Mario, the Bolex, and Avril on sadness (p. 761)
‘Felicity will be just fine. So you’re just strolling. Peripatetic footage.’ She refuses to adjust syntax, to speak in any way down to him, it’d be beneath him, though he seems not to mind when most people do it, speak down.
Context
Same office visit, a beat later. "Peripatetic footage" to Mario, who may or may not know the word — and the narration stops to make the principle explicit: Avril's refusal to simplify her syntax for her damaged son is an act of respect, the one place in the book where her unbending language reads as pure love. The grammarian's register as ethics rather than pedantry.