Ship of Theseus

Throughout the past month I have been reading through the book S. by Doug Dorst and J.J. Abrams. I was recommended this book by fans of another book I had recently finished entitled House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. Both of these novels are of the Postmodern genre which if I had to best describe I would label it as the "genre of experiencing a novel" more so than just reading it. Both of these novels have two very distinct ways of allowing the reader to be so immersed into the narrative that they are themselves experiencing it. House of Leaves does this by having two stories simultaneously going: one known as The Navidson Report which is a manuscript of a film and the other story found within the footnotes which tells the story of a guy who found the manuscript of The Navidson Report and in many ways how it has affected his life. I have given a more detailed review of House of Leaves on my good friend Phil's youtube channel which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIiJA4NnVDo.

 S. however, takes a different approach to the narrative and really has three stories intertwined. It is also a book within a book. The first story is entitled Ship of Theseus and it is about a man who has no memory of who he is or used to be and where he is supposed to go. The second narrative is found throughout the novel in the footnotes which are by a woman named F.X. Caldeira. At first glance the footnotes seem to just be to aid the reader, but in further investigation it reveals they are coded letters to the author of the book Ship of Theseus whose name is V.M. Straka. Then the third story is in the margins of the book; this story tells the tale of Eric and Jen, two English lit majors who are writing back and forth in the novel (which reminds me of my own love story with the amazing woman who is now my wife) about the mystery behind the novel. These three narratives though may sound confusing or hard to track were excellent to read! I very much felt like I was reading a season of J.J. Abram's former show Lost. I could tell very quickly that this novel experience was also a love story of the narrative. A love story of all it takes to write, read, and invest your life into a story. 

As I read through the book I was also doing some research on it--because like I said, it is more of an experience to read it--and found the term Ship of Theseus to be a philosophical question/term. It is also known as the Theseus Paradox and asks the question that if a ship or object has slowly had all of its pieces completely removed and replaced is it still the same ship? This question has been modified and changed through the years, but the point is the same: If we, as humans, have changed completely through our physicality and experiences do we cease to be the person we were years ago?

It is a tough question and it matters. It's all about how much a person can change and if they change are they a different person or are they the same person with different motives? Is that the same thing?
My quick and current response is that they are the same person (or the same Ship), but transformed or renewed. This makes me think of the transformation of the caterpillar into a butterfly. It is completely different than it was when it was a caterpillar, but yet it is still the same insect as the butterfly. So I think it is not a matter of being someone or something different, but of being transformed and renewed.

But it is still a question I would like to ponder more: If we have changed completely from how we were years prior are we still the same person? Am I still the same Tanner as I was before I started at University? Overall I would greatly recommend S. to anyone especially those who enjoy mystery and solving puzzles.