Hal v. Stice, continued: the Show chews statues, and the inculcation is armor
The point here for the best kids is to inculcate their sense that it’s never about being seen. [...] they’ll never be slaves to the statue, they’ll never blow their brains out after winning an event when they win, or dive out a third-story window when they start to stop getting poked at or profiled, when their blossom starts to fade.
Context
deLint states the institution's protective doctrine and its bodily stakes in one breath. The point is to "inculcate their sense that it's never about being seen," because a body enslaved to the statue ("they'll never be slaves to the statue") is a body that will "blow their brains out after winning an event" or "dive out a third-story window when they start to stop getting poked at." The Show is "the machine they're all dying to throw themselves into," and it chews players up; the only armor E.T.A. can forge is a place inside "that can't be chewed." The pedagogy is life-support against the career it's preparing them for.