response/assignment IV

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1809858_1809957_1811552,00.html

There's a reason no one ever reads the instruction manual. Ho. Hum. That's why I've always been slightly on the outside. I'm the instruction manual type, if there is such a thing. I read the deliciously thin yet complex pamphlets first word to last, and at times, twice, and, at other times, without even having the device about which I am reading. It isn't the curiosity to see how things work, no, not the vein quest for endless knowledge of all wired objects, no. It's just that when someone has something that needs fixing, I want to know a page number. It's a compulsion of sorts like the man washing his hands over and again. I need that page number. I need that marked in memory in tattoo ink. It keeps me up at night. The same way that you need to finish the crossword or get every smudge off your wine glass, I need to read sections A-1 through A-5 and then read them again.

As far as the reason that these manuals so often go unread, I tell you this: It is because of willful ignorance, skillfully and excitedly executed.

The box is torn. The device is plugged in. Check the plug. That's as far as you get.