John Martels, time-projected from 1985 to 25,000 A.D., shares the living brain of Qvant, a former Supreme Autarch, preserved in a case in a museum surrounded by perpetual jungle.
"Always, except when the rare petitioner came into the museum, they stared at that same damn wall..." (3, p. 16)
They do not sleep. Dreaming has ceased to be necessary. A pump supplies oxygen and blood sugar, carries away lactic acid and prevents fatigue. Qvant is apparently immune to boredom but not Martels. Months become years.
Since I practice zazen, in which we sit with eyes open facing a wall, I should be able to make some comparison with Zen. There are at least two differences:
we do not stare at the wall but notice thoughts arising and passing;
we do not sit long enough to become (very) bored.
Blish mentions Zen:
"[Qvant] seemed to be almost permanently in a kind of Zen state, conscious of mastery and at the same time contemptuous of it." (3, p. 20)
But Martels is not in this state. Blish has got his viewpoint character into a fix. How will he get him out of it?
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