Marathe and Kate at Ryle's (ii)
‘There was the trouble of the digestive tracking. There were seizures also. There were progressive decays of circulation and vessel, which calls itself restenosis. There were the more than standard accepted amounts of eyes and cavities in many different stages of development upon different parts of the body. There were the fugue states and rages and frequency of coma. She had wandered away from a public institution of Swiss charitable care. Worst for choosing to love was the cerebro-and-spinal fluids which dribbled at all times from her distending oral cavity.’
Context
Gertraude's full clinical catalogue, delivered in the litany rhythm of "There was... There were...": restenosis, supernumerary eyes budding on the body, the perpetual leak of cerebro-spinal fluid. The plan's "skull-less, multi-eyed, leaking" in DFW's own words — and "Worst for choosing to love" keeps the catalogue welded to the choice-thesis: this is an inventory of what was chosen, not of what repelled.