"i've got static in my head/the reflected sound of everything"

[0100111]

"There was a subsection about the legendary Ben D. Goodall, a man who collected the autographs of everyone who ever came into contact with Elvis, from the midwife to the mortician (see Diagram [a]). None of these things was worth a penny. Goodall's is a cautionary tale Autograph Men tell each other. It is meant to horrify any atheist dealer who buys to sell and aims to make a living, for Goodall was a religious man, religious about fame. He believed in the aura it creates, in the tinny, cheap, reflected light it shines out. Once Goodall and his life's work had horrified Alex. Now he found himself intensely moved by it."

The Autograph Man
by Zadie Smith