Dawn drills and the second world — "Adjust. Adjust? Stay the same. No?…"
‘Adjust. Adjust? Stay the same. No? Is not stay the same? It is cold? It is wind? Cold and wind is the world. Outside, yes? On the tennis court the you the player: this is not where there is cold wind. I am saying. Different world inside. World built inside cold outside world of wind breaks the wind, shelters the player, you, if you stay the same, stay inside.’ […] ‘Not ever I think this adjusting. To what, this adjusting? This world inside is the same, always, if you stay there. This is what we are making, no? New type citizen. Not of cold and wind outside. Citizens of this sheltering second world we are working to show you every dawn, no? To make your introduction.’
Context
Schtitt's post-drills sermon, pacing before the shivering A-squad with his weatherman's pointer (the same prop as Tine's easel-pointer at p. 403). Against LaMont Chu's "adjust to conditions" he sets construction: not accommodation to the given world but a built world, with its own citizenship — E.T.A. manufacturing a "new type citizen" of a territory that exists only because its inhabitants keep making it. The polity language is what earns this its place: a self-made country introduced to twelve-year-olds every dawn.