Pole-vaulting with logic.

[xyzzysqrl]

I think my favorite logical leap ever comes from the opening of the video game Persona, in the form of a quote from Japanese poet 'Soshi' CHINESE poet Zhuang Zhou. For all I know, like so many other things in that game, it's a mistranslation or otherwise garbled, (like somehow turning a Chinese Buddhist into a Japanese poet) so maybe I'm just reading it wrong. But I still love following it through.

I quote:

I dreamt I was a butterfly.

I'm with you so far, Soshi.

I couldn't tell if I was dreaming. But when I woke, I was I and not a butterfly.

Common, understandable. I've been a lot of things in my dreams.

Was I dreaming that I was the butterfly, Or was the butterfly dreaming that it was me?

Little fuzzy, but a perfectly reasonable philosophical point. I understand where he's coming from.

Even if there's a difference between the butterfly and I, The distinction isn't absolute.

Metaphysical, but all right, that's a good--

And there is no relationship of cause and effect.

PULL THE BRAKES EVERYONE OFF THE TRAIN WE'RE GOIN' OFF THE CLIFF

As I understand it: "Because I dreamed I was a butterfly, and I could not tell which of us was real afterward, there is no relationship between cause and effect." This actually keeps me awake at nights, thinking about it, trying to figure out where the logic train turned weird.

... I just thought I'd share. Maybe some of you can help me parse this in a way that doesn't melt my brain.

[EDIT]: After doing some research, sparked by this post, I'm gonna go with "The very first translation of Persona was fucking terrible". Having found other translations of the same story, or the gist of it, it makes sense. So, uh... you can pretend you didn't read this entry!

Comments

[momentrabbit.livejournal.com]

(blinkblinks) Why.. am I standing here? And why are there all these hash marks all over my arms and face? Huh. (wanders off)

[xyzzysqrl]

And you may ask yourself
"How did I read this?"
And you may ask yourself,
"Where is that fluffy squirrel tail?"
And you may tell yourself
"This is not my beautiful journal."
And you may tell yourself,
"This is not my beautiful post."

[swordianmaster.livejournal.com]

Same as it ever was.

[vulpisfoxfire.livejournal.com]

If it weren't for my horse, I'd have never spent that year in college. ;-)