IJ study archive

the deceptive post-seizure well-being — "The dignity of a man risen…"

quote

The dignity of a man risen by will from the ashes of Withdrawal and now on the upswing

Context

The Withdrawal's cruelest trick, the false dawn after the seizure: Poor Tony wakes lizardless (the DT-hallucinations gone) and continent and right as rain, and mistakes the treacherous post-seizure euphoria for recovery — a man "risen by will from the ashes of Withdrawal" who is in fact only in the eye of it. The paramedic warns him the feeling is notoriously deceptive and transient; the book lets him strut out into it anyway, because the disease's genius is exactly this counterfeit of turning the corner, the upswing that is really the next descent.

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