Posted by Peter H on September 17, 2007 at 14:56:49 from 86.142.67.226 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: What happened to Cdr. Walker's luggage? posted by Jon on September 17, 2007 at 13:35:17:
when Cdr. Walker joins his children on board Goblin at Flushing, there is no mention of the luggage travelling with him.
As usual, I take a strictly 'existential' view on this. If Cdr Walker's luggage is not mentioned, then it does not exist. Of course, Cdr Walker does not exist, being a fictional person, but he has a 'virtual existence' by virtue of being a character identified and delineated in AR's actual text. Objects belonging to Cdr Walker which are mentioned, eg his pipe, do have this same 'virtual existence'. In my view (admittedly a purist one), while it is well worthwhile discussing anything which is actually mentioned in AR's text, as this has a virtual existence, it is pointless discussing anything outside the text, not referred to directly or indirectly. The response 'Cdr Walker must have had luggage' is a rationalist statement with which one cannot argue, but it nevertheless does not make the luggage 'exist'.