Hal's communication collapse at the U. of Arizona admissions interview

pivotal · YG (2010), late Nov — LAST in the story

• When: late Nov YG (2010) — chronologically the LAST events of the novel, though it opens the book
• What: Hal, seated before three Deans + Composition Director with C.T. and deLint, is lucid and articulate internally but his external speech/affect is perceived as subanimalistic ("a drowning goat," "only marginally mammalian"). When he finally speaks on his own behalf ("I am not just a jock… The grades prior to that are de moi. I cannot make myself understood, now"), the room reacts with horror; he is physically restrained by the Comp Director, dragged to a men's room, and ambulanced to an ER with a psychiatric M.D. aboard. The total inner/outer communication split is the novel's terminal state of Hal.