Question

I was reading the Durarara!! light novel volume 1 and on page 184, Izaya says the following to Mikado:

“But while you may be dreaming of a life outside the bounds of normality, life in Tokyo will become normal after you’ve been here for a year. … If you truly want to escape the ordinary, you’ll simply need to keep evolving – whether what you seek is above or below.”

Mikado thinks that this is painful to hear because of how well he understood what Izaya meant. If he was unhappy with his life now, would he just keep searching for a new life forever?

Reading this was painful for me too. This made me think about the time I wrote about desire and how suffering relates to desire. Back to Izaya – what does he mean by evolving? I thought I knew, but I’m not sure anymore. Any thoughts?

P.S. I’m reading The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. I read parts of it a few years ago for a Psychology class. I’m just reading it for fun now since I already have my BA in Psych. The book is about evolution, natural selection and altruism… so maybe that’s why I thinking about Izaya’s definition of evolving.