The Harmony of the Tiny Dancers

            Life is often much like a cooperative dance. There are gives and takes. Times to move forward times to step back.  But in order to dance harmoniously, you must move with your partner, take turns, know who is leading, and let them lead. When the dance is done incorrectly, toes get stepped on, balance is lost, the partners are out of sync, and it often ends up in an ugly clumsy wreck.  As shown to us by Solomon Rushdie in his short story, The Harmony of the Spheres, the human mind works much the same way. But what happens when the mind stops dancing in sync? What happens when both partners want to lead?  In the short story Rushdie uses the character Eliot Crane, who suffers from schizophrenia, to show his readers what he believes causes one to lose their mind.

            In the novel the main character Eliot Crane suffers from schizophrenia. He has essentially gone crazy. Through this character Rushdie explores the reasons why, a person loses their mind.  The main reason Rushdie gives to us through the title, The Harmony of the Spheres. Through this title Rushdie conveys to the reader the importance of the harmony between the two halves of the brain, the spheres.  Throughout the novel the disharmony of Eliot’s spheres is constantly referenced. “Harmony? You’ve never heard such a din as the ruckus in Eliot’s head (142).” A close friend comments on Eliot’s unsynchronized spheres, and later says, “What human mind could of defended itself against such a babel…(142)?” Through his hallucinations and crazy antics, Rushdie shows the reader that Eliot’s spheres are not in sync. Both halves are trying to lead, all that his head contains is trying to explode and take over his mind all at once. His genius has become his demise.  “Why do we lose our minds (134)?” Rushdie asks via the narrator Sahid, and then explains through Eliot “A simple biochemical imbalance (134),” although the reader can tell that Rushdie does not completely agree it is made very clear to the reader that we lose our minds due to a biochemical disharmony between the spheres of our minds. But the title The Harmony of the Spheres, is also refers to the harmony of our lives, our relationships and the universe.

            In the story Eliot Crane writes a two volume book about, the study of over and covert occultist groups.  He calls the book The Harmony of the Spheres.  Occultist groups study the “hidden truth, and are often strongly religiously associated. To call this book The Harmony of he Spheres, is to say that these often opposing occultist groups, balance each other in their works, and work in a kind of harmony. Although they often contradict each other, they also work together to find the ultimate truth. Much like the friendship between Sahid and Eliot Crane.  In the story Sahid questions “Who knows what makes people friends? Something in the way they move (136).”  Sahid goes on to explain that they were polar opposites. Yet they still were very good friends. Sahid and Eliot were good friends because of the “way they moved.” They were opposites yet they balanced each other and which brought a harmony to their lives, and relationship. They worked together to find the ultimate truth.

            The ultimate truth found by Sahid, Eliot and Solomon Rushdie, was the truth that everything must work together harmoniously, or it will fall apart. The universe, relationships, and most importantly the mind. If the brain is suffering a biochemical imbalance the brain is suffering from a lack of harmony. Both sides are trying to lead. Both sides believe they are the ultimate truth.  They refuse to give and take. To have one move forward and the other step back. We lose our minds because we lose our balance. Like the yin and the yang our brains must work together to be separate but one. Two opposites that make up one unified whole.