Hal supine; Pemulis wants to interface (p. 910)
He scanned. ‘Baby Pictures of Famous Dictators? Fun with Teeth? Annular Fusion Is Our Fiend? I haven’t even heard of half your Dad’s shit that’s here.’ ‘It’s Friend, not Fiend. Either it’s mislabeled or the label’s peeling. And they’re supposed to be alphabetized. It ought to be right next to Flux in a Box.’
Context
The plan's one-liner case: Pemulis reads the shelf and gets Annular Fusion Is Our Fiend, and Hal corrects it to Friend — "Either it’s mislabeled or the label’s peeling." A one-letter slippage that flips the title's meaning (the fusion that funds and poisons the world, friend or fiend), left formally undecidable: mislabel or decay, and the son can't tell which without getting up. The filmography as physical object is degrading on the shelf even as Hal curates it from the floor. Pemulis's "I haven’t even heard of half your Dad’s shit that’s here" also quietly confirms the shelf holds works beyond the public record — and lands on top of his "And me using the poor guy’s lab," the one line tying JOI's optics facilities to the DMZ plot.