Endnote 90 (from page 272)

6 November Y.D.A.U. — the Port Washington meet · first-time reader guide · all scenes

You were sent here from page 272 — when you're done, head back to pages 270–281.

When you've finished these pages: three things worth a second look, at the bottom.

You've just been sent to endnote 90 from page 272 — from the living-room scene where Geoffrey Day is working on Don Gately's patience. The note runs four pages (pp. 1000–03) and is a different kind of endnote: an in-world document, headed as a "SELECTED SNIPPET FROM THE INDIVIDUAL-RESIDENT-INFORMAL-INTERFACE HOURS OF D. W. GATELY, LIVE-IN STAFF" and dated the Wednesday night after the scene you're in. Two voices only, no narration: Day bringing his full intellectual case against AA, Gately answering with what he has. Day's vocabulary is the difficulty, and also the subject.

Terms, in order of appearance

ephebe (p. 1001) — real word: a youth in training, an initiate; Day's term for the AA newcomer.
the tremens (p. 1001) — delirium tremens: severe alcohol-withdrawal shakes and hallucinations.
Box surveillance (p. 1001) — real tradecraft: a four-man tail, ahead, behind, and parallel; Day claims he was once its object.
featherless biped (p. 1002) — Plato's definition of man, from the old philosophy joke; Day means "absolutely everyone."
Analysis-Paralysis (p. 1002) — AA slogan: thinking a thing to death instead of doing it.
"Oh do not ask what is it" (p. 1002) — Day bending T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" into a jab: "Simply open wide for the spoon."
Petition for Redress / 1791 (p. 1002) — the U.S. Bill of Rights, Amendments I and IX; Day's Madisonian analogy.

After you read: three things

1. The note opens "E.g.:" — it's an exhibit. The superscript sits on p. 272 right after the old-timer's rule that with educated newcomers "the Disease makes its command headquarters in the head." This transcript is that rule demonstrated at full length: Day's head, in session, on the offensive — and coming back, voluntarily, to the staffer he was needling on the couch.

2. Score the debate honestly: Gately loses nearly every exchange. Day's centerpiece is genuinely airtight as stated — if denying you have a Substance problem is itself Denial, "why doesn't every featherless biped on earth qualify for AA?" (p. 1002) — and Gately's whole arsenal is one slogan (Analysis-Paralysis), "just hang in there," and plain testimony; Day even parrots the AA line back at him ("One Day at a One Day at a One Day"). The transcript never referees. So watch what it shows instead: "Your basic decency is why you're whom I bring my thoughts to, Don" (p. 1001), and Day's own concession that "everyone labels as Denial or ingratitude what's actually horror" (p. 1002).

3. The ending is three lines long, and it isn't an argument. Day's final fork comes only after Gately admits he's about to get lapped — and the note closes on the only ground Gately claims: "So scream. They can't kick you out." / "How comforting." / "This is a thing I do know. They can't kick you out" (p. 1003). Notice that the exchange Day can't counter is the one that wasn't reasoning at all.

Written only from this endnote and pages before its callout on p. 272. Safe to read before you start.