"When I believed it, it was a beautiful story."

[onager]

A rant almost completely off-topic, except that the quote reminds me of the long-gone days when I had religion.

That quote led me to musing about how people can convince themselves of the damnedest things, even when those things are obviously impossible...or at least highly unlikely. (Hey, it's Saturday morning, so I can either muse about stuff or go clean out the garage, which I'm putting off...again.)

The source of the quote: Bernard Boursicot.

He was the dupe in the incredible "M. Butterfly" French spy case, which inspired the Broadway play and the 1993 David Cronenberg movie.

I recently saw the movie again, and went looking for information on the real case.

Which all started because the other half of this amazing story, Chinese opera singer Shi Pei Pu, died in Paris on 30 June of this year.

Instead of yammering as usual, I'll leave you with the Wikipedia entries:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Boursicot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shi_Pei_Pu

[enlightenment]

1. Fascinating story.

All the espionage aside, how very sad that Mr. Boursicot was so inculcated in what he thought was 'normal' that he could delude himself at such an amazing level.

Thanks for posting.

[PassingFair]

2. I don't believe it.

I think he knew Shi was a male. (How funny is THAT sentence!)

They were living a pretend life, but
I think they were doing it consciously.

Appearances, you know....