Response Blog #2

I think Hilde and her father are not real. In the book, her father is sending letters from the future, on Hilde’s birthday. This is quite implausible. He sends a postcard offering his condolences for Hilde losing several things, all of which are miraculously found by Sophie. That is impossible. All throughout the book, Hilde’s father has tremendous power and seems to have control over everything. There are only two potential explanations: Hilde’s father is a God, or he is not real. I don’t think Hilde’s father is a God, simply because of the nature of the book. The book is about philosophy, and a key pillar of philosophy is whether or not a god even exists. By including a God in his book, the author eliminates a key portion of philosophy from even being discussed. Also, if Hilde’s father is a God, that means Hilde isn’t real or she is a divine figure. If Hilde is real, that means that the author is taking a stance on religion, and would most likely endorse Christianity. Once again, that is not good philosophical discussion. That would leave us with Hilde not existing, which is plausible. If he were a God, Hilde’s father could be using Hilde as a foil for Sophie, or to encourage her somehow. However, one does not have to be a deity in order to create a foil for Sophie, so this by no means proves Hilde’s father’s divinity. I think Hilde’s father is a projection of Alberto Knox, either knowingly or unknowingly. A potential explanation could be something Fight Club-esque. There is a possibility that Alberto could have a split personality of Hilde’s father or Hilde, and assume their identity to write the postcards. This is quite unrealistic, as this is a very heavy subject for the author to attempt to address in this book. I think a more likely scenario is if Alberto knowingly created the two fictional characters all to entertain and educate Sophie. The two characters provide a sense of intrigue and urgency for Sophie. I can say for certain that if I had a mysterious soldier sending me future postcards about Chemistry, I’d pay way more attention in that class.