Jacqueline Houton is an editor and writer based in Cambridge. A former editor of The Improper Bostonian and managing editor of The Phoenix and STUFF Magazine, she’s now a free-range word nerd.
Slip the straps of the eight-pound backpack over your shoulders, buckle it around your waist, and try not to tense up as an attendant tightens your virtual-reality headset. In a…