The Unknown: The Blue Line.
  S: We’re on Printers Row. This is actually historically one of the more important districts in American publishing. Printers Row was a center of book binding from back, oh I think around the Turn of the Century or even fifty years before. I think the MacArthur Foundation is headquartered around here somewhere, and we’re, ah, going to go up to the MacArthur Foundation offices and ask them for some grants.

D: Is it South, or North?

A: I guess it’s North.

S: I guess the MacArthur Foundation isn’t actually housed on Printers Row. It was worth a stop, anyhow.

W: I can feel a sense of literature in the air. An exciting American literature.

S: We’re walking past the Printers Row Restaurant which is where many printers had their supper for hundreds of years.

D: So where do we have to go then?

S: We’re walking up about three, four blocks.

W: Do you feel the magic?

S: Yes I do. We just walked by Starbucks. Starbucks is actually in the hypertext novel.

W: That’s a famous Chicago coffee shop, isn’t it?

S: Yeah. It’s kind of a Chicago thing, Starbucks. Apparently they have some kind of a coffee farm out there in Seattle. And then they import that directly—they roast it in Seattle and import that directly into Chicago.

S: Here’s the Hyatt on Printers Row. That’s where we’re going to be staying when we read at the Printers Row Book Fair next year.

W: When we’re passing through on our tour we’re going to be staying at the Hyatt here on Printers Row.

S: Yeah.

W: And Chicago’s an exciting town. It’s the city of Big Shoulders. It’s got a real flair to it, a real style. Everywhere I look there’s green awnings and black and white checkered floors and brass rails…

A: Shot in front of Harold Washington?

S: Yeah we should maybe do a shot in front of the library, sure. I saw Don DeLillo read here. I asked him a question about James Joyce. He was suspicious of me.

W: Everything smells like… beer and. . . if you could see the majestic taxicabs hurtling past the majestic banks of glassy buildings… you’d know what I smell.

S: Do we gotta get out of the shadow?

A: It’d probably be better if you were in the shadow. That way you’re not all squinting, and losing your minds.


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