Though there have been several death scenes laced with humor, I found Clipperton's suicide to be one of the novel's least humorous thus far. I remember there was a section before page 435 talking about the human incapability of dealing with achieving an ideal, I think it may have involved Schtitt's philosophies, but does anyone think they might know what I'm talking about?

I saw/ the novel made some parallels between Clipperton and NaCN-Quik kid (blue-faced suicide technique 437), there were both subject to "unprepared-goal-attaintment-trauma" (437). Clipperton's No.1 ranking is the result of inprobable bureaucratic shuffling, but it's unclear how NaCN-Quik kid suffered from this, any ideas?

Why is it so horrific to finally achieve something someone works incredibly hard for? Is that self-inflicted pressure has nowhere else to go when the goal is captured? Or that any goal of our imagination cannot possibly be fulfilling if eventually reached? For example, LaMont's fixation with fame, not likely an unusual aspiration among the tennis players, cannot be life-fulfilling in the end, but are there other life goals that do manage to sustain life, like trying to beat an addiction. Maybe the goals in question must be an ongoing perpetual process as rehab is made out to be. And for tennis to be fulfilling, it must be played for the game rather than for its trappings, "The true opponent, the enfolding boundary, is the player himself" (84).