A Reality Apart

          The human brain is divided into two hemispheres, each responsible for specific attributes that control every individual.  When these hemispheres work in balance with one another, the result is a harmony of the mind and a sense of collective reality.  All individuals considerd sane will percieve a collective reality.  But imagine a scene in which three individuals are in a room.  What happens when one of the individuals believes four people are in the room.  Suddenly, collective reality is not the only reality.  For one, the harmony of the hemispheres has been disturbed.  Many things can be blamed for the harmonious disturbance medically refered to as schizophrenia.  From genetic inheritance and obsession to demonic possession, each has been held accountable for why a person may stray from the collective reality.  Sometimes, a person who experiences this reality apart from others is able to return.  Unfortunately, many others never find their way back.

         In the novel, East, West, by Salman Rushdie, a short story entitled The Harmony of the Sheres addresses the issue of what it means for an individual to lose contact with collective reality.  In this short work, Rushdie tells the story of an Indian- Englishman, Khan, who watches his friend and mentor, Eliot Crane, succumb to the tragic consequences of paranoid schizophrenia.  Khan and Eliot's wife, Lucy, stand wittness as Mr. Crane transforms from a talented writer with an obsession for the occult, to a madman with delusions of ghosts, demons amd martians.  Eventually, Mr. Crane takes his own life in an attempt to end his insanity.  Khan, being an individual dealing with his own "demons," must come to turms with the fact that the man he looked so intently to for guidance on the subjects of balance and harmony of the spheres was, in collective reality, the last person who should give such guidance.

        Early in this story, the narrator, Khan, says something very revealing.  As he describes his friend, he says, "He had met a demon once and ever since that day he and Lucy had been on the run"(126).  This line is important because it foreshadows the entire experience of those two characters. Rushdie offers many suggestions as to why Mr. Crane loses his grip on reality, but the description of it presenting itself as a demon is best, becuase it is both figurative and literal.  Mr. Crane himself explains his situation as a circumstance of "a simple biochemical imbalance" (134).  He is very aware that what is happening to him is schizophrenia, but he is still unable to pursue help due to his obsessions with occult writing.  Though it can't be deemed the primary contributer to his condition, Mr. Crane's academic inquiries into such topics become the source of the demonic manifestations he experiences. At another point in the story, Khan says, "In the throng besieging the sick man of Crowley End even my personal favourite, Raja Rammohun Roy, was just another voice in the cacodemonic crowd. BANG! And, at last, silence. Requiescat in Pace" (142).  These words are just another suggestion that, although not the source of his illness, Mr. Crane's obsession with the occult was possibly the proverbial straw that broke the camels back.

       It is hard to seek out the underlining message in this story.  Harmony of the sheres would seem to be the major theme, but the reality of the story is that Eliot Crane was never able to accomplish this and, in the end, kills himself.  Even Khan, experiencing his own imbalance of spheres, says at the end of the story, "So, here it came: the collapse of harmony, the demolition of the spheres of my heart" (146).  In the end, there is no harmony to be found in anyone.  Because of this situation, I don't believe this story offers much in terms of a method for obtaining such balance and harmony.  Khan says the spheres of his heart are now destroyed.  I guess the message could be, at least the spheres of his mind are in harmony.