Sophie's World 5: Vaguely Related Pun

So yeah. I don't know what I was supposed to read up to. Or when I'm supposed to have things read by.

But I can say this: the last couple chapters I've read have made no sense. The Alberto/Sophie vs. Albert arc confuses the shit out of me¹. The last couple philosophers are too grounded AND too out there to be memorable. I can barely remember their names, and their ideas jumble to me. Yet I somehow felt confident on the last test. Thank god for multiple choice. AP Psych as some explanation about how multiple choice is easier than free response, but I'm not gonna dig that info out until I'm studying for finals.

I also think that Jostein Gaarder writing as Albert writing in random characters is just annoying. As is Alberto constantly saying Albert should be ashamed of himself. I honestly can't tell if it's a sign of Jostein Gaarder being a bad writer, or a sign that he is writing Albert as a bad writer. Regardless, it's bad writing. Repetition and motifs are one thing. Typing the same thing repeated so you don't have to reword anything is stupid².

I think the part were this story fell apart on me was when it went from a textbook to a book-within-a-book. The textbook-disguised-as-a-novel was kind of boring, but at least it bothered to make sense. It's gone from sensical to spamming fictional characters for the sake of 'why not?'


Now I'm sure that is just some meta example of how philosophy has changed over the years (sciency to absurd). Which also works well, because the book starts with early philosophies of how the world was built, and at the start of the book I had no idea where anything was going or how the story would be shown. Now that I've rambled off some English teacher style depth diving, I suppose I should admit that Jostein Gaarder is really some great writer. After all, I found a way to make something deep; there is no way the depth was my own creation and not innate to the something.


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1 Earlier today, I wrote a very angry SciFi blog, and the use of swearing is still appealing.
2 Ironic, since I enjoyed the descriptions of various world leaders in The Illuminatus! Trilogy...