The stillness of the calm is awful. His voice begins to grow strange and portentous. He feels it in him like something swallowed too big for the esophagus. It keeps up a sort of involuntary interior humming in him, like a live beetle. His cranium is a dome full of reverberations. The hollows of his very bones are as whispering galleries. He is afraid to speak loud, lest he be stunned; like the man in the bass drum.
The quote reflects a profound sense of overwhelming tension and dread experienced by the speaker. The stillness, while outwardly calm, evokes a deep unease within him. This internal turmoil manifests as strange sounds and sensations, akin to something too large to be contained, creating a conflict between his inner world and external silence. The imagery of a humming beetle and reverberations within his skull illustrates the chaotic thoughts that disrupt his peace, compelling him to remain cautiously silent.
This overwhelming sensation leaves the speaker in a state of fear about expressing himself, reminiscent of a man confined within a bass drum, where sound is muted yet resonant. The metaphor signifies a struggle between the desire to communicate and the potential consequences of that communication. The vivid imagery evokes a haunting atmosphere, where the depths of one's interior life can be as thunderous as physical sounds, emphasizing the complexity of human emotions in the face of calmness.
