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Greetings to all members of this discussion
group!
During the past several weeks, in various
correspondences and discussions, the term tranquility and its stated
relationship to Quality, has appeared on numerous occasions. As I am having a
difficult time finding any Quality in tranquility - or - tranquility in Quality,
I wish to propose this mutually inclusive pair of theses for
discussion:
Given:
Tranquility is a state "free from or unaffected by disturbing emotions,
unagitated, serene."
and
(to) Tranquilize is "to make or become tranquil."
and (a) Tranquilizer is "a person or
thing that tranquilizes"
and The narrator in ZMM experienced
a "breakdown" (read "breakthrough") prior to the start of ZMM.
and The narrator, as we learn,
was institutionalized to make him tranquil (unaffected by the
disturbing emotions that were responsible for his
"breakdown").
and
In LILA the essential sequel to ZMM, Phaedrus, the narrator from
ZMM, now accepting the persona that haunted him through much of ZMM, is anything
but tranquil through much of that subsequent book.
Proposed:
Through most of ZMM, the narrator, having been
conditioned to believe that tranquility is to be prized, an obvious result of
his psychiatric treatments, tries to "square" this and other ideas with
the understanding of Quality that he, as Phaedrus, discovered
earlier, which led ultimately to his "breakdown"/"breakthrough"
(first Satori), a memory that brings him pain, which he continuously tries to
avoid but by which he is haunted through most of the book. The idea of
tranquility like many of the ideas that he proposes in his own personal
dialectics, may or may not ultimately fit with his understanding of Quality. He
is going through the process of learning and unlearning again. The
theses which he proposes throughout the course of the book are "stepping
stones," some which remain true, some which become false (but all of which are
necessary in pursuit of the Truth) which the narrator, now Phaedrus again,
realizes at the end of the book when he removes his helmet and he and Chris see
that there is so much more of Quality (and yes, of Beauty) than he was initially
willing to see or allow others to see in him.
and
This, his second Satori, is the logical prelude to
LILA, in which he, experiencing very little tranquility, discovers that quality
is naturally in everything but eludes us by our need to categorize and recognize
hierarchy in an otherwise naturally value-filled universe. By falling into this
hierarchical trap, himself, he demonstrates to the reader the error of
it.
Note:
Granted, these theses require some reading between
the lines, but my experience has been that with all great literature, as in
Zen philosophy, it is the space between the lines that defines the
words.
Thracian Bard
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