Schrodinger’s cat  is a well known concept for quantum physicists that is used to demonstrate the notion that something can be and not be at the same time. It is a powerful and complicated concept that can help us picture how quantum particles can exist in multiple states at the same time because they are not subject to the same universal rules that other types of matter are.

‘But Nick, this is a literature course, why are you talking about quantum theory? I’m studying arts to avoid math!‘

Ah, but interdisciplinary study can be so powerful in helping us understand the things we love (in this case, literature) as it allows us to gain insight from an angle that we may never have thought possible before. Also, please do not be afraid to click on my link, it is a novel introduction to Schrodinger’s theory written as a short story. And that piece is not the only place we find quantum theory in literature; Chamberlin offers us some troubling thought in If This is Your Land, Where are Your Stories?

As Dr. Paterson has noted in our third prompt, Chamberlin tells us of his childhood learning experience and his insistence that the cat on the classroom board was not actually a cat. The first thing that popped into my mind was Schrodinger’s cat, and the clear connection between Schrodinger’s thought experiment and Chamberlin’s description of language. Dr. Paterson calls it an intersection, Schrodinger calls it entanglement, Chamberlin sees it as a connection between reality and immagination; all of them are picking up on the way that language connects our ideas to the events and feelings of our world. When we interpret the stimuli around us we all have different ways of perceiving the world, no doubt influenced by our unique perspective, our past, our biases, and our desires. What exists in the world exists empirically; a cat is a cat, nothing more and nothing less. But when we interpret the cat it morphs. Maybe it becomes a pet, maybe a nuisance, maybe a companion. Importantly it is all of these things all at once, just to different people, and language allows us to express this.

This can be a troubling thought when we begin to disagree with one another, and I think this is one of the key concepts that Chamberlin is hinting at in his book. We clearly see this issue in colonial narratives. Colonizers, unable “to see what is really there” (italics in original), misunderstand the aboriginal connection to nature and pass it “off as native romanticism” (Chamberlin, 133). Because our words gives us a profound connection with the world around us, allowing us to express feelings that others would otherwise never know, our words become deeply personal. When they become deeply personal any changes to language are not only a threat to our ability to communicate, but a threat to our identity as well. I think this creates huge tension between native populations and colonizers the world over. Adapting to the customs of the primitive natives would have been disastrous, yet simultaneously the villainous invaders were wreaking havoc of their own. As we explore Canadian literature and enter the “world of words” (Chamberlin, 1) we must remember that there are two sides to a story, existing at the same time, existing only in words, but existing as so much more than words.

‘Hmm, that actually makes sense. I guess math isn’t so bad after all! ‘

Works Cited

Chamberlin, J. Edward. If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?: Finding Common Ground. Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2004. Print.

Jafek, Bev. “Schrödinger’s Cat.” Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art 15 (1990): 216-32. Print.

Nichols, Suzanne. “What Is Quantum Entanglement? SuperConsciousness Magazine.” 2011. Web. 16 Jan. 2015.

Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 1.2 Story & Literature.” University of British Columbia , Vancouver. 15 Jan. 2015. Lecture.