Over Saturday, Mar. 28 and Sunday Mar. 29, Carleton students returned to campus for the start of Spring term, the last trimester of the 2025-26 academic year (praise the heavens). Students came to campus by car, plane, train, and automobile, but few journeys were as rewarding as Boo Klover’s ’28 plane trip back to campus from Seattle.
Instead of turning to predownloaded entertainment or napping, Klover spent their flight from Seattle to Minneapolis immersed in their secondhand copy of David Foster Wallace’s 1,079- page novel “Infinite Jest.” That’s right – Klover’s copy, which sports a blue cloudy cover with darker blue and black writing on it, unquestionably mogs the common, brat-green-title-sporting version that litters the shelves of bad people everywhere.
“Yeah, I did have a TV in front of me, and I even had the window seat,” said Klover. “I just love this book so much and I wanted to read it on my way back to campus. I really want to see the progression of the plot, but I also did have other motivations.”
Indeed, Klover, a prospective English major, felt reading “Infinite Jest” wouldn’t just expand their intellectual horizons.
“I know it sounds bad, but reading on airplanes just makes me feel so superior and fancy,” said Klover. “I just step off the plane with this tremendous sense of excellence and distinction every time.”
“Yep, when I sat down next to them and the book the size of their head, I was a bit flummoxed,” said Cam Puter, a fellow traveler and Klover’s seat mate on this particular journey. “I think they were definitely looking over at me as I had my laptop open to finally catch some of that Heated Rivalry show my kids have been on about. Despite the content of the show that would send a nun to the ER, I can’t believe Boo didn’t sneak a glance over. From my recent trend analysis, it seems like Heated Rivalry has been doing very well with David Foster Wallace’s online fanbase.
But they were just sitting with perfect posture and reading the whole time.”
Reading on flights is a tradition for some people, but it is more than that for Klover.
“Boo is one of my dearest friends,” said Rollen Withit ‘27. “However, they do have some interesting tendencies. They sit in the library and drink tea from a fancy old teacup, they wear a monocle, and they used to speak in a Transatlantic accent freshman year. I think this commitment to fanciness comes from reading on airplanes. It lets them feel superior, and it’s a ritual allowing them to maintain that feeling. Maybe one day when they’re my age they’ll relax a bit.”
“I will admit, when I step into the dingy airport air, the thing that keeps me going is how distinguished I felt with my book,” said Klover.
As air travel has become increasingly accessible since its advent, travelers are generally free to act how they wish.
“Honestly, I didn’t really care too much,” said Puter. “I was stunned by the hockey show, if you can call it that. Boo seemed like they were having a fun time, and that’s really all it is. If they want to lord it over me, I don’t really mind.”
“I just take a nap on flights,” said Withit. “Even on our OCS flight to London, Boo read the whole time, I was honestly just impressed. But you can see that they are more, for lack of a better word, pretentious after coming back from a flight.”
“Reading on flights gives me life and is a boon to my self esteem,” said Klover. “It makes me happy, and I just love it.”
