Hard-boiled isn't just for eggs?

Susan Orlean's "The American Male at Age Ten" was both incredibly endearing and thought-provoking; I had a hard time peeling myself away from the screen through all nine pages. Yet, it was this paragraph on the second page that really stuck out to me:

 "He has had other losses in his lifle. He is o1d enough to know people who have died and to know things about the world that are worrisome. When he dreams, he dreams about moving ûo Wyoming which he has visited with his åmrly. His plan is to buy land there and have sorne sort of ranch that woull defniteþ include horses. Soretimes when he talks about this, it sormds as ordinary and hard-boiled as a real estate appraisal other times it can sound ñnøstical and wifly and achingþ naive, informed by the last inklings of childhood - the rnsìngs of a bahry real estate appraiser assaying a wonderfif and magical landscape tlnt erodes ûom memory a little bit every day. The collision in his mind of what he understands, what he hears, what he tgures orf, what popular culture pours into him, what he knows, what he pretends to know, and what he imagines, makes an interesting mess. The mess often has the form ofwhat he will probabþ think lfte when he is a grown mar¡ but the content of what he is as a little boy."

Well, clearly some things have gotten a little confused in the copy-and-paste process, but aside from that, this paragraph is truly beautiful. Every line up to this point has managed to describe Colin in such an elaborate way while still maintaining a general sort of diction that is so straightforward and child-like that it is almost as if you are speaking to one of Colin's classmates who observes all of his doings. This portion is no exception, but just the second line, "He is old enough to know people who have died..." sparks a contrast against that feeling of naivete. It's such a simple way to observe Colin's age in both matters of maturity and chronology, and it introduces the idea that the audience is going to be learning more about Colin than superficial things like his love for Nintendo and the Eurhythmics. Orleans proceeds to talk about his plans to move to Wyoming and have a ranch, which is a seemingly un-extravagant idea, especially for a ten-year-old boy. Orlean realizes this, and uses a description I've never seen in literature, and one that I now adore. For when he talks about this grand idea to move to Wyoming, it sounds "as ordinary and hard-boiled as a real estate appraisal...". Even without encountering this figure of speech before, it's easy to know exactly what kind of image of blandness Orlean is trying to portray. Granted, she contrasts it immediately after by insisting that Colin can also make this plan of his sound "fantastical and achingly naive"; which are also fantastic ways of describing Colin's ways of thinking; but such a strange yet accurate image just stuck with me as I kept reading. Olrean then proceeds to delve into Colin's thoughts further by creating that long list of a sentence, listing "what he understands, hears, etc." This sentence itself excellently builds up both a categorization of Colin's mind and just what she describes it as, an "interesting mess". Here Orlean has created another phrase that I absolutely adore, because anyone that has had a prolonged conversation with a ten-year-old; male or female; can understand immediately what she's talking about. All of the things that are mentioned later to be running through Colin's head fit this description perfectly; his psyche can clearly be understood as an interesting mess, if it can be understood at all. It truly is a mess that "has the form of what he would look like as a man, but the content of what he is as a little boy".
In short, I'd want to give this paragraph a hug if I could. It's a true introduction to the type of person Colin is, the kind of writing the audience will see in Orlean's work, and a slight hint at how adult and child-like ideas constantly coincide in Colin's every day life.