Chapter 25
Apology to the Tortured Reader, Singular as that May Be, for Being Forced to Clamber His Way along the Trail of Mount Syntax Denuded and Fettered
I do understand, as this is life with ever more intricate and enervating interaction in one’s job to survive, and in so doing banging against others in the city like billiard balls, to which each then absconds in his or her hole before being put back onto the table again for the next day’s game. Whether or not ultimately we are all the entertainment of a larger, albeit not higher being, if there is one (a billiards player, perhaps), a being who should not be referred to as God as limited human conceptualization could never fathom such a monstrous concoction, all of us, like Him, to escape the pressure of the day, seek to be actively entertained; and with the great man (Aristotle, that is, and not God) agreeing that “relaxation and amusement are thought to be a necessary element in life,”118 who am I to contravene his notions or obstruct your own wish that I tap dance before you, or at least refrain from any superfluous writing that might exacerbate the headache you already have. My syntax has unnerved you (you, the transitional link to the androids, that is, and not the androids themselves who I seek ultimately), has it not? If it is any consolation, it has unnerved me too. But as you surely know, deep tortured souls extruded from meat grinders rarely come out as anything but Baroque patterns. When such beings, even this nondescript writer of a new philosophical genre, seek form, how could it be otherwise? Even though this disaffected writer will not cease his particular wont, he is not indifferent or cavalier to your needs. Thus, here in this chapter he offers to you
space
and quiescence.
And as he, Aristotle says, “Both excess and great deficiencies are boastful. But those who use understatement with moderation and understate about matters that do not very much force themselves on our notice seem attractive.”119
And thus, I proffer the following:
But peace of mind is now at an end, and it is now time to return to the project at hand with me writing and you reading, together attempting to capture it all, and in such ambition for par excellence, arête, we will fall on our faces and indubitably suffer.
BOOK III
Ruminations on the Ontology of Morality