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Rank: Luxophage
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Tekisui was the founder of the Shotai-Mu (see pg.277, UK hardback, "The Story of Tekisui and the Shotai-Mu"; and Group27, annotatedrawshark.com); he is also a figure in Zen philosophy, which appears in The Raw Shark Texts. From Steven's 4 April 2007 " Raw Shark quiz results!": Steven Hall wrote:"E) The famous Zen koan 'One note of Zen' and Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle are amongst the corrupted texts hiding inside the Raw Shark Texts novel.
True - And any Zen scholars out there will probably have spotted why Kakua is replaced by Tekisui in the Raw Shark corruption of the koan…" The Zen Koan " One Note of Zen", which is corrupted as "The Story of Tekisui and the Shotai-Mu", is as follows: One Note of Zen wrote:"After Kakua visited the emperor he disappeared and no one knew what became of him. He was the first Japanese to study Zen in China, but since he showed nothing of it, save one note, he is not remembered for having brought Zen into his country.
Kakua visited China and accepted the true teaching. He did not travel while he was there. Meditating constantly, he lived on a remote part of a mountain. Whenever people found him and asked him to preach he would say a few words and then move to another part of the mountain where he could be found less easily.
The emperor heard about Kakua when he returned to Japan and asked him to preach Zen for his edification and that of his subjects.
Kakua stood before the emperor in silence. He then produced a flute from the folds of his robe, and blew one short note. Bowing politely, he disappeared." In Raw Shark, Tekisui, instead of playing a flute, "took a writing brush from his robe and drew a single straight line in the air. This was the beginning and the end of Tekisui's teaching" (see pg. 278, UK hardback). There are three koans in Zen Flesh, Zen Bones that mention Tekisui: " Just Go to Sleep", " Three Kinds of Disciples", and " A Drop of Water" (According to "The Light Bulb Fragment", Eric had already read Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, Shunryu Suzuki's Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind and just purchased a copy of Suzuki's biography, Crooked Cucumber; see pg.118, UK hardback). The final koan, "A Drop of Water", seems to be the most relevant to Raw Shark: A Drop of Water wrote:"A Zen master named Gisan asked a young student to bring him a pail of water to cool his bath.
The student brought the water and, after cooling the bath, threw on to the ground the little that was left over.
"You dunce!" the master scolded him. "Why didn't you give the rest of the water to the plants? What right have you to waste even a drop of water in this temple?"
The young student attained Zen in that instant. He changed his name to Tekisui, which means a drop of water."
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Rank: Luxophage
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It should be noted that First Eric, in The Light Bulb Fragment (pg.118, UK hardback), states that Zen master Shunryu Suzuki is the author of the books he's reading: Raw Shark Texts wrote:I'd got a copy of Crooked Cucumber, Shunryu Suzuki's autobiography. I'd already read his Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, and Zen Flesh, Zen Bones The actual authorship of these books are: Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki by David Chadwick; Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki; and Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind is a book of Suzuki's teachings, transcribed by Marian Derby, and edited by Trudy Dixon and Richard Baker. The AnnotatedRawShark.com states, in regard to Crooked Cucumber: "Eric calls it erroneously "an autobiography"". David Chadwick, author of Crooked Cucumber, wrote in June 2008: David Chadwick wrote:6-20-08 - Just got this shocking message from Dana Velden (I like that name), the Corporate Secretary of the SFZC:
You may already know this, but CC is mentioned in the novel The Raw Shark Texts. Only, it’s referred to as SR’s autobiography. Sheesh! It also implies that SR is the author of Zen Flesh, Zen Bones…
This is how history is made. - dc Is this just an example of the First Eric Sanderson's eroding memory, or subtle indication that he didn't seem that interested in the books to begin with, reading them just because they happened to be what was available?
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cgsheldon wrote:Is this just an example of the First Eric Sanderson's eroding memory, or subtle indication that he didn't seem that interested in the books to begin with, reading them just because they happened to be what was available? Well, according to the Aquarium Fragment, Eric begins to loose his memory after Clio's death when he confronts the Ludovician himself... Maybe the reference to the Zen books are meant to just foreshadow the Shotai-Mu plot line?
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MiaVRO wrote:Well, according to the Aquarium Fragment, Eric begins to loose his memory after Clio's death when he confronts the Ludovician himself...
Maybe the reference to the Zen books are meant to just foreshadow the Shotai-Mu plot line? True the events described in the Light Bulb Fragment happened before Clio's death, but weren't all the Fragments written after Eric encountered the shark? Evidence of First Eric as an unreliable narrator? And if not - if the books were there simply to foreshadow the Shotai-Mu as you suggest - why get the authors' names wrong?
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cgsheldon wrote:why get the authors' names wrong? The answer is simply that Eric Sanderson remembers incorrectly. It's something as throwaway and as important as that - David Chadwick wrote: This is how history is made. or - Paul Auster wrote:A word becomes another word, a thing becomes another thing. And that's enough from me :) S
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Steven Hall wrote:The answer is simply that Eric Sanderson remembers incorrectly. It's something as throwaway and as important as that - Which supports my theory that the reader should perhaps be careful when trusting what First Eric tells us. As I've noted elsewhere on this forum, First Eric is writing these memories down before the Ludovician takes them away from him entirely; so he makes mistakes. It does throw into question everything First Eric tells us, including Clio's existence; the only physical object Second Eric finds that indicates Clio was ever real is the handwriting in her guidebook. Quote:David Chadwick wrote: This is how history is made. or - Paul Auster wrote:A word becomes another word, a thing becomes another thing. So First Eric is arguably filling in the gaps in his memory left by the Ludovician. Steven Hall wrote:And that's enough from me :) :))
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There do seem to be some similarities between the Zen teachings told through the stories of Tekisui (the Master) and Gasan (the Student), and Fidorous and Eric. pg.276, Raw Shark Texts wrote:What happened to you happened because I convinced myself I could pass on the knowledge you were looking for and turn you away from your obsession. Gasan, in " Just go to sleep", is obsessed with rebuilding a temple; he wants Tekisui to speak there but fails to take into account his Master's poor health. Tekisui dies without seeing the finished temple and, judging by Gasan's furious response of "Just go to sleep", his Zen teaching. Similarly, Eric was/is obsessed with the Ludovician; first in finding it, and then in killing it. First Eric fails to heed Fidorous' warnings to avoid the Ludovician and Fidorous ultimately dies at the end of the novel. Did Eric "grow strong" under his teacher's discipline, as Gasan believes he has in " Three Kinds of Disciples"? Eric does ultimately succeed in defeating the Ludovician, but at the cost of Fidorous' life.
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