The Concavity Cabinet and the Clipperton legend — "He’d just sort of seepily risen…"
He’d just sort of seepily risen, some sort of human radon, from someplace low and unknown, whence he lent the cliché ‘Win or Die in the Attempt’ grotesquely literal new levels of sense. […] from his very first appearance on the East Coast jr. tour made clear his intention to blow his own brains out publicly, right there on court, if he should lose, ever, even once.
Context
Eric Clipperton's entrance into E.T.A. lore: the unseeded sixteen-year-old with the Glock 17 who rose "some sort of human radon, from someplace low and unknown" — despair given a point of origin — carrying a standing public vow of suicide-on-loss. The win-or-die cliché made literal is the pinnacle-despair pathology Poutrincourt later generalizes about the Show.