thus I set the captives free

In accordance with the myth of Oedipus, too much self-knowledge is dangerous, as it leads to self-blinding. What feeling or emotion specifically leads to this violent solution of turning upon oneself with such hostility? It is the feeling of guilt -- of having wronged the natural order of things, of having denied, destroyed or maligned the good intentions of one's parents without meaning to. The good intentions of one's parents, what were they? To be free from harm, the harm that would inevitably take place within their peaceful sphere if one were to arrive in full adulthood. Hence a decision to remain a child, so as not to fulfil the ghastly prophesy of the oracle would represent an ultimate commitment to morality as such. One destroys oneself as a matter of good will towards one's elders so as not to end up unwittingly destroying them.

Sometimes a facilitator, like Rix the giant cat [Prologue p 45], can help one to make the right choice:

"Well, Grimknife, we are in this together. I am here to help you. Help you become a useful citizen."
"What's that--a useful citizen?"
"Someone who does what he is told. Someone who says exactly what others say. Someone who is the splitting image of Duty, Responsibility and Patriotism." (p 45)

This is the meaning of becoming civilised rather than remaining a wild man. One cannot simply be a "natural" person who has "never thought" (p 46). One cannot simply mind one's own business. (p 47). "Your business should further the aims of the P.E. (p 47)" [Progressive Effort (p 45)]. If failing to meet this goal, much is at stake, for the morality of conformity is ultimately not a question of free will as it is represented as being. It is a matter of necessity:

"There is something I have been ordered to tell you." [Rix] dropped his voice into a legal monotone. "if by midnight tonight you have not experienced the transformation we demand of you then you will be taken from this place to a place of execution and there hanged by the neck till you are dead. That is all." ( p 49)

In the sections of the prologue that follow and take us to its end, the "mental delinquent who had been dragged here to be reoriented" ( p 45) dissociates from the threat of his imminent death, and becomes ... something else through an act of the imagination:

Even the youth's voice had changed. And the youth's eyes were glowing, luminous, brighter even than the blisteringly bright moon. (p 50)

It is the imminence of trauma that produces the spark of the imagination in such luminosity, facilitated as it is by a desire to be someone else, somewhere else. This is the quintessential shamanistic recourse to "soul journey" -- a capacity of the one who has been deeply wounded to the core of his being.

Psychological woundedness produces visionary imagination and a peculiar form of insight -- shamanistic vision -- that is unbeholden to authoritarian mores. Those who take heed of Rix's instructions to abide by standards imposed by others accept self-blinding (especially with regard to the fact that one abides by the law because one is coerced, and not of one's personal volition). However, the shaman's potential guilt is purged by the wounding he has received from society itself. The wounding balances the scales of justice, settling the score in terms of anything the initiate may have owed to society as a guilt-offering. It thus opens his eyes and frees him from the blinding contract that commands the fate of Oedipus. (Shamans of old are depicted in cave paintings with spears inserted into their sides.)

Psychological woundedness is the way out of psychological conformity.

Chapter Two (after a depiction of the poet wandering the streets, hungry) starts like this:

The knife slid into Buddy's side. He screamed, kicking out. Hewing with all his remaining strength a stunning blow at the face swimming before him.

What or who is this knife? It is surely Grimknife Jr, from the earlier part of the text, initiating another shaman, paying his psychological debt for him.

What is it exactly that a shaman can see? The rest of the story indicates that it has something to do with the extreme highs and lows of life, the products of extreme self-determination.