{"product_id":"divine-madness-the-quantum-joseph-g-mazzilli-9798993232003","title":"Divine Madness - The Quantum Mechanics of the Soul","description":"\u003cp\u003ePersons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot ... will be shot.\u003cstrong\u003e --Mark Twain\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eDivine Madness\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eThe Quantum Mechanics of the Soul\u003c\/strong\u003e is a true tragicomedy, blending a humorous satire of religion and philosophy with a tragic love story. The title is taken from Plato's \u003cem\u003eTheia Mania, \u003c\/em\u003e the divine madness of poets, prophets, and seers. Joseph Colocento lost his fiancée, Mary Malin, in a car accident just before college graduation. He no longer believed in God, yet for years and years after the accident he couldn't stop blaming the God of his Catholic youth. Then finally the\u003cem\u003e real \u003c\/em\u003eGod appeared to him, a God too big for any one religion, a God too big in fact for any one universe, a God who is not at odds with our current understanding of the vastness of our universe, as well as the infinity beyond it, a God who tells Joseph, \"Heaven is not the end of your journey, it's the maternity ward.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eDivine Madness\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e is a \u003cem\u003emostly\u003c\/em\u003e humorous satire of religion and philosophy. It plays with two dichotomies: first the dichotomy between brilliance that borders on madness and madness that borders on brilliance, and second the dichotomy between Plato's \u003cem\u003eTheia Mania\u003c\/em\u003e-the divine madness of poets, oracles, prophets, and seers-and organic madness. A couple of the towns are fictional, the narrator is unreliable and it's a colt writer's first whinny to boot. But it addresses important questions about the meaning of life (especially why bad things happen to good people) in a new way.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e The novel's structure pays homage to one of its main themes, chaos theory-the science of complexity, which says that very complex systems appear on the surface to be in chaos, but upon closer study are found to have \"deep structures, feedback loops, strange attractors, recursive symmetries,\" and other classic features of non-linear systems. They can appear most chaotic just before the \"bifurcation point,\" when they suddenly reorganize themselves on a higher level.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e In this case, beginning around \"The Princeton Episode\" it morphs from an episodic novel to one that is narrative driven. And then beginning at \"A Few Words About Mary\" it becomes more of a love story, in an college setting, between a Jewish girl and a gentile boy, and mostly dialogue driven.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Above all it is a philosophical novel of ideas--somewhat iconoclastic ideas--about God and the soul, hidden in a humorous satire, like a teaspoon of castor oil hidden in a bowl of Lucky Charms.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eI am stunned, but I want to be stunned, since I have sworn to you, my soul, to trust you even if you lead me through madness . . . It is unquestionable: if you enter into the world of the soul, you are like a madman, and a doctor would consider you to be sick.\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e Carl Jung (The Red Book, pages 148 - 150)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Joseph G. Mazzilli\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798993232003\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Joseph G Mazzilli\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/13\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 264\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.58lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.00w x 0.60d","brand":"Joseph G. Mazzilli","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48852665204991,"sku":"9798993232003","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/divine-madness-the-quantum-joseph-g-mazzilli-9798993232003","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}