A Huge Form And Its Owner

Philosophy and Literature would be a good combined University course. There was a Professor of Philosophy at Lancaster University whose only degree qualification was a BA in English. I think that the connecting subject had been Aesthetics.

I also think that the problem of the narrative point of view in fiction and the philosophical mind-body problem are the same problem. Any organism with a central nervous system, i.e., with sense organs and a brain, is psychophysical, i.e., is both a subject and an object of consciousness and therefore can be described as either. The problem, both in fiction and in philosophy, is the relationship between these two descriptions. 

Objectively, neurons fire electrically and interact electrochemically and behaviour is recognizably conscious: organisms avoid pain, interact linguistically etc. Subjectively, an organism senses, feels, thinks etc.

When Dominic Flandry was introduced to a Merseian, he:

"...bowed to the huge form, whose owner corresponded approximately to a commander..."

-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, January 2010), pp. 193-365 AT CHAPTER ONE, p. 200.

To differentiate between the form and its owner is to imply a mind-body dualism. In fact, the "form" is the Merseian organism considered both as a physical object and as an object of consciousness whereas the "owner" is that same organism considered as a subject of consciousness.

Read or reread The Time Machine with its crude mind-body dualism. That would be a good text for a Philosophy and Literature course.

Addendum: The owner of the huge form had been introduced to Lieutenant Flandry as Afal Ymen, thus by his rank and personal name although with no mention either of his nickname or of his Vach.