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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