A Quiet Life

What is Oe's "quietness"? It is not a silence but a tranquilization. And, however, Oe's tranquilization is unique, which is not a healing（癒し）, but connects to a truce.
静=会意兼形声。「爭（とりあい）+⾭（音符）」。⾭（=青）は、すみきった意を含み、とりあいをやめて、しんとすみわたった雑音のない状態になること。（『漢字源』）
Moreover,
爭（とりあい）=会意。「爪（手）＋—印＋手」で、ある物を両者が手で引っ張り合うさまを示す。反対の方向に引っぱりあう、の意を含む。（同上）

Oe's 「爭（とりあい）」is clearly between life and death. The moment of dying is when we are pulled from both life and death, and we can say all of us are always dying into death. Oe had been trying to demonstrate chasms between them to tranquilize "dying" people in this series of novels, and probably has been in all his novels. In "A Quiet Life" and some other works, Oe is counterposing reincarnation against his horror of suffering of death. The meanings of them are unique. For Oe, reincarnation is not related to contrapasso but changeling, and, rather his horror of suffering of death is coming from purgatory of infinity. In other words, "reincarnation" is differential and unknown each time, and "horror of suffering of death" is historically and obsessively repeated. Eeyore's voices sound quiet but have alienation effects.

静かな生活 (講談社文芸文庫)