Cat's Cradle Chapter 47 Summary

Dynamic Tension

• John cozies up to his new book and vaguely overhears whisper of a midget being on board the plane.
• But John has no time for midgets. He's reading Bokonon's theory of dynamic tensions, "the equilibrium between good and evil" (47.3).
• Seems the term was once used by bodybuilder Charles Atlas and now by a prophet of a small Caribbean island.
• Hmm, we're sure there's a lesson in there somewhere.
• Yep, here it is. Just as Atlas believes muscles can only bulk up by "pitting one set of [them] against another" so does Bokonon believe good and evil need to be pitted against each other to build a society.
• Bokonon even wrote a Calypso about it.