"Nothing in this book is true."
I initially (and carelessly) skipped over the page with this printed statement. I did not discover this hidden gem until Thursday's class dicussion, when Janelle carefully pointed it out. Although many lines and ideas in this novel have caught my attention, it is this one line--before the story even starts--that has made me think most.
This line is a work of art-- in my mind, a perfect paradox.
It reminds exactly of what I have left with you all: "Pinocchio's Paradox." In Pinnocchio's case, if he says, "My nose will grow now," try to think of the repercussions of this statement. When you try to sort it out, it is quite the headache. If he says his nose will grow and it doesn't-- he is lying. If he is lying, then his nose will grow and he is telling the truth. Then is his lie a truth? Or is it that his truth is a lie? The line between truth and lie is blurred, and needless to say: very confusing.
"Nothing in this book is true" has much of the same effect. This statement is both a truth and a lie at the same time. If "Nothing in this book is true," does that not include the statement itself? Certainly, the statement is in the book, and if nothing in the book is true, then that statement is untrue. However, if that statement is a "lie," some other aspects of story are "truths." I do not think there is an alternative situation; this statement cannot be true because if it is, it disproves itself. Like I said, a true headache.
Does a set of all sets include itself? Vonnegut provides us with no answer to this question.
This whole issue with whether something was true or false was exactly what made me feel so mentally blocked with this book. If "nothing in this book is true" and then Bokonon's first line is "All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies," does that make the Bokonon actually true? And why does he say all of the TRUE things? I found the constant debate between true or false took away from my enjoyment of the story to a certain extent.
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