the DMZ afternoon: Schacht, egoless in Alphabetville
one of very few genuinely stocky players at E.T.A. and one of the even fewer ranked junior players around without an apparent ego, wholly noninsecure since he blew out his knee on a contre-pied in the pre-Thanksgiving exhibition three years back, which is odd, now still in and at it for just the fun—and more or less doomed, therefore, to a purgatorial existence in 128-256 Alphabetville
Context
The anthology's quiet counter-model, and its cost: Schacht is "without an apparent ego, wholly noninsecure since he blew out his knee on a contre-pied," now "still in and at it for just the fun" — the injury that ended his real ascent also freed him from the ranking-dread that grips everyone else. But freedom from the machine is not exemption from it: the same knee-blowout dooms him "to a purgatorial existence in 128-256 Alphabetville," the low-ranked limbo where the un-ambitious are filed. The one player who has escaped the rankings as identity is punished by the rankings as fate — playing on for love, permanently numbered among the also-rans.