{∅, {∅}, {∅, {∅}}} : Rage Against the Meat Grinder

A creepy aside:  I went to a Catholic high school, and as freshmen we were required to study some Latin.  The instructor was a "brother" - not a priest, but kind of like a male nun.

Well, he told us young chaps that his idea of "Heaven" was a Never Ending Orgasm.

Really, brother?  Something was not right about his grin.   

Another aside:  Many years later (2013 - 1981 = 13 + 19 = 32), like 3 decades later, I was reading about the current Latin teacher of the same school I had gone to.  He had been arrested for murder.  Evidently, after having developed a bad crack habit, his dealer (or whoever it was that was feeding his cravings) had threatened to reveal to his employers the nature of how he spent his evenings.  Well, he proceeded to stab her to death, which, as you might suspect, was viewed as a far worse offense than drug addiction.

Never Ending High?  Never Ending Orgasm?

What is involved in the experience of orgasm?  Deeeeeeep (but temporary) pleasure.

What is involved in the experience of smoking rock?  Deeeeeep (but temporary) pleasure.

We are vulnerable to addictions because of the way we are wired. 

What Holden is up to, what it appears to be to me, is that he is like a code breaker hacking into the workings of the phenomenal world.   He wants to crack the code so as to, if not deprogram himself, at the very least throw a monkey wrench into the mechanism, in effect, to destroy the Puppet Master.