endnote n.307: the forked courtship memory
Joelle van Dyne and Orin Incandenza each remember themselves as the original approachee. It’s unclear which if either’s memory is accurate, though it’s noteworthy that this is one of only two total times Orin has perceived himself as the approachee, the other being the ‘Swiss hand-model’ on whose nude flank he’s been furiously tracing infinity signs all during the Moment Subject’s absence.
Context
Hung off scene 150's courtship history: a clean, apparatus-certified forked memory. Two people, one courtship, two irreconcilable records, and the narrator declines to adjudicate — the same fork the book builds at novel-length between Hal's and Orin's versions of the mold story. The 'Swiss hand-model' aside makes it sinister in retrospect: Orin's only other memory of being approached is the A.F.R.'s honeypot.