Best of Today: Sophie as a Medium

As we discussed Sophie's World in class today, we attempted to answer the question, "Why does Gaarder juxtapose the Sophie narrative with a philosophy course?" (taken from the Humanities website).

I believe that Gaarder's juxtaposition of Sophie and philosophy is a brilliant idea.

From the question, we came across some excellent explanations. First, Sophie makes the book into a novel. There are characters, like her mother and father and friends, and there are problems that Sophie has already come across... like that her mother thinks she is on drugs due to her newly found curiosity of the world around her. As readers, we are more enthralled by things that we can relate to. So, when Gaarder puts Sophie's life into this work, it provides a greater sense of affection because it is realistic, and it creates an interesting novel. Therefore, more people read it and enjoy it.

If this work was solely philosophy, I would cringe just reading the back cover. When I ponder philosophy, the words that come into my mind are "beyond me... ridiculously confusing... college... religion..." As such, philosophy, at least for me, is completely overwhelming and not something I'd like to read a book about. However, Gaarder's clever ways have put me in a slightly more discernible position: he has combined the mastery of philosophy with a fourteen year old girl who I am more or less able to relate to.

I am so happy that Gaarder has done this, that I wish I could thank him personally. I am totally thankful because this will totally help me get through this 507 page novel. I thoroughly believe that if Sophie was not a part of this work, I would be incapable of reading it. Already, I have noticed that I look forward to reading the "Sophie" parts of the novel. In a way, they give my mind a break from the intense exercise it gets from the philosophy parts.

Considering what Gaarder did, I wish that other writers would do the same. When I think about my past math and history textbooks, I probably would have understood them a lot more, and have been more motivated to read them, if there was a story line twisted into them. I honestly would not mind reading extra pages if there was more depth (like a storyline) to what I'd been reading. In the future, I'll hopefully be able to find novels like Sophie's World, that intrigue me with their fiction, yet teach me significant subjects like astronomy or psychology.

I am extremely grateful for Gaarder's unique combination of fiction and history, and I hope that it makes way for more novels like it, because it seems like an excellent way to teach and entertain at the same time.