Hal's blankness toward his own family; the slack, soundless mouth

pivotal · 10 Nov YDAU

• When: 10 Nov YDAU
• What: Despite living and training under his relatives, "Hal devotes an unusually small part of his brain and time ever thinking about people in his family qua family-members"; asked casually about Avril or Orin, "his mind will go utterly blank and his mouth slack and flabby, working soundlessly, as if the names were words on the tip of his tongue." The single family exception is Mario, "about whom Hal will talk your ear off." This blankness is also why he avoids Dr. Rusk (the "Coatlicue Complex"). A defining affect/derealization beat — the slack soundless mouth prefigures Hal's terminal communication collapse.