I Want to Burn This Place Down: Essays

by Maris Kreizman

In fact, the first draft of our report now brings to mind that old David Foster Wallace chestnut from his essay in the Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus (2004), where he calls out people who use the word “utilize” when the word “use” is simple and direct and works just as well. Trip is a utilizer, delighting in making language more complicated than necessary in order to make his thoughts sound more complex. And yet the same guy who couldn’t take proper notes radiates authority when making our presentation. So while I assume the pose of a dutiful executive assistant, Trip is all charisma, with no hint of stage fright. He almost makes me want to invest in Kohl’s myself. Trip’s performance requires an entirely different skill set from the ones I’d been trying to develop. A good work ethic is nothing compared to the inner confidence of a man who has never been taught to doubt himself and has no reason to consider that he might ever be wrong. (It is not until the year 2023 that I will hear the term “nepo baby” and it will all make sense.)