IJ study archive

dawn drills: walk around the boy who collapsed

quote

Sixteen-year-old Petropolis Kahn, a.k.a. ‘W.M.’ for ‘Woolly Mammoth’ because he’s so hairy, gets a 60 and then a 59 and then pitches forward onto the hard surface and lies very still. Tony Nwangi tells people to walk around him.

Context

The regimen's indifference to the body that breaks, in two sentences: Kahn runs his Stars, "pitches forward onto the hard surface and lies very still," and the prorector's response is "Tony Nwangi tells people to walk around him." A conditioned body that fails is not attended to; it's an obstacle to route around while the drill continues. The machine doesn't stop for a downed part — it just flows past.

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