<- Back to Chapter 12 | [Back to the Table of Contents] | Forward to Chapter 14 -> Chapter 13 The Price of Paper in Luoyang Truth is built upon information just as a castle built upon sand. For some reason, extra editions were being constantly released and fluttered around in Gensokyo's wind, and irresponsible news articles permeated everyone's talk. The articles were of all kinds, from old news to recent news, and from facts that everyone knew about to ones of quite questionable truth. Most of the truths we know are built upon information. When an event takes place, we usually don't have the chance to witness it with our own eyes. With luck, we can at most conjecture about it through the information that the event creates. And what we call "truth" is built upon this uncertain base of information. Most truths are not only built upon uncertain bases, they are also fleeting, fragile. Truth is, in fact, easily changed by new information. If one is to create new information, then one must keep in mind that this information will change reality. There's no such thing as information that conveys only the actual truth: truth itself is the ultimate illusion, an illusion that doesn't even exist in Gensokyo. And there were a lot of newspapers scattered all around that didn't seem to understand that. That's because until recently, there was a tengu news tournament going on. This tournament is not a new thing, but this year it showed an unprecedented uprush, and at the same time, the tengu newspapers seemed to permeate every academic aspect of Gensokyo. But the question remains of why this news competition - which has happened every year - took this sudden rush this year. I can think of two reasons for this. One is that the recent incident's aftermath provides a plethora of article material, and the other one - which I believe has a more direct relation - is that the supply of paper has seen a sudden increase, and its price has dropped accordingly. If the availability of paper increases, it's a matter of course that the number of newspapers will increase too - and similarly, the fact that paper has become more easily accessible is something I'm very grateful for. *Knock-knock.* "Gee...extras and more extras! When you release extras every day, there's nothing 'extra' about them!" "Yes, but they'll be a bother even if you bring them inside my shop." Reimu had a sheaf of newspaper prints (all of them extras) in her hands. We are not a garbage collection establishment, and there is no way those newspapers could be considered articles to be sold. "Hm? What are you doing? You don't seem to be reading a book." I waved across the table with my hand, holding a writing brush. Yes, I had started to write a book. I had always wanted to write one, but couldn't easily get hold of enough paper. But now that enough paper is easy to come by, that's at least one thing I can do. "I was thinking of writing about the everyday happenings." "Like a journal? But what would it be useful for?" "Because the authenticity of these newspapers is somewhat questionable. So I was thinking of writing the facts as close as possible to the truth." "That's still not truth." "When you write down a truth, it is not truth anymore. That's why it's impossible to write down the truth. Don't you know why there isn't any historical-like history in Gensokyo?" "Because every day is very peaceful? The things that remain as history are things that were good for a few people and bad for a lot. And even when we have an incident, it's quickly solved." "That's not all there is to it. There is a simpler reason for lack of history--" Our conversation was interrupted by the sound of the window glass breaking. "Extra! Extra! Read it like there's no tomorrow!" You could hear a distant tengu voice through the broken window. I quickly went and looked through the broken window, but the figure of the deliverer was already far away, and didn't seem to worry at all about the glass she had broken. "Geez, they call it an extra or whatever, but can't those tengu deliver things in a more calm manner?" "The fact that they are distributing extras around is already weird in itself." As an emergency repair, I stuck the old newspapers Reimu had brought to the broken window. Using newspaper pages gives it an appearance of poverty, but it would work fine as a paper frame. It was the season of cold winds out there, and it was better to stick newspaper there than to do nothing. "Won't a paper frame of newspaper get torn easily? Like when another extra gets thrown through the same window?" "No, that won't happen. Even if it's newspaper, paper is stronger than glass. Most definitely." "I wonder about that..." "Didn't you ever think about that, Reimu? Why such a thin and weak-looking paper is used for door and window frames, I mean." "Isn't it because it lets light through?" "If that was all it was, it wouldn't be strange if they had all been replaced by glass by now, would it? and lately, the need for gathering light from outside is decreasing." I told Reimu about the mysterious nature of paper frames as borders. Even a child could tear that paper if she wanted to. If they were touched by a dirty hand, they couldn't be restored. Unlike glass, paper frames couldn't be washed. And because they were like that, if they were torn or dirtied, someone would definitely be to blame. Kids that acted rowdy around them would get scolded, and the ones who would touch them with dirty hands would be stopped. For these kinds of individuals, the paper frames served their first purpose as paper frames. In most cases, those individuals would be from the same house in which the frames were posted, so the sturdiness of the paper frames would ultimately be based on the power of the household to keep them that way. In a way, their strength is immesurable. Thanks to the paper frames, people didn't act rowdy around buildings, and nobody handled doors roughly. If they were replaced with a sturdier material, such as iron or stone, then the behavior of people would turn rougher; they would even start acting violently inside buildings. And before long, even the sturdiness of those materials would break. Paper frames have the power of preventing dangerous behavior from people. The strength of a paper frame is not definite; it is proportional to the strength of the ones living inside it. The paper frames of an abandoned house can be torn apart even by a baby, but the frames of a shrine housing a god wouldn't ever get torn even by an adult's strength. "Hey, Rinnosuke, do those unbreakable paper frames have eyes?" Looking at the window, I saw an eye peeping through a hole in the newspaper frame. "Well then, what does today's extra say...?" As a punishment for making a hole in the newspaper window, I made Marisa fix it. "Ahh, it was really unimportant: they decided the winner of the tengu newspaper competition. It says the winner was the paper 'Kuruma News,' that I've never heard about." "That's really unimportant, isn't it?" "That's really unimportant." I have read this great tengu winner's "Kuruma News" already, but this extra that was just thrown through my window - the "Bunbunmaru News" - was so exaggerated it was somehow cute. Its contents were a great way off reality; all of its articles were written so as to make everything seem amusing and peculiar. And especially, its information was so crammed in, like it was only trying to create volume. It was truly awful. Maybe by having a lot of stuff crammed together, people who just couldn't think deeply about anything got a sense of having acquired more knowledge. If knowledge was just the enumerated information, then wouldn't human wisdom be the same as books and newspapers enumerating events? The reason we can get knowledge from books and newspapers is most definitely not because the knowledge is written on them. The things written in books and newspapers are but an uncertain basis on which to construct the truth; they are basically just information, and that's not enough to gain knowledge from. When you think about this information is when it starts to become knowledge. Compared to the "Kuruma News" - regarding its subjects, anyway - this "Bunbunmaru News" has a lot more considerations and inquiries, and its knowledge goes deeper, or so I think. Well, regarding its subjects, anyway. "By the way, why has the number of newspapers increased so suddenly? I had no idea, but this newspaper competition is held every year, I gather? If that's true, then the competition can't be the only cause, right?" "The main cause would be paper becoming much more accessible. The price of paper in Gensokyo has just dropped sharply. Seems a great quantity of paper is dropping in from the outside world." "Hmm...first ghosts, and now paper. An all-you-can-drop-in event?" "Computers are shikigami capable of gathering information without using paper. When you consider that together with the increase in paper, then you could say that paper has already reached the realms of fantasy as a form of transmitting information. It may even be that the act of writing books itself has already become fantasy in the outside world. But well, it's thanks to that that I'm now thinking about writing one." "Have you become forgetful, then?" "You mean to say that all writers are forgetful?" "Yes, they're all like Indian strawberries." "You mean like that, and Nichiren Oshou?" "I believe what you two want to say is '3-day monk.'" Gensokyo doesn't have any historical-like history. And that is not because every day is peaceful and any incidents are quickly resolved: there is an even more simple reason: It is because the youkai's life span is too long. Even if an event became history, as long as the involved party is still alive and can go changing the information at their discretion, the real truth cannot be determined - not upon this uncertain foundation. Truth is a castle built upon the sands of information; if a truth of uncertain authenticity is built, it will crumble in the wind. No matter how many "castles of truth" are erected, they can all melt under the rain. Objectiveness is the most important thing in history, but if an involved party is still around, it cannot quite separate from its interests, and that is why there is no history in Gensokyo. I intend to use this paper that fell in from the outside world to write about the Gensokyo I see, in the most objective fashion I can. If that can become history, then the beginning of my writing of this book will become our very first history. And this first history would exactly be the birth of Gensokyo's history; in fact, at the beginning of my book, I even wrote "the history of Gensokyo is born." "Anyway, this is just too much paper...from where are the tengu gathering so much of it?" "The only reason for paper to be increasing here is because it is decreasing in the outside world. Like I said before, the very use of paper as a way of transmitting information might already be fantasy." "So it's all oral tradition now...? Well, there are a lot of people in the outside world, so they must have a lot of mouths, at least." "So that means that, in contrast, communication through paper might become popular in Gensokyo." "Like the tengu's newspapers, y'mean? That'd be annoyin'." "Yeah, it would be annoying." "Well...I supposed it would be annoying." Gensokyo's history would soon be born through my hands. I wonder if there will eventually come a time when my book will become a textbook of Gensokyo's history. At that time, academism will start to take place in Gensokyo, and Gensokyo will become closer to the outside world. Incidentally, if my book does sell like crazy, it would help a lot with the shop. If I don't sell only picked-up goods anymore, Kourindou's level could possibly rise above that of a mere second-hand store. Due to the large amount of paper raining down on Gensokyo, its price had dropped. And at the same time, newspapers and books can now be written, increasing the demand for this paper. If the price of paper goes down in Gensokyo, it goes up in Luoyang. When paper disappears in the outside world, it proliferates in Gensokyo. When large flocks of crested ibises fly through Gensokyo's skies, they must have disappeared from the skies of the outside world. There's a balance to everything. People who only focus on the small things could never see the balance of the world. "But really, all these newspapers have is unimportant subjects. Like finding out the width of the Sanzu River. What's so good about figuring that out?" Marisa was flipping through the sheafs of old newspaper Reimu had brought, reading some of the unimportant contents in them. "Because the width of the Sanzu River is related to how much time you take to be ferried across it. Even a human like you would be more relieved in dying knowing it, isn't that so?" "Must be boring if it takes too much time. Maybe I can bring something along to keep myself occupied during the trip?" "Seems like you yourself realize that the Sanzu River will be wide when you cross it, Marisa." "Better wide than narrow." "No, it's not...the width of the river is the same as your relation to people. If the number of good friends - say, good enough to lend you money - you have is small, it'll be wide. If you go taking things away from my store on your own, it will be so wide you won't be able to be ferried across, you know?" "That's why it's good for it to be wide. If it's so wide, can I take some stuff from the store with me?" Even though it was a newspaper of unimportant content, the girls could get their heads working about it to acquire some knowledge. Knowledge is something you think about yourself, argue it against your existing ideas, and apply to your own station. It's not something that's written somewhere: you have to pick up what's written and think about it for knowledge to first appear. While it's a thankful thing that there are newspapers and books that gather lots of information and happenings, they don't really gather knowledge; your knowledge won't rise just by looking, reading, memorizing, writing, or speaking. I think it's a mistake to make a winner of a newspaper like the great tengu's that promotes these things. Judging the merits of a newspaper only by the number of subscribed readers is dangerous. Couldn't they see that this would just increase the number of humans and youkai who misunderstand knowledge? Next time I meet a tengu, I'll be sure to mention it. "But anyway, this tengu newspaper competition is over now, right? That means the number of unimportant extras will finally go down." "That's right. And they were delivering extras with such regularity that it was the same as having a subscription. Well, I do have subscriptions, but even so, I still got extras delivered to me. I'd be glad if they only did that when there's an extra with big news that relates to me." "But there'll be another newspaper competition next year, right? And with their being so early to think and act, the tengu might soon be starting their preparations for next year--" Marisa's line was interrupted by yet another extra tearing through the paper frame. The two of them looked with surprised expressions at the extra thrown in through the window. When I thought of having to change paper frames the whole year round, I started to feel a little dizzy. <- Back to Chapter 12 | [Back to the Table of Contents] | Forward to Chapter 14 ->