Sherry Chandler » Frye on Cat & Mouse
Frye on Cat & Mouse
A man sitting reading a book in a library while a mouse ran past him unobserved would not be in a more subjective state than a cat, but he would appear so to the cat. A desire for a contest with reality is psychologically quite different from a desire to escape it.
— from Northrop Fry Unbuttoned. Wit and Wisdom from the Notebooks and Diaries (Gnomon, 2004)
[Note: I really don't know what this quotation means, if it means anything. Nor do I know whether it falls under wit or wisdom. I'm not sure who is having the contest with reality here – probably the man, though I'm pretty sure the cat wouldn't spare much philosophical thought on the matter and the one trying to escape is the mouse. Also, if the man lets mice run around his library unobserved, pretty soon he'll have one big mouse's nest and nothing to read.]
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2 Comments
1. Georgia Stamper replies at 20th January 2006, 9:26 am :
Oh - I was relieved to read that you didn’t understand the quote either. I’d read it three times in puzzlement before I skimmed down to read what you had written about Frye’s quote, Sherry. You know - I constantly worry that I am “losing it.”
2. MW replies at 23rd January 2006, 12:52 am :
I have no clue what that actually means. But somehow I think that most cats probably wouldn’t pay any attention to the man when they saw the mouse.
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