Hal goes horizontal in Viewing Room 5 — "Modern German is better equipped for…"
Modern German is better equipped for combining gerundives and prepositions than is its mongrel cousin. The original sense of addiction involved being bound over, dedicated, either legally or spiritually. To devote one’s life, plunge in. I had researched this.
Context
Two sentences after the give-your-life-away passage (see the spine), the reflex reasserts itself: a comparative-grammar aside about German gerundives, then the etymology of addiction (bound over, dedicated) — "I had researched this." The philology is doing double duty: it's the anesthetic habit on display and, for once, the etymology is the diagnosis, since being bound over is exactly what's happening to him.