Hal isolating during the Blood Sister viewing: THC-Withdrawal, detachment, transience

timeline_event

texture · 11 Nov YDAU, evening

When: 11 Nov YDAU evening (same viewing session, girls/kids drift in)
What: Boone, Unwin, Longley, Bash and the younger kids drift uninvited into V.R. 6 as Hal watches JOI's Blood Sister: One Tough Nun. Hal announces "I'm isolating. I came in here to be by myself," spits repulsively to signal it, and trades barbs with Boone (who needles his "sullen and pouty" near-loss to Stice). He is "experiencing some of the radical loss of concentration that attends THC-Withdrawal," drifting mentally to Low-Temperature Civics even as he watches. He observes his own social detachment: unlike the girls who slip off shoes and make themselves at home, he has "an air of moment's-notice readiness to leave" and senses others feel "he's somehow there only in a very technical sense." Also elaborates his critical/filial ambivalence toward Himself's metacinematic-parody films (can't summon what Himself felt while editing).