Sophie’s World
Response:
Well,
something finally happened. It took a while, but finally we are beginning to
understand what is really happening behind Sophie’s World. There has finally
been something entertaining, with Hilde being real and reading a story about
Alberto and Sophie. Hilde’s father is the puppeteer pulling the strings. This
casts a little more light on the idea, however it seems like we will have to
walk through a few mysterious hallways before we reach the climax of the novel.
After all, what 500-page book would have its turning point at page 283? (See my
use of romantic irony?)
In
particular, I have found the chapter on Kierkegaard to be intriguing. It first
of all starts with the absurdity of having Alice in Wonderland show up (a
result of Hilde’s dad influencing the story). I found the red and blue bottles
to be very interesting. The red bottle Sophie drank from changed the world into
a pantheistic one, where everything merged into one. The blue bottle changed
the world into an individualistic world, where every part of it became it’s own
world.
I wonder if
this part of the book gave some inspiration to The Matrix, like the scene with the red and blue pills (“You take the blue pill - the
story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.
You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the
rabbit-hole goes.”) The red pill is like the red bottle and romanticism and
idealism. It revealed an idealistic world where everything is connected, like
The Matrix. The blue pill/bottle is the opposite of the red, like Kierkegaard’s
individualistic response to romanticism, where truth is more important, just
like the blue pill would reveal the truth in The Matrix.
As the book continues, Sophie and
Alberto might need to stay more on the blue side to try and break free from
Hilde’s father.
Real World Response- Super Bowl
Edition
Two Sundays ago, I saw the epic
Super Bowl 49. Before the game, I wanted the Patriots slightly more because I
wanted to see Tom Brady win another Super Bowl and I thought Deflategate was
nonsense, but the Seahawks were likeable too. Overall, it was a good match-up.
It was an enjoyable game throughout;
the Patriots took an early lead, and could’ve led by more, if not for a couple
of bad Tom Brady interceptions. The Seahawks came roaring back to tie the game
at halftime, and then took a ten-point lead (24-14), and had multiple chances
to kill off the Patriots, but couldn’t do it. However, it set up the crazy 4th
quarter.
Brady drives the Patriots down and
scores a touchdown pass to make it a three-point game. The Patriots get the
ball back and score another touchdown to take a 28-24 lead. What happens next,
though, is for the history books.
Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson
drives them down and completes an INSANE, just absolutely INSANE, pass to
receiver Jermaine Kearse to the Patriots 5-yardline. Kearse dove, and the ball
ricocheted off him at least three times before he hauls it in.
At this point it seemed official,
the Seahawks had all the luck and they were going to win. They were bound to
after a play like that. The next play, the dangerous running back Marshawn
Lynch runs another four yards. The Seahawks are one yard away from winning the
Super Bowl.
At this point there are 55ish seconds left. The
Patriots have two timeouts left. The cameras show Patriots coach Bill
Belichick, expecting him to call a timeout. A few seconds pass.
(Wait, what is
this guy doing!?! Call timeout! CALL TIMEOUT!!!)
Inexplicably, Belichick does not use his timeouts, and
the clock keeps ticking and ticking, seemingly allowing less and less time for
a Patriots comeback for when Seattle scores. With 26 seconds left, Wilson gets
the ball and looks to throw, (What?)
throws, and (OH MY GOODNESS!!!) the pass gets intercepted by Patriots safety
Malcolm Butler! The Patriots win the Super Bowl!
Now here is where the philosophy comes in. When
Marshawn Lynch ran the ball to the 1 with 55 seconds left, coach Belichick had
two options. He could,
a) Call timeout, allow time for the Seahawks to pick
their best play, and most likely score. By doing this, he would save time for
Brady, but he would have to drive a long distance against the NFL’s best
defense in under a minute.
b) Not call timeout, and hope that the Patriots
defense stops them.
Remember the red bottle and the blue bottle from
earlier? Option A would be like Kierkegaard’s philosophy, the blue bottle. It
is truthful, and logical. It is realistic, and is what 99.9% of people would
choose. Like The Matrix, they want to
wake up into reality, with 50 seconds left, down by 3, with Tom Brady needing
to engineer an unlikely drive to win.
Or like Saito said in Inception, you can take a leap of faith. Belichick chose Option B,
the red bottle. Like in The Matrix,
he plunged deeper into the rabbit hole, and hoped to come out on the other
side. They were going to live or die on this play. It was Idealistic. It was
Romantic. And it worked.
The Seahawks expected the Patriots to call a timeout.
They didn’t. If you watch the play again, the Seahawks were confused. They didn’t
know where to line up. The Patriots, on the other hand, had gambled, and were
set up to defend this one play. Russell Wilson got the ball, and even when he
threw it, the receiver looked to be open. I don’t blame Russell Wilson for
throwing that pass. However, Malcolm Butler was prepared and made a fabulous
play to win the Super Bowl for the Patriots. Who knows, maybe Bill Belichick
took some extra philosophy courses and had the influence his decision.
