Is It "Sophie's World", "Hilde's World", "The Majour's World"... Or Is It "Jostein's World"?

Where I shall be referring to for this blog is Sophie’s World, chapter 22: “Berkeley”, starting on page 285. (Wow, what number is after 22, 23. 285, lets take the 85 part, 8-5=3 so that’s 23. Wow, paranoia kicking in.) (I can go further, but I don’t want to fixate myself on that, or at least not yet, not now.) Anyway, I want to say a note on my choice of a page before I begin. I misread the blog assignment the first time I read it and I didn’t realize we had to right as if we were Jostein Gaarder’s author. But the page I still wanted to do this page right from the start. Now that I realize what the assignment really is, it plays even better than what I originally planned. So, the story…


“You said that for Berkeley this spirit that everything exists in is the Christian God.”

Hilde’s father paused for a moment, trying to think of how to finally admit to Sophie that she was his creation. Then he made Alberto say:

“Yes, I suppose he did. But for us…”
“Us?”

The old majour had to really consider his words wisely, for if he slipped, things might not happen in his book quite how he wanted to happen.

“For us – for you and me – this ‘will or spirit’ that is the ‘cause of everything in everything’ could be Hilde’s father”

That was the best he could do. After all, he didn’t want to entirely give himself away, he just wanted to open up a new possibility. Now let’s see if Sophie will take the bait.

Sophie’s eyes widened with incredulity. Yet at the same time a realization began to dawn on her.
“Is that what you think?”
“I cannot see any other possibility. This is perhaps the only feasible explanation for everything that has happened to us. All those postcards and signs that have turned up here and there… Hermes beginning to talk… my own involuntary slips of the tongue.”
“I…”

Even though he was trying to follow the majour’s terminology and use of words, he wanted to have his own fun too. “I don’t think the majour will mind…”

“Imagine my calling you Sophie, Hilde! I knew all the time that your name wasn’t Sophie.”
“What are you saying? Now you are definitely confused.”

And so was the majour. What compelled him to write that? As he did not have a way to fix his mistake using only a typewriter, he figured out how to fix this.

“Yes, my mind is going round and round, my child. Like a giddy planet around the sun.”
“Is that sun Hilde’s father?”
“You can say so.”
“Are you saying he’s been a kind of God for us?”

What a question to answer. He wasn’t even sure why he was writing those words. It’s as if someone else was writing it for him. But the only way possible to not let anything be definite is to let Alberto whole-heartedly believe:

“To be perfectly candid, yes. He should be ashamed of himself!”

Bad majour. How can you do such a horrible thing torturing these poor souls by making yourself seem divinely compared to them, Jostein Gaarder thought to himself as he was sitting at his computer typing all of this.

The majour did start to feel slightly bad about making only himself seem so high and mighty. He’ll let someone else take the stage at least for a brief moment; this book is for her after all.

Or so he thinks.

“What about Hilde herself?”
“She is an angel, Sophie.”
“An angel?”
“Hilde is the one this ‘spirit’ turns to.”
“Are you saying that Albert Knag tells Hilde about us?”

Well, I am saying that I am telling you about Jostein Gaarder hinting at his existence to Albert Knag telling Hilde about Sophie and Alberto.