On a trip to coastal Alaska some years back, I saw a small launch packed shoulder-to-shoulder with cheerless, unprosperous looking people, motoring along the sh

On a trip to coastal Alaska some years back, I saw a small launch packed shoulder-to-shoulder with cheerless, unprosperous looking people, motoring along the shoreline -- but away from the harbor. A local explained that these were cruise ship workers out for a sightseeing tour, a perk of their jobs. The boat would however never land on shore, because the workers had no visas. And might perhaps try to escape. "Supposedly Fun" brought that moment back for me in a rush. Wallace could not feel at ease being "pampered" by workers themselves forced to maintain a facade of permanent delight. Such a feeling could only make alien to him most of his fellow passengers. Unlike them, he had to see the workers as complete human beings coequal with himself every way, except for what opportunity the world had denied them. With such empathy, he joins Dickens, Melville, Orwell -- and in other ways as well, Hunter S. Thompson. So yes, DFW chooses sides, and his contempt for callous, oblivious passengers shows. But the real vitriol he reserves for interviewees in the management class, none of whom will give a straight answer to his plain questions about the crew's welfare. A certain whip-wielder in the officer's quarters -- "I wish him ill". And best of all, the Press Liaison at corporate who tells him "The people on board -- the staff -- are really part of one big family..." To which DFW responds: "...the preterite staff lived in mortal terror..." (footnote 13)