'You're so naïve, Inc'
‘You’re so naïve, Inc. You’re so sharp in one way and such a little bald little fat-legged baby in the woods in others.’
Context
Pemulis diagnosing Hal's earnest resolve — to simply "quit everything," "make a decision. Forever" — as naïveté: "don't be so fucking naïve." Single-entendre sincerity (I'll just decide, and mean it) read as childishness by the worldlier friend, the same "basically naïve" dismissal Lenz aims at the cult-survivors (109), here between friends who love each other. The register beat inside the DMZ-negotiation: earnestness taken for a baby-in-the-woods innocence about how things really work. (The DMZ/addiction substance is addiction-recovery's / other ledgers'; only the naïveté register is taken.)