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Tortoise: Do you remember one day when you and I met in the park, seemingly at |
random? |
Achilles: The day we discussed crab canons by Escher and Bach? Tortoise: The very one! |
Achilles: And Mr. Crab, as I recall, turned up somewhere towards the middle of our |
conversation and babbled something funny and then left. |
Crab: Not just "somewhere towards the middle", Achilles. EXACTLY in the middle. |
Achilles: Oh, all right, then. |
Tortoise: Do you realize that your lines were the same as my lines in that conversation- |
except in reverse order? A few words were changed here and there, but in essence |
there was a time symmetry to our encounter. |
Achilles: Big Deal! It was just some sort of trickery. Probably all done with mirrors. |
Tortoise: No trickery. Achilles, and no mirrors: just the work of an assiduous Author. |
Achilles: Oh, well, it's all the same to me. |
Tortoise: Fiddle' It makes a big difference, you know. |
Achilles: Say, something about this conversation strikes me as familiar. Haven't I heard |
some of those lines somewhere before= Tortoise: You said it, Achilles. |
Crab: Perhaps those lines occurred at random in the park one day, Achilles. Do you recall |
how your conversation with Mr. T ran that day? |
Achilles: Vaguely. He said "Good day, Mr. A" at the beginning, and at the end, I said, |
"Good day, Mr. T". Is that right |
Crab: I just happen to have a transcript right here ... |
(He fishes around in his music case, whips out a sheet, and hands it to Achilles. As |
Achilles reads it, he begins to squirm and fidget noticeable.) |
Achilles: This is very strange. Very, very strange ... All of a Sudden, I feel sort of-weird. |
It's as if somebody had actually planned out that whole set of statements in advance, |
worked them out on paper or something . As if some Author had had a whole agenda |
and worked from it in detail in planning all those statements I made that day. |
(At that moment, the door bursts open. Enter the Author, carrying a giant |
manuscript.) |
Author: I can get along very well without such a program. You see, once my characters |
are formed, they seem to have lives of their own, and I need to exert very little effort |
in planning their lines. |
Crab: Oh, here you are!' I thought you'd never arrive! |
Author: Sorry to be so late. I followed the wrong road and wound up very far away. But |
somehow I made it back. Good to see you again, Mr. T and Mr. C. And Achilles, I'm |
especially glad to see you. |
Achilles: Who are you? I've never seen you before. |
Author: I am Douglas Hofstadter-please call me Doug-and I'm presently finishing up a |
book called Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid. It is the book in which |
the three of you are characters. |
Achilles: Pleased to meet you. My name is Achilles, and- |
Author: No need to introduce yourself, Achilles, since I already know you quite well. |
Achilles: Weird, weird. |
Crab: He's the one I was saying might drop in and play continuo with us. |
Author: I've been playing the Musical Offering a little bit on my piano at home, and I can |
try to blunder my way through the Trio Sonata providing you'll overlook my many |
wrong notes. |
Tortoise: Oh, we're very tolerant around here, being only amateurs our selves. |
Author: I hope you don't mind, Achilles, but I'm to blame for the tact that you and Mr. |
Tortoise said the same things, but in reverse order, that day in the park. |
Crab: Don't forget me' I was there, too right in the middle, putting in my two bits' worth! |
Author: Of course! You were the Crab in the Crab Canon. |
Achilles: So you are saying you control my utterances;, That my brain is a software |
subsystem of yours? |
Author: You can put it that way if you want, Achilles. |
Achilles: Suppose I were to write dialogues. Who would the author of them beg You, or |
me? |
Author: You, of course. At least in the fictitious world which you inhabit, you'd get credit |
for them. |
Achilles: Fictitious? I don't see anything fictitious about it! |
Author: Whereas in the world I inhabit, perhaps the credit would be given to me, |
although I am not sure if it would be proper to do so. And then, whoever made me |
make you write your dialogues would get credit in his world (seen from which, MY |
world looks fictitious). |