Hal–Stice from the bleachers (p. 675)
Steeply lit a Flanderfume that made deLint’s face spread with distaste. ‘You compare it is like gymnastics, figure skating, competitive to-swim.’ Poutrincourt made no comment on Steeply’s syntax. ‘Just so, then. Good.’
Context
The Hal–Stice exhibition, watched from the bleachers: Steeply-as-Helen is interviewing prorector Poutrincourt and the conversation has switched into Québecois — so the mangle we read ("competitive to-swim") is Steeply's bad French, rendered. Poutrincourt's pointed non-comment is the book's second native-speaker verdict on Steeply's French, the polite mirror of Marathe's outright correction at p. 529. Carlisle's reading, recorded not adopted: Wallace systematically encodes language competence in rendered syntax — when the talk goes French, Steeply's rendered speech turns smooth→rough and Poutrincourt's rough→smooth, the inversion of their English registers.