Schrodinger’s Cat

            Oliver and Ruth’s dive into quantum theory at the end of the novel (Ozeki 398-399) throws another wrench in the already jumbled world of Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being. Throughout the novel, Ozeki keeps the spotlight on time. The time being is central to her plot and the reader’s understanding of Nao’s world. The time being has the opportunity to recognize their moments and recognize other time beings. From Dōgen and Jiko’s teachings, every student of theirs (Naoko, Ruth, Oliver, and the reader) is taught to see everything in the world as a being of time. A being that exists in the past, present, and future. An underlying driver for these lessons is the Schrodinger’s cat theory of quantum mechanics.

            In essence, this quantum theory says that at every moment there is a decision to be made and these decisions have the power to completely shape the world that you perceive. This is crucial to the reader’s understanding of the novel and their own world because every moment they experience, their world diverges from another. Their emotional reaction to Haruki’s letter, or to Nao’s sexual assault truly shapes their perception forever from those moments of emotion. These Zen moments/quantum “decisions” effect real tangible change. For example, at the very beginning of the novel, Nao mentions that the reader has a choice to make. They can continue reading or not, it doesn’t really matter (Ozeki 4). Nao is being playfully sarcastic but also her words carry real truth. If the reader decides not to continue reading, her story is lost/doesn’t exist in his/her/their world, but there is a divergence where it does exist in another one of “your” worlds. Ozeki makes this theory a building block of her novel because she sees the importance of every decision big or small that we make. As readers, we can see that play out in the character’s lives but as someone living their own life, it is often hard to see that in yourself. Ozeki wants us to remember to cherish every moment because they are all we have.  

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