Is there any particular reason Venus is so out of it in the intro of the instructions level?
The other areas of the game leading up to that point all have real world analogues, ones that she is able to think about and riff on. Things like a Water Treatment Plant or a Public School are commonly grasped concepts, and because of that she has a lot of thoughts on them and their relation to society. Even Hard Structures, for how bizarre it is, hearkens to the idea of endless construction, and how people are ultimately displaced in the pursuit of more and more of said development.
However, the DNA Facility is where things first become completely otherworldly. It is not a place that exists in any way that we know of. She is caught off guard and deeply disturbed by the concepts being shown to her, and her confidence in her understanding of the world is wavered. The conspiracy theory spirals out of control, and the conspiracy moves to suit it. The very flesh we reside in becomes oppressive.
This continues on into Symbols, where even concepts and thought itself are laid bare, and presented as another form of imposed structure. There, she has nothing to say at all. Moving closer and closer to the death of the ego before eventual apotheosis.
