Shami "not fastidious", etc.

[Nutcase]

Sigh. I don't want to make a big deal out of this. I'm still sorting out what level of issue is worthy of discussion, what kind of issue anybody else is interested in discussing. My first impulse is to just edit as I see fit and say next to nothing, but I see value in the community. I'll keep twiddling the dials, see if I can get a clearer signal.


I'm inclined to change "spotted" to "tricolor" back in vol 2, as I think this communicates my personal best guess as to the intent of the author. However, it may be a while before I reread Volume 2, and maybe I'll have a different opinion by then.

Nutcase

[Kinny Riddle]

From what I've read in vol 2, I certainly did not see anything that mentions Shami being tricolour. I think it's just Ito Noiji and the Kyo-Ani illustrators taking liberty with Tanigawa's loosely defined narrative, which is why you may see Shami drawn as a tricoloured-cat.

With Kyon being the narrator, one shouldn't expect him to go into too much details than his already overloaded brain could convey.

[Nutcase]

Well if you say so. Your considered opinion as a translator certainly trumps mine.

I do understand that Kyon as a narrator can't be expected to be comprehensive or completely reliable.

Trying to sort out what is looseness in the author's imagining from what is looseness in Kyon's narrative - two different things - from what is looseness in the translation - and what of that is due to different language structure vs. idioms and hard to get cultural references vs. the individual translator's influence, it all factors into what interests me here.

Kyon comes across as an intellectual magpie, and it would be in character for him to know that tricolor male cats are anomalous, but I can also believe that Shami was imagined as just a spotted cat, made tricolor by illustratrators and, well, the author just went with the flow. Shrug.

[ellimist]

ahaha...why don't we all make de assumption that the author didn't think of Shami's potential while writing vol 2 and hence didn't really delve into the details of describing him, but while writing vol 4 he suddenly realised what a stronger point he can make about shami becoming really ordinary by emphasising on the fact that he's tri-coloured? So it's like, a kinda story-development for Shami (you know, the further the story progresses, the more details are revealed, etc.)?

hmmm...did that make a lot of sense? XD i hope it did to you guys

[Nutcase]

Ellimist, perhaps you are on the right track. In Vol. 5 on the train ride scene in Snow Mountain Syndrome, Koizumi explicitly comments on Shami being tricolor (calico), which is the first explicit and unambiguous reference to this point, at least in the translation, as best I recall. This volume was written before the anime was made, so we can't blame this development on the animators.

Part of what interests me about this issue is how it reflects on Haruhi's knowledge and powers of observation. She showed very acute perspicacity in assembling the SOS Dan, and yet there are huge mysteries in plain sight that she chooses never to be seen looking at. Whether she looks at these things when she is not herself observed, that's another question. Perhaps she takes the view that the fun attached to the mysteries could wilt and wither in the million watt focused spotlight of her full attention. Similarly, more explicitly, the author has Yuki giving up her ability to see the future so that she can participate more fully in the now.

The tricolor cat is a small point in this larger question I have about the author's intent.

[Smidge204]

I'm not quite sure what constitutes "very acute perspicacity in assembling the SOS Dan" on Haruhi's part. She simply does things and fails to grasp how exceptional the results are. That's her persona and, I think, a little joke the author plays on her.

Edit: In fact, Haruhi makes a pretty lackluster detective in Lone Island Syndrome... Kyon does most of the deduction.
=Smidge=

[Nutcase]

Having scouted the school rigorously for a month, once Haruhi decides to put together the club, she hits on Yuki and the Literature Club room instantly. She latches on to Michuru instantly. She has been rigorously scouting for anomalies, and she has these catalogued. She handles both individuals with a kind of predatory efficiency and effectiveness for her purposes, and she handles them in completely different ways.

One can be perspicatious, like an animal with a deep and detailed map of its territory, without necessarily being reflective or "wordy" in the way one has the map storied in the mind.

I hope I'm making myself sufficiently clear. These things aren't so easy to talk about in a precise way, so you may have to reach past my imperfect words to get a meaning.

Thinking in words is a very powerful tool, but you don't have to be a Zen master to recognize that there are other powerful ways of thinking.

To take Haruhi at face value is one way to take her, for sure. Just at face value, she's already a lot of fun. You can take Koizumi at face value to. Just saying...

But you are of course correct, Haruhi doesn't seem to be a master of deductive reasoning.