In that day maybe you will shout like an indian too. That would be the least that you can do, because it doesn't always happen that you realize you're a flesh-and-blood dweller of a planet which is a small lost island in the universe"
As I finished this book, I could hardly control my smile - in amazement. I remember reading sophia's world a few years back, and thinking what a beautiful and thought-provoking educational novel it was, J.G. is simply great. Like in 'Sophia's world' the story of discovery happens in partnership with the amazed eyes of a child and the beautiful parental guidance of a father-philosopher.
Two stories, a boy and a father in a search for the mother, and a diary of a sailor who found an enchanted island, carry all the themes of this novel.. Finding the self, looking at the world, thinking about our existence, knowing, being and behavior... It moves fast ( and many times goes deep ) to tackle many themes.
One of the beautiful themes of this novel is shock at our ability to stop being surprised by our existence. !! how can we be so ignorant, drunk, and grown up ??!
People are playing cards.. and there are so few 'jokers'.. the different, stand alone, playful and unique jokers. Jokers aren't just content with living on, knowing so little and going throughout life without the sense of amazement, questions, and the quest for knowledge..
"One athenian asked the oracle of delphi about the wisest man in athens, and the answer was 'socrates'. Socrates was shocked to know this, because he realized that he didn't know particularly much.. the only difference was that everybody else was content with the little they knew, while they didn't know more than him.. those who are perfectly content with what they know can never become philosophers."
A very interesting point made by Hans-Thomas's father is to explain how remotely possible our unique existence can be.. we have 2 parents, 4 g. parents, 8 g.g. parents and so on .. if we go back till the middle ages (20 - 30 generations back) we will have 2^(generations) and would require that all these people survive at that particular period of time for us to exist .. Take the example of the plague that wiped half the population of norway in that time, so the survival chance of all of H.T. ancestors is almost negligible [ (1/2)^(their number) ] ... I know that a lot of arguments can be placed here, but this point does tell a lot about our unique existence and how amazing it is.
Gaarder beautifully implies the story of the playing cards coming to life out of Frode's imagination to hint at our creation and our being.. They were initially thoughts in his mind, but the overflow of imagination and ideas brought them to life [ something similar happens in 'Sophia's world'], they even killed their 'god' to escape their humiliation.
"Existence is an incredible adventure.. the person who knows this is the Joker"
"As much as we are children, we have the gift of discovering the world with amazement before we get used to it in the end. Growing up is deeply similar to a state of drunk-ness and weakening of our senses to the degree of mixing up everything, and then not feeling anything.
In the end I understood what was happening to the dwarfs of the enchanted island: something prevented them from feeling the secret of their own existence, perhaps because they never were kids. When they started drinking that potent drink to compensate what they lost, they ended up uniting with the world surrounding them. I also understood the huge victory that Frode and the Joker achieved by resisting the temptation of the purple lemonade."
"It is sad that people in the end think it very normal that they're alive. we will one day lose the gift of being able to be shocked and might not find it again until we are about to leave this world."
There should always exist a joker to remind all dwarfs (small and big) periodically that they should find it strange to be alive. Who are we .. where did we come from.
Knowing how little we know
Having the wandering questioning mind of a child
Never outgrowing the sense of amazement
Never drowning our thoughts with the magic lemonade
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