28
When Douglas MacArthur stood on the Korean peninsula, he raised his hand into the sky and caught a handful, then he gestured to his cryptographers and said: this is the intelligence that I wanted, I want to know everything, things that are all around me, things that I cannot see because I am blind. It is up to you to restore my vision.
Several years later, in his reminiscences he wrote: ‘My cryptographers never once let me open my eyes, not even once. I was very lucky to come back alive.’
29
Might as well repeat MacArthur’s action and extend a hand to grasp at the sky. But your purpose is not to grasp the air, but to catch a bird. There is always a bird in the sky, but the likelihood of you grabbing hold of it with your bare hands is terribly remote. This remoteness is not the same as saying it’s impossible, since some people can indeed miraculously grab hold of a bird in the sky.
— That is decryption.
However, the majority of people will only grab hold of a few bird feathers, even if they work on it their whole lives.
30
What kind of person can truly grab hold of a bird?
Perhaps John Nash could.*
But Liseiwicz can’t, although his genius is not necessarily inferior to that of John Nash.
* John Nash, the American mathematician, played a key role in the development of game theory, for which he was one of the recipients of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Economics. His accomplishments in the field of pure mathematics were equally astounding: he was one of the founders of modern partial differential mathematics. Unfortunately, at the age of just thirty-four, he developed severe paranoid schizophrenia. This brought his remarkable genius to a premature conclusion.
Although Nash would be able to catch a bird in flight, in my mind’s eye I couldn’t be sure of when he might do so. However, as long as Liseiwicz paid close attention to Nash’s line of sight, to the precise moment at which he began to move his hand; if he paid attention to his attitude, his nimbleness, his accuracy, his power to leap, etc.; if he were to raise his head again to scan the skies for the number of birds in it, the speed at which they were flying, their path, special characteristics and changes in their motion, etc.; then perhaps he could judge when Nash would reach out to clasp a bird in his hands.
Possessing the same level of ability, Liseiwicz’s genius was more rigorous, cautious, and more beautiful, like that of an angel, like a god. Nash’s genius, however, was something unfamiliar, an unfamiliarity that made it seem freakish and uncivilized, as though he was possessed by an evil spirit. Ciphers are the work of the devil; they stand as testament to the craftiness and evilness of people, to our treacherous nature, our sinister intent, our devilish aptitude, there are no steps to be added, thus Nash, a man indistinguishable from the devil, was able to draw ever so close to them.
32
Sleep and death have the same given name, but not the same surname. Sleep prepares one for death; dreams are a kind of hell. People say that your spirit passes through your carcass to become small, your mind passes through your corpse to become tiny, this is the fundamental characteristic of demons and hobgoblins.
People also say that since you have had dealings with the dream world since you were a child, you’ve been polluted by the wickedness and evil encountered there; that is why you are able to catch hold of a bird in mid-flight.
33
All the secrets of this world are held in dreams.
34
You only need to prove yourself.
When you do so, your opponent will assist you.
When you cannot, your opponent will prove himself. You long for some other person of talent to step forth and permit you to keep your mouth shut. But to make this happen, you need to continue to speak.*
36
They’ve changed my personal security guard yet again; the reason for this one’s dismissal was her failure to come and collect my notebook. She’s not the first to be dismissed and she won’t be the last.
37
My new personal security guard will most definitely be a woman. . †
Who is she?
* I can speculate that since English is used here, this is some quotation or other, but I cannot find the source.
† During the mid 1970s, marriage for members of Unit 701 had to follow strict regulations. For instance, female comrades were prohibited from having romantic relationships with people outside the unit. If a man wished to begin a relationship with someone from the outside (although equality between the sexes was officially promoted, in reality men were privileged over women), they needed to report this to the relevant authorities. Once the report was made, the organization would dispatch agents to investigate the woman’s background. If consent was given, the relationship was allowed to proceed to the next level. Later, if this person did not wish to do a particular thing, or if there was some ‘problem’ that was difficult to resolve, then they could request that the Party step in and resolve it for them. The issue of Rong Jinzhen’s marriage had created quite a thorny problem for the authorities to deal with because he was getting older and older and yet had done nothing about getting married. He was not taking any initiative nor was he asking the authorities for help. Once he passed thirty years of age, the Party took it upon themselves to secretly and shrewdly arrange a marriage for him. First they selected an appropriate person and then arranged for that person to serve as Rong Jinzhen’s personal security guard. Not only would this woman have to have the complete trust of the Party, she also had to be determined to be by his side and hope to marry him. If she could not do that, she would have to leave in order to provide someone else with the opportunity — perhaps the next person would have better luck. It was due to this intricate plan that Rong Jinzhen’s personal security guard continued to change over and over again: the current guard was already his fourth.
Do you know her?
Do you hope it is someone you know, or not?
Did she volunteer, or was she talked into doing this kind of job? Will she come to see me in the hospital tomorrow?
Christ! This really gives one a headache!
39
The devil continues to bear and raise children because it wants to eat them all.
40
The doctor told me that my stomach is still bleeding a bit. He felt it odd that he had administered such excellent medicine and yet still had not seen the hoped-for results. I told him the reason for that: since I was in my teens I have been taking stomach medicines as if they were meals: I’ve simply consumed too much medicine; I’ve become numb to its effect. He decided to administer something new. I told him that it didn’t matter as there were no new medicines that I hadn’t already tried; the crux of the matter was the dosage needed to be increased. He told me that that was too risky, he didn’t dare do it. From my point of view, I had better prepare myself to remain here a little while longer.
41
That loathsome pet!
42
She’s come.
They always rush forward bravely, ready to suffer at your side.
43
When she is here, the hospital room feels practically thronged with people.
When she leaves, looking at her back, you almost forget that she is a woman.
She needed seven cakes in order to relieve her hunger.*