[HN Gopher] My Cat Mii
___________________________________________________________________
My Cat Mii
Author : lermontov
Score : 263 points
Date : 2025-01-27 20:15 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theparisreview.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theparisreview.org)
| ixtli wrote:
| This is a fabulous example of Japanese storytelling and the
| translation is rather good, too :)
| gyomu wrote:
| Yes, it's interesting how different cultures have such
| different ways of telling stories (although sometimes that gets
| a bit muddied with the massive cross pollination between global
| media).
|
| I once encountered this diagram comparing cultural thought
| patterns in a Japanese textbook, it comes to my mind regularly
| https://jellypictu.re/p/8dd73d2c
| anigbrowl wrote:
| I would greatly appreciate if you could share the name of the
| textbook in question. I found the work it cites and am
| interested to know how others perceive it.
|
| https://www.colby.edu/wp-
| content/uploads/2024/10/Kaplan_CR_1...
| gyomu wrote:
| Oh nice find! I took this picture of the textbook over a
| decade ago when a friend showed it to me, so I really can't
| help you with that though.
| anigbrowl wrote:
| Thanks anyhow!
| kjellsbells wrote:
| Its possible that the Japanese text book is a translation
| of Purves (see below) or just an excerpt.
|
| FYI For other readers...on researchgate I found the same
| picture, and the paper that embedded the pic cited it as:
|
| Kaplan, R. B. (1972). Contrastive rhetoric and second
| language learning: Notes toward a theory of contrastive
| rhetoric. In A. C. Purves (Ed.), Writing across languages
| and cultures: Issues in contrastive rhetoric (pp. 257-304).
| Newbury Park, CA: Sage
|
| The paper on Researchgate was at this URL:
|
| https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354859830_Involvin
| g...
|
| (I found it by googling for some of the words in the
| pictureand adding "1970s", since I had a feeling that the
| terms used were rather old fashioned, even if strictly
| accurate in a dictionary sense (like "Oriental"). And
| modern academia doesnt pay as much attention to Russia as
| it once did, but the author called it out.)
|
| And of course, if you Google for, say,
|
| Wen Hua De Si Kao patan kaplan
|
| (Cultural thought patterns kaplan)
|
| Youll get a lot of japanese language books and articles
| that use this picture. I didnt check to see if any were the
| one whose photo was posted.
| anigbrowl wrote:
| Thanks. I went down an interesting rabbithole of
| contrasting rhetoric yesterday evening.
| SamBam wrote:
| Is the suggestion that an English story is told from Point A
| to Point B, while the other cultures meander in various ways?
|
| This seems confusing to me, as a regular reader of short
| stories and personal histories and other things in English
| that, actually, sound very much like this personal history
| here.
| ixtli wrote:
| its interesting to me that that is the way the discussion
| turned but its not what i originally meant. there were just
| qualities to this story that are hallmarks of great modern
| japanese short and long form lit. for example:
|
| - referring to characters by single letters (c.f.: K in
| Kokoro)
|
| - romantic descriptions of nature as the meat of the work
| that ties the actual plot together (... basically all
| japanese lit since ooku no hosomichi in the 9th century)
|
| - anthropomorphism of nature like the wind talking (c.f.:
| the sound of the mountain)
|
| - a pervasive sense of nostalgia, especially when telling a
| story by way of the places one has lived in their early
| adulthood ( again basically all "slice of life" lit and tv
| )
| SamBam wrote:
| Thank you, that makes a lot of sense.
| delusional wrote:
| What a beautiful story. Thanks for bringing me out of the High
| Tech/AI anxiety loop with just a nice human story of beauty and a
| cat :)
| qmarchi wrote:
| This is an pre-publishing excerpt from "Mornings Without Mii",
| coming out on the 25th.
|
| https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374614782/morningswithout...
| layer8 wrote:
| And that book is a translation of the 1999 Japanese
| minoinaiZhao .
| telesilla wrote:
| Lovely lovely story. I'll look for the book, and as _delusional_
| says, an unexpected charmer to break up a day of tech think.
| sho_hn wrote:
| Ha, I know just the nerdy factoid to trot out to legitimize the
| frontpage placement. Brace:
|
| These little cat-human conversation pieces embedded within remind
| me enormously of the telepathic conversations in Alfred Bester's
| mighty genre classic _The Demolished Man_ and their special
| typesetting.
|
| https://speculativerhetoric.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads...
|
| https://universesofthemind.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/wp...
| anigbrowl wrote:
| Also employed in _The Stars My Destination_. Criminally
| underappreciated writer.
| 4sak3n wrote:
| Is he really criminally underrated if My Stars the
| Destination features in just about every "best scifi books"
| list I've ever read? Maybe not as high up as it deserves on
| those lists but that's hardly criminal underappreciation
| 4sak3n wrote:
| The Stars My Destination ... how did I mess that up?
| anigbrowl wrote:
| Sure, but it's pretty rare to see people talk much about
| Bester compared to other SF novelists. Also astonishing to
| me that none of his work has ever been made into a film
| that I'm aware of. Same with Jack Vance.
| carabiner wrote:
| lil baby
| codr7 wrote:
| Animals are amazing, something to hold onto and keep us sane in
| the coming storm.
| picafrost wrote:
| Reads like a warm breeze.
|
| The bonds we forge with other animals can bring another source of
| durable meaning to our lives. Even a brief show of trust from an
| animal while present in their environment can create a memory
| that lasts forever.
|
| One of the more pleasant aspects of being human.
| jeffrallen wrote:
| I talk with my cat, and the conversation is so fluid that my 5
| year old son asked, "Dad, when did you learn to speak cat?" He
| is multilingual, so I guess he was wondering when he would have
| "Cat speak" at school or whatever.
|
| I told him I pretend what I think the cat is saying, which
| seemed a bit if a let down to both of us. But ever since, I
| realize it's not so much pretending, we really do converse, and
| it's a pleasure.
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| lmao I think this is cat/human interactions for sure; that
| said, it's easy to assume cats only talk in simple terms,
| like food or complaining about food.
| mavamaarten wrote:
| My first cat (who just magically arrived in our garden) is
| only 5 years with us. But it's so cool how you learn to read
| their body language and noises/sounds so quickly and so well.
|
| I remember, before I had a cat, that cats could be so
| unpredictable. A good friend of mine had a cat that loved to
| be pet, but could claw you a millisecond later. Now, after
| owning one, I can read their faces, ears, tail and other
| cues. I'm sure I could have read that cat better now.
|
| I converse with mine too. He replies with a positive prrr or
| yell if he agrees. If he's not interested in what I'm
| offering, he will look disinterested. I love him to bits.
| yapyap wrote:
| Not gonna lie, when I clicked the link I was expecting a tutorial
| on how to make a cat Mii on the Wii.
|
| Can't say I was disappointed after I reset my expectations
| though.
| locao wrote:
| "What can possibly be said about Miis these days?".
|
| Turns out I was pleasantly wrong.
| frmfrm wrote:
| The full book is a fantastic read, yet beware that it takes some
| quite dark turns describing the author's depression at length and
| it includes some scatological depictions of animal suffering.
| It's ultimately a tale about grief and so it's peculiar that the
| cover design gives the impression it's a cute, feel-good story.
| Dansvidania wrote:
| my ex girlfriend found a similarly 'lost kitten' 4 years ago, she
| gave him a similarly silly name "Pufu". I am allergic to cats, so
| I was not into it.
|
| we did not work out and she took him with her when she left.
|
| I miss that little bastard so much.
| locao wrote:
| > I miss that little bastard so much.
|
| What about the cat?
| veunes wrote:
| Pets can burrow into your heart even when you're not expecting
| it
| bentobean wrote:
| My wife and I brought two kittens into our lives 16 years ago.
| The bonds that we forged with those animals were deep. We had to
| walk one out of our lives in November due to advanced kidney
| disease. A couple weeks after that, the other one decided that
| her time had also arrived.
|
| I'm not ashamed to say that I miss them dearly. I weep from time
| to time. It's like losing a limb. I can't imagine ever putting
| myself through that again.
| randycupertino wrote:
| eies bright,
|
| clacws shacrp,
|
| tacil held high.
|
| go ceenli into the mist, old wacrriorr.
|
| faclhacllac wacits for iou.
|
| Eyes bright,
|
| claws sharp,
|
| tail held high.
|
| Go keenly into the mist, old warrior.
|
| Valhalla waits for you.
| jjtheblunt wrote:
| You wrote english in the elder futhark, tediously or with
| some letter by letter translation tool?
| BizarroLand wrote:
| Looks like this is a bit of a rabbit hole.
|
| https://wetnosespetsitting.com/coping-with-the-loss-of-a-
| pet...
|
| Has a copy of this, but it was attributed to a reddit post
|
| https://old.reddit.com/r/cats/comments/hmyago/rest_in_peace
| _...
|
| But the runes were not on that post.
|
| Searching the runes (which kind of sounds badass) led to
|
| https://imgur.com/gallery/rest-easy-boy-4OYHNTn from May,
| 2022 https://www.instagram.com/kaitbernhardt/p/CUvyLLEMaNN/
| from October 2021
|
| But the trail seems to go cold there. The lore seems to
| suggest that it originated on Reddit but it probably got
| lost in the purge when Reddit exiled non-official clients.
| fsckboy wrote:
| Are the runes used on the common /r/cats copy pasta
| accurate?
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/kfeq3m/
| a...
|
| TLDR: Yes
|
| Does anyone know what kind of runes these are? I mean, I
| know they're norse, but are there different kinds of norse
| runes? I've had hard time figuring that out. Furthermore,
| are the runes accurate to the English translation below?
|
| yes, the runes and the translation seem to match.
|
| runes were not only used for norse. english also used runes
| before the latin alphabet arrived
| jjtheblunt wrote:
| My Germanic Linguistics teacher in undergrad and grad
| school was really interesting; this book considers many
| things you just asked above.
|
| Elmer Antonsen, A Concise Grammar of the Older Runic
| Inscriptions
|
| https://a.co/d/eTV2tFs
| veunes wrote:
| I haven't lost any pets yet in my conscious age. I'm so scared
| because I know how much pain it will be for me
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| It sucks, but it is worth it, to have them in our lives. I
| have had pets throughout my life. The only one I don't miss,
| is a psychotic parrot, from my early childhood (given how
| long they live, it may still be kicking around, biting
| people's ears off). Our cat (a marmalade tom) is like a
| member of the family. We lost his brother, a few years ago,
| and that was rough. I do recommend getting rescues, over
| breeder animals. I feel it is better for the soul.
|
| I have a friend who is in his mid-sixties, and delayed
| getting a dog, until he figured it would outlive him, as he
| hates the pain of loss.
|
| Not sure I'd want to do that, myself. I have seen what
| happens to pets, when their owners pass. In a lot of cases,
| they end up in kill shelters.
|
| https://theonion.com/we-gave-rex-to-a-nice-farm-family-vs-
| th...
| dhosek wrote:
| I found it a bit odd when I got a dog that I was struck with
| an instantaneous grief shortly after getting it as I
| considered the fact that I would almost certainly see it
| die.1 Oddly, this has never happened with the many cats I've
| had although I have always grieved their deaths when they
| happened.
|
| [?]
|
| 1. The alternative, of course, being that I would die first.
| DiggyJohnson wrote:
| I genuinely recommend a pet, especially a cat, to any depressed
| person reading this comment with even just a modicum of income.
| It's the perfect amount of responsibility and payoff, to put it
| in terms a robot could understand. It's very hard to fuck up so
| badly to cause permanent injury or death, and most unadopted cats
| live lives much worse than you at your worst. Take the risk,
| adopt, fix, and grow.
| veunes wrote:
| Plus, the act of caring for another living being can sometimes
| make it easier to start caring for yourself.
| navigate8310 wrote:
| This tantamount of "using" a pet to improve your life than
| genuinely care for them. What could happen is once you improve
| your life, you may slowly start detaching from it and throw
| out. That special bond may not form, if you only buy/adopt
| because you are depressed.
| postexitus wrote:
| Never happens with a cat. Maybe with a dog because they have
| so much higher upkeep.
| bayindirh wrote:
| In that case, you're not using an animal to improve your
| life. At most, you're forcing yourself to look a bit outwards
| and focus your energy on an animal, in other ways put strain
| on yourself.
|
| Most pets love you unconditionally back, as long as you don't
| abuse & neglect them knowingly. They will look after you and
| motivate you to continue having this feeling by looking after
| yourself, too.
|
| Losing a loved pet can leave a scar which can last a life
| time. I still miss my pet bird, which lived for more than a
| decade, and died peacefully, and brought limitless joy to
| everyone in the family, by loving, demanding attention and
| trolling us.
|
| Animals may _look_ simpler than us, but almost all of them
| know the language of love and care way better than us.
| DiggyJohnson wrote:
| I cannot possibly imagine how you think what I said is
| tantamount to that. That's crazy.
| UnreachableCode wrote:
| My neighbour got a dog but they do not look after it. Please
| only get a pet if you plan to give it love. Leaving it at the
| house all day while you work and not taking it for walks is
| completely unfair on the animal, and they (and everyone in our
| building) suffer because of it.
| dhosek wrote:
| That said, especially for introverts, a dog can be a magical
| thing. Proper care _requires_ daily walks and dogs are, by
| nature, gregarious. Some breeds will attract other people
| without effort (I had a beagle and had I known how appealing
| they were to other people, I would have gotten one when I was
| a lonely single man). Walking a dog daily means you get daily
| exercise and daily socialization.
| dspillett wrote:
| _> I genuinely recommend a pet, especially a cat, to any
| depressed person reading this comment_
|
| I can second that, my first boss (excluding family cats before
| I went to Uni and later had my own place) helped me through
| some bad spots1 by just existing and being pleased to see me.
| On days I would otherwise have hibernated, getting up to make
| sure she had breakfast and a clean tray meant I was up and that
| made doing something with the day for myself much easier. She
| was one of my key constants through the ups & downs. And after
| a bad day at work, being purred at is wonderful, as was just
| playing around with a thing-on-a-string for her entertainment.
| I went a bit odd(er) during the covid lockdowns, I would have
| no doubt dealt even worse with the "stir-crazy" thing without
| her company.
|
| _> with even just a modicum of income._
|
| Though if you only have "a modicum", I strongly recommend pet
| insurance.
|
| Gayle was taken two years ago, after ~12.5 years as my boss, by
| an aggressive case of lymphoma. The diagnosis and treatment for
| that2 cost a goodly chunk of money. I was in a position to
| handle that financial hit without worry, but someone working
| minimum wage with few savings would have had little choice but
| to euthanise considerably sooner to avoid a drawn-out painful
| end without actually properly knowing what was wrong.
|
| A couple of months after Gayle, I adopted an elderly pair (10
| years each) from a local rescue. I wasn't quite ready, but the
| heartstrings were pulled as they'd been there for months with
| no interest because of their age and how shy they were, they
| didn't do well in the rescue & foster environments. Max (the
| shyest of the two) took quite some time to properly settle in
| and feel safe, but has since become a most affectionate
| companion (I am sometimes headbutted & massaged to within an
| inch of my life!). He unfortunately has developed a minor heart
| condition and had a little trouble with his waterworks3, again
| nothing that I can't afford to deal with but that someone
| living closer to their means might struggle to manage.
|
| ----
|
| [1] FYI: I am <checks official bit of paper> "prone to bouts of
| bipolar behavioural activity" and have been suffered from burn
| out.
|
| [2] Palliative care was the only practical option really, the
| prognosis was such that anything else would likely have had
| little effect on the outcome and would have just served reduced
| her QoL in her final months due to vet stress and side effects.
|
| [3] neither uncommon in older males, cats and humans alike!
| ArnoVW wrote:
| Good advice.
|
| I'll just add the little asterisk: be aware that the more a pet
| is "pure race" the more they will suffer from in-breading
| issues.
|
| Expensive instagrammable cats generally come with expensive
| doctor bills.
| Loughla wrote:
| Purebred dogs are nothing but veterinary bills. Cats slightly
| less so, but still far worse than a mixed breed.
|
| The best pets I've ever had have been brown dog and orange
| cat breed.
| ycombinatrix wrote:
| >in-breading issues
|
| sandwich style
| incanus77 wrote:
| I would agree, but with a caveat, especially with a cat: be
| prepared for a long haul, and possibly not what you expected. I
| got a cat when I was 23 and single, and after a couple years
| (and marriage) she got a seizure disorder that required twice-
| daily medicine. She lived for 17 years. She was an
| extraordinary companion, but if you had told me that I would
| turn 40 before she passed, and would move her through five
| states, I would have never believed you. My wife passed, then
| one year to the day, that cat passed. So aside from the
| obvious, I wouldn't trade the experience with her for anything.
| michaelbarton wrote:
| Very sorry for your loss. I imagine that you were glad to
| have your cat for that one more year.
| sneak wrote:
| One of the costs, if you are childfree, is that you now go from
| zero dependents to non-zero dependents. This cuts off a lot of
| options in life: your remote job can no longer be done from
| Japan for two months in the summer or an island in Thailand for
| a quarter in the winter.
|
| There is a huge value to being able to travel for long periods
| on short notice in the first half of one's life. A pet
| mostly/usually prevents that.
| cityofdelusion wrote:
| I recommend more than a modicum of income to be actually
| responsible. I've had a dozen or so mixed breed cats in my life
| to date. Cancer, diabetes, kidney failure, liver failure,
| dementia, and FIP have claimed about half of them, with huge
| medical bills to match. A cat on the street usually dies
| violently and suddenly, but when you take one in, that includes
| caring for it in old age too. Cats (and no living animal) is
| fire-and-forget pet ownership.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| Cancer, diabetes, kidney failure, liver failure, dementia,
| and FIP would all kill a cat on the street, too. It's not
| irresponsible to give them a sudden, _non_ violent death in
| these cases. It could be argued that spending a lot of money
| just to keep them alive is selfish. I can give a cat a better
| life than it would have on the street using a modicum of
| income, and responsibly _not_ spend a lot of money just to
| let them suffer should the reaper come knocking.
| xp84 wrote:
| It's certainly a polarizing idea I think, but I could never
| be convinced to start investing thousands of dollars or a
| huge amount of time into keeping a very sick animal alive.
| I appreciate and respect the kind hearts of those who
| would, but I'd force myself to say goodbye.
|
| My only pet, a cat whom I adopted as unexpectedly as Mii
| was adopted, very mysteriously ran away (super out of
| character, she was a happily indoor-only cat) when she was
| 13 but before her health had become a severe impediment or
| cost. I missed her terribly and still do, but I admit that
| it was a great blessing to not have been forced to make
| such a decision. My hope is that she sensed she was dying
| and some wild part of her deeply wished to be in nature
| again and in solitude for that experience.
| veunes wrote:
| That was beautiful. How a single night, a breeze, a cry in the
| dark can change a life. The smallest moments (ones we don't plan
| for) can shape our entire world.
| veunes wrote:
| When I was younger, a little cat appeared on our doorstep. We
| named him Pew. He's already 16 years old and has been with me
| throughout my childhood and adolescence - my whole life. Although
| he recognized my father as his owner, he is still very much a
| part of mine. When I started living alone, I adopted another ball
| of happiness from a shelter. I named her Gadget. I love her
| insanely, and she loves me back.
| cons0le wrote:
| With all the AI nonsense , we've lost track of how good skilled
| human translators can be. The writing is great, but the
| translation is masterful
| drewg123 wrote:
| My wife volunteers for a no-kill cat shelter. One night a literal
| basket of kittens was found on their doorstep. The shelter was
| already well over capacity, so we became foster "parents" for
| them. The runt of the litter (whom the shelter had named
| "Chrome") was terrified and cried constantly. After a week or
| two, she bonded with my wife, and would cry whenever she was not
| around, and wanted nothing to do with me. I recall one time when
| she escaped their play-pen when I was home alone, and clawed the
| skin off my hand when I had to pick her up and put her back,
| hissing and crying.
|
| After a month or two, space in the shelter opened up. All her
| siblings were quickly adopted, but her fearful, shy nature meant
| she was left behind. So she became our first "foster fail" and we
| adopted her.
|
| She now likes me just fine (though still not as much as my wife).
| What I love about her is that she's the perfect work companion.
| She likes to sit next to me on the couch when I'm working, and
| puts her paws and/or head in the crook of my arm (unlike our
| other cat, who seems jealous of my laptop and does his best to
| prevent me from working).
| ChadMoran wrote:
| I got a cat when I didn't know how much I needed him. He brought
| structure and joy to my life in a way that really turned it
| around.
|
| Unfortunately, two years ago he was diagnosed with FeLV+ even
| though he was an indoor only cat. Today we're having an at-home
| quality of life consultation as I suspect we'll have to put him
| to rest in the coming days.
|
| Outside of beating myself up from not doing more for something
| that is preventable I gave him the very best care both in terms
| of medical and supportive.
|
| Having this little guy for almost half of my life changed it in
| such a positive way I support anyone thinking about getitng a
| cat.
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