Going Bovine Versions of Reality Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

"Is Don Quixote mad or is it the world that embraces these ideals of the knight-errant that is actually mad? That's the rhetorical question that Cervantes seems to be posing to us." (2.10)

It's no coincidence that Cameron is studying Don Quixote when he gets sick; there are a lot of similarities between his hallucinated epic quest and Cervantes' classic tale. Going Bovine is full of these rhetorical questions regarding reality and which world is actually real. Is Cameron's quest real? Is everyone else ignoring what's real when they look right past Dulcie's wings?

Quote #2

"The point is probability and reality. And that's where parallel universes come in. Reality splits into two possible outcomes—one where the cat lives; another where the cat dies. From every choice you make, another world is created where a different reality happens." (2.40)

Schrödinger's Cat is a famous paradox that speaks to one of the main themes in our story: If two realities exist at one time until our discovery of them reduces them to one reality, does that mean that if we don't get involved there are multiple realities existing on different planes? Whoa. In other words, if Cameron thinks his quest is real, but the rest of us are just seeing a dying young man in a coma, which of our realities is real, or are they both reality and just existing on parallel planes?

Quote #3

"You're not real. I'm hallucinating."

"Do I seem real to you right now?" I nod.

"Well, there you go." (15.8-10)

Dulcie likes to keep things stress-free. It doesn't matter what's real, so much as what feels real to Cameron. If he thinks she's real, then she is. Simple.