the Subject

Orin Incandenza's term for the women he serially seduces — each one "the Subject," the language of both experiment and conquest: "Because the Subject’s pleasure in him has become his food" (p. 596). The first Subject in the book is already gone by morning, leaving only a note (pp. 42-43); the first one shown in his bed is a flashback, "The Subject after Bain's sister" (pp. 47-48); the last is the "Swiss hand-model" (p. 971) who is bait in the A.F.R.'s trap closing around him (pp. 596-601, with the character table's Luria Perec linkage).