach consensus on the order of items for discussion. Even in the financial press, there was hadly any coverage; can you guess why? If not, consider that fact that just about every last transcript, record, study, white paper, code amendment, revenue-ruilng, and procedural memo has been available for public perusal since date of issue. No FOIA filing even required. But not one journalist seems ever to have checked them out, and with good reason: This stuff is solid rock.

Det kan hända att jag är en smula yrkesskadad (haw, haw, haw) men den här romanen om själsdödande men krävande arbete känns angelägen.