Change of Pace — and Puzzle
February 2, 2010I will say more in the very near future about the Obama administration’s decision on the NASA budget, which was the subject of my last post. Today, however, I’d like to offer a change of pace. When I began this blog, I intended to include posts about the moon in our culture in addition to posts on the science of the moon. So far, however, I’ve done very little of the former.
I read only two web comics on a regular basis: Sinfest, written by Tatsuya Ishida, and Piled Higher and Deeper, written by Jorge Cham. Yesterday, Tatsuya had a delightful comic that has to do … sort of … with the moon.
"Sinfest," Feb 1 2010
Probably no explanation of this strip is necessary. But if any of you are curious, Sinfest is sort of about modern life and sort of about religion and is highly irreverent about both. It’s definitely satirical but I would not say it’s anti-religious. It just pokes fun at the little foibles of all religions. (Except Islam — I’ve never seen Ishida say anything, pro or con, about Islam, probably because that can be hazardous to a cartoonist’s health.)
The little Buddha on a cloud and the dog (named Pooch) are recurring characters. Every now and then Ishida draws a strip where he illustrates how the Japanese symbol (kanji) for some word could plausibly come about. I like these calligraphy strips very much. He usually plays it very straight. The humor lies, to me, in the whole idea of rationally explaining something as irrational as language. You could do the same thing with English spellings.
I’m not completely sure what the “mu!” at the end of yesterday’s strip means. When I go online and look up the free English-Japanese dictionaries, it’s easy enough to find out that the kanji shown here is pronounced “tsuki” and means “moon.” On the other hand, “mu” means “six.” Can anyone explain to me what six has to do with the moon? Or what the point of the joke is otherwise? (Perhaps “mu” is how dogs bark in Japanese?)
Tags: comics, kanji, Tatsuya Ishida
3 Responses to “Change of Pace — and Puzzle”
Leave a Reply
Categories
- Arrive (2)
- Future exploration (6)
- Just for Fun (10)
- Media (18)
- Meetings (7)
- Missions (17)
- Movies (1)
- NASA (13)
- Popular culture (4)
- Science (29)
- Survive (1)
- Thrive (1)
- websites (5)
Subscribe
February 3rd, 2010 at 4:28 am
[...] Who Hung the Moon? » Blog Archive » Change of Pace — and Puzzle [...]
May 22nd, 2010 at 5:36 pm
It’s hard for me to believe 1) that you don’t know what Mu! is about and 2) that no one has explained Mu! to you yet.
In the Rinzai branch of Zen Buddhism, one of the most common techniques, or practices, used to bring the practitioner to awakening is called the “koan”. Mu! is the first and most famous koan.
For more info, go to URL “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_(negative)” . Once you understand the reference to Mu!, you will also understand why Pooch is in this particular strip. The sentence “Do not confuse the pointing finger with the moon” restates a classic Buddhist exhortation to not confuse explanations of reality with direct awareness of reality.
A koan is a logical puzzle that has no obvious solution. The teacher gives a koan to the practitioner, who then goes to think about it until it becomes a burning obsession. Periodically the practitioner returns for a formal audience before the teacher. At this audience, the practitioner must demonstrate her understanding of the koan. After the practitioner attempts her demonstration, the teacher usually rebukes her and sends her away to ponder some more.
May 24th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Lincoln,
Thank you for the wonderful explanation! The Wikipedia citation was very helpful, too.
I’m afraid this blog hasn’t had a lot of readers lately, partly because I have been too busy to post to it. One of these days I’ll come back to it. Anyway, that is the likely reason why yours was the first (real) comment on this post.