Reflecting this internal event, L and R apparently also come to an
　　　　  understanding of the narrative's koan by the end of the piece, as
　　　　  they replay what has happened within the story when they themselves
　　　　  turn "to stone." Although the characters L and R, reader and
　　　　  listener, are in flux, there is good evidence that their relational
　　　　  pairing approaches the new vision of "without context" which is
　　　　  Nirvana. As opposed to most if not all of Beckett's other drama, the
　　　　  final tableau we witness is a "visual realisation of intimacy and
　　　　  communion longed for, but never achieved in Berceuse [Rockaby -- or
　　　　  other plays]," a "closure" which "can . . . only be achieved in the
　　　　  formless state of being/non-being beyond temporal existence."(18)
　　　　  The dynamic interplay of the pairs L and R, narrator and listener,
　　　　  narrative and stage, as well as the destabilization of our "normal"
　　　　  paradigm to make way for a new, discontinuous visioning of the
　　　　  world, can be explicated to a remarkable extent by the play's
　　　　  powerful image of the (Seine) river dividing about the Isle of
　　　　  Swans.
　　　　  From its single window he could see the downstream extremity of the
　　　　  Isle
　　　　  of Swans . . . . Day after day he could be seen slowly pacing the
　　　　  islet.
　　　　  Hour after hour. In his long black coat no matter what the weather
　　　　  and old world Latin Quarter hat.
　　　　  At the tip he would always pause to dwell on the receding stream.
　　　　  How in joyous eddies its two arms conflowed and flowed united on.
　　　　  (285-6)
　　　　  Apart from the nice complication of the issue of perception (who
　　　　  sees whom?), we here have, metaphorically, a third element -- the
　　　　  Isle of Swans -- which destabilizes the pair of arms which is the
　　　　  river, forcing them into an apparent doubleness; yet here also is
　　　　  the image of reunification as the river reclaims its wholeness via
　　　　  the revisioning of itself on the "downstream" tip of the isle. This
　　　　  same type of image is utilized by David Loy to describe Buddhism's
　　　　  rejection of conceptual absolutism: "Buddhism denies that there is
　　　　  any rock [or island dividing the current], asserting that there is
　　　　  only a flux. The rock is a thought-construction [, a destabilizing
　　　　  force,] and the sense-of-self might better be compared to a bubble
　　　　  which flows like the water because it is part of the water [of
　　　　  change] . . . ."(19)
　　　　  Once we lock on to the implications and importance of this