Right from the start you´d imagined the series as an octet or octocycle, though best of British luck explaining to anyone why. (…)
…that´s designed to get you to like him and approve of him (i.e., of the “meta”-type writer) and feel flattered that he apparently thinks you´re enough of a grownup to handle being reminded that what you´re in the middle of is artificial (like you didn´t know that already, like you needed to be reminded of it over and over again as if you were a myopic child who couldn´t see what was right in front of you),…

(From: David Foster Wallace, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men)