St Anselm’s College: Senior Common Room Discussion
By now, Blottisham has developed a new strategy: he nods at intervals as though agreement might stabilise the text into becoming more reasonable.
Stray has stopped reacting to Blottisham’s interpretations altogether and is now tracking only Quillibrace’s page-turning rhythm.
Quillibrace opens the next section.
“Stability as Temporary Constraint Equilibrium”
Blottisham exhales with relief.
“Ah good. Stability. That’s what we’ve been missing. So things finally settle down here.”
Quillibrace does not look up.
“There are no ‘things’ settling.”
Blottisham pauses.
“…Right. Conditions settling then.”
Quillibrace turns a page.
“Not in the sense of objects.”
Blottisham nods quickly.
“Right, right. Of course. Not objects. But still something stabilising.”
Stray looks at the text.
“It says stability is not a property of things,” she says.
Blottisham brightens.
“So it’s a property of conditions.”
Quillibrace immediately:
“No.”
Blottisham stops.
“…Not a property?”
Stray continues reading.
“It says stability is a temporary equilibrium of constraints.”
Blottisham leans forward.
“Ah. Constraints. Good. So we have a structure again.”
Quillibrace finally looks up.
“We do not have a structure in the usual sense.”
Blottisham gestures at the page.
“But constraints are structure.”
Quillibrace replies evenly.
“Not necessarily.”
A pause.
Blottisham tries again.
“So we have constrained structure.”
“No.”
“Unstructured constraints?”
“No.”
Blottisham exhales.
“Right. So constraints that aren’t structure, holding things that aren’t things, in a field that isn’t a field.”
Stray adds quietly:
“And stabilising without becoming stable objects.”
Blottisham looks at her.
“That last part sounds like it should not be possible.”
Quillibrace turns a page.
“It is not being described as possible. It is being specified as necessary.”
Blottisham leans back.
“For what?”
Quillibrace:
“For anything to be given.”
A silence.
Blottisham shakes his head slowly.
“I feel like we’ve been demoted from thinking about images to thinking about… refusal of collapse.”
Stray replies gently:
“That may be more accurate than it sounds.”
Blottisham frowns.
“But stability usually means something is solid.”
Quillibrace responds immediately.
“That is the error.”
Blottisham pauses.
“…Stability is not solid?”
Stray answers.
“It is dynamic.”
Blottisham:
“So it moves.”
Quillibrace:
“No.”
Blottisham stops.
“…It doesn’t move, but it’s dynamic.”
Quillibrace:
“Yes.”
Blottisham rubs his forehead.
“That is not a sentence I can live inside.”
Stray looks at the text again.
“It says stability is the ongoing maintenance of non-collapse.”
Blottisham points.
“Maintenance implies something doing maintenance.”
Quillibrace:
“No.”
Blottisham:
“…So no maintenance?”
Stray:
“Maintenance without a maintainer.”
Blottisham sits back slowly.
“I am beginning to suspect this paper has removed agency as a concept.”
Quillibrace nods once.
“That is not incorrect.”
Blottisham looks alarmed.
“That feels like a major omission.”
Stray replies softly:
“It seems to be a structural consequence.”
Blottisham leans forward again.
“So what is doing the stabilising?”
A pause.
Quillibrace answers first.
“Nothing identifiable as a thing.”
Blottisham:
“That is not reassuring.”
Stray adds:
“It is constraints interacting.”
Blottisham points.
“Constraints doing something again.”
Quillibrace corrects him.
“Not ‘doing’ in the sense of agency.”
Blottisham sighs.
“Right. So constraints that aren’t doing anything, maintaining non-collapse, without anything maintaining them.”
Quillibrace:
“Yes.”
Blottisham stares at the ceiling.
“I miss verbs.”
Stray, almost smiling:
“That may be expected.”
Quillibrace turns the page.
“And now we are ready for the final section.”
Blottisham sits up slightly.
“Good.”
A pause.
“…Will there be anything left after it?”
Quillibrace answers without hesitation.
“That is not guaranteed.”
Blottisham leans back.
“I hate this discipline.”
Stray looks at him.
“You are still assuming there is a discipline.”
Blottisham mutters:
“I am assuming there is something I can complain about.”
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