The Parable of the Marionettes

One day while teaching, Josh was asked, ”Teacher, on Victor Hugo’s birthday, can you discuss the relationship between highly political fiction, like Victor Hugo’s, and propaganda?”

Josh spoke thus:

A maker of marionettes was sharing a bottle of wine with his oldest friend and oldest customer, a puppeteer.

“Do you remember the streets of Montmartre?” the maker of marionettes asked the puppeteer.

“Every night, I construct Montmartre in my mind before I go to bed,” the puppeteer said.

“I am constructing Montmartre now,” the maker of marionettes said.

“A model?” the puppeteer asked.

“A stage,” the maker of marionettes said.

“A stage for whom?” the puppeteer asked.

“A stage for you,” the maker of marionettes said.

“For me?” the puppeteer asked, “For whom would I perform?”

“For me,” the maker of marionettes said.

The maker of marionettes and the puppeteer sipped their wine and watched the passers-by.

“I perform in a booth,” the puppeteer said.

“I have built a booth,” the maker of marionettes said, “I have placed it on the Rue Saint-Vincent.”

“The Rue Saint-Vincent!” the puppeteer said, “The Rue Saint-Vincent is a tourist trap.  No artists perform there.”

“You performed there,” the maker of marionettes said.

“For tourists,” the puppeteer said.

“And now you are the tourist,” the maker of marionettes said with a smile.

The maker of marionettes and the puppeteer sipped their wine and watched the passers-by.

“Montmartre is thousands of miles away,” the puppeteer said, “We are in Los Angeles.”

“My Montmartre is much nearer than that,” the maker of marionettes said.

“So where is this Montmartre of yours?” the puppeteer asked.

“It’s in my pocket,” the maker of marionettes said.

“Look at you, the modern man!” the puppeteer laughed, “And how will I perform in this Montmartre in your pocket?”

The maker of marionettes drew a smartphone out of his jacket.  He showed it to the puppeteer.

“It’s an app,” the maker of marionettes said.  He showed the puppeteer the virtual Montmartre, the virtual booth, the virtual puppets, the virtual puppeteer.  The virtual puppeteer looked unsurprisingly similar to the puppeteer holding the smartphone.

“You tip it like this, and it pulls the strings,” the maker of marionettes said, “And the strings pull the legs.”

“I know how a puppet works,” the puppeteer said.

“This is a virtual puppet,” the maker of marionettes said, “And the puppeteer is virtual.”

“All puppeteers are virtual,” the puppeteer said.