Hofstadter, Dennett - The Mind's I

The Seventh Sally 295In his novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues,* Tom Robbins has -apassage that is strikingly similar to Lem's vision of a tinymanufactured world:For Christmas that year, Julian gave Sissy a miniature Tyroleanvillage. The craftsmanship was remarkable.There was a tiny cathedral whose stained-glass windows madefruit salad of sunlight. There was a plaza and tin Biergarten. TheBiergarten got quite noisy on Saturday nights. There was a bakery thatsmelled always of hot bread and strudel. There was a town hall and apolice station, with cutaway sections that revealed standard amountsof red tape and corruption. There were little Tyroleans in leatherbritches, intricately stitched, and, beneath the britches, genitaliaof_ equally fine workmanship. There were ski shops and many otherinteresting things, including art orphanage. The orphanage wasdesigned to catch fire and burn down every Christmas Eve. Orphanswould dash into the snow with their nightgowns blazing. Terrible.Around the second week of January, a fire inspector would come andpoke through the ruins, muttering, "If they had only listened to me,those children would be alive today."Although in subject it resembles the Lem piece greatly, inflavor it is completely different. It is as if two composers hadindependently come up with the same melody but harmonized itutterly differently. Far from drawing you into believing in thegenuine feelings of the tiny people, Robbins makes you see themas merely incredible (if not incredibly silly) pieces of fineclockwork.The repetition of the orphanage drama year after year,echoing the Nietzschean idea of eternal recurrence-thateverything that has happened will happen again and again--seemsto rob the little world of any real meaning. Why should therepetition of the fire inspector's lament make it sound sohollow? Do the little Tyroleans rebuild the orphanage themselvesor is there a "RESET" button? Where do the new orphans comefrom, or do the "dead" ones come back to "life"? As with theother fantasies here, it is often instructive to think about thedetails omitted.Subtle stylistic touches and narrative tricks make all thedifference as to whether you get sucked into belief in thegenuineness of the tiny souls. Which way do you tilt?D.R.H.D.C.D.*Excerpt from Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins, pp. 191-192.Copyright © 1976 by Tom Robbins. Reprinted by permission of Bantam Books.All rights reserved