Other Worlds

There is a celebrated sage early in Book One whose entire doctrine of virtue, examined closely, comes down to earning a good night's sleep. Martin takes that speech and the two that follow, the inventors of heavens and the despisers of the body, and reads them as a single argument: an other world is what a suffering body builds when it wants out, and even getting through the day can be a heaven in miniature. Then the argument stops being historical. Asked where the contempt for the body comes from, Martin answers from his own childhood, and he ends on a concession that keeps the whole hour honest.