I Am a Cat by S?seki Natsume
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This very charming book works as a kind of rhetorical pun.
Told from the point of view of a cat, who comes lazily to live with a disinterested, shiftless teacher, one can only help but think that the cat’s arrogant, obsessive observations of his human companions epitomize the nature of being a cat.
And then it hit me. The cat, through all this narrative posturing, his anthropomorphic renditions of human traits based off their inscrutable, sayings and behavior could is very much like the projection of how humans impart anthropomorphic characteristics via observing their feline companions.
What I mean is, through the filter of a cat, the cat in his narrative prowess becomes more human-like: objective and rational, whereas humans become more catlike: indolent and paradoxical, full of self obsessive habits, unconsciously arrogant in their assumption that all should give way to their needs, plans and desires.
This rhetorical stance creates many delightful antinomies, humorous and playful. We get to laugh at ourselves, as our petty habits and self-importance are downplayed as often as we downplay a cat’s unassuming kingship. Still, this translation offers many delightful gems applicable equally to human or cat:
For every living being, man or animal, the most important thing in this world is to know one’s own self. Other things being equal, a human being that truly knows himself is more respoected than a similarly enlightened cat. Should the humans of my acquaintance ever achieve such self-awareness, I would immediately abandon, as unjustifiedly heartless, this somewhat snide account of their species as I know them. However, just as few human beings actually know the size of their own noses, even fewer know the nature of their own selves, for if they did they would not need to pose such a question to a mere cat whom they regard, even disregard, with contempt. Thus, though human beings are always enormously pleased with themselves, they usually lack that self-perception which, and which alone, must justify their seeing themselves, and their boasting of it wherever they go, as the lords of creation. To top things off, they display a brazen calm conviction in their role which is positively laughable. For there they are, making a great nuisance of themselves with their fussing entreaties to be taught where to find their own fool noses, while at the same time strutting about with placards on their backs declaring their claim to be lords of creation. Would common logic or even common sense lead ay such patently loony human being to resign his claim to universal lordship? Not on your life! Every idiot specimen would sooner die than surrender his share in the fantasy of human importance. Any creature that behaves with such blatant inconsistency and yet contrives never to recognize the least minim of self-contradiction in its behavior is, of course funny. But since the human animal is indeed funny, it follows that the creature is a fool.
And thus, you have the seed of Soseki Natsume’s thoughts and very detailed observations of human beings in their ego driven mania, self centered in their world view, and self important in their neediness to value themselves above others and all other beings around them.
I highly recommend this book. Though it’s not a treatise on humans metaphysically, it would be sure at maximum, help you take your own problems with less gravity…at the minimum, help you have a good laugh…
