Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World employs the use of parallels, some similar and some contrasting, in order to explore the divide between exterior physical world of the body and the interior conscious world of the mind. However, the narrator’s coin counting habit complicates a simplistic binary understanding by suggesting that even the body and brain in and of themselves can operate independently and separately (3).
Hands simultaneously counting in each pocket, the narrator fragments and divides his physical being with the same task but different conditions – recalling economic concepts of specialization with regards to mass production. Moreover, the varying coin types (one hundreds and five hundreds in right, fifties and tens in left; not to mention the unused ones and tens in the back) not only assign value to the task in monetary and quantitative terms, thereby serving to differentiate and distinguish the labor performed, but also create unique microcosms that both operate without interaction and at the same time sum to form a more complete whole. Word choice here further emphasizes the sense of difference and division in an otherwise identical situation: the right hand ‘tallies’ while the left hand ‘adds up.’
Although the narrator muses on the hands being emblematic of a right brain-left brain dichotomy that ultimately converges, his lack of certainty and later mistakes (6) question the notion that parallel structures may connect to form a one-to-one existence – that the body and mind (each already fragmented with different functions) together interact cleanly. The illustration of the right brain-left brain dichotomy depicts this idea and further argues that the offset jagged edges prevent a recreation of the original whole (33). Altogether, the trivial nature of the narrator’s coin counting, his ambivalence about the practice within his mind, and the realized fiction of splitting a whole and later reuniting it convey the idea of a divided existence, even in mundane and everyday activities, and the confusion that it subsequently produces.
Ultimately, the exercise here recalls Descartes’ mind body dualism – as the text at large does – but challenges it more so than the simple and typical destabilization that the two interact and form one by implying that both body and mind may be connected while at the same time fragmented and separated from each other and themselves. The narrator, then, operates in life with an awareness of his body and mind while at the same time unsure of his bodily functions (sexually with erections) and his minds internal workings (unconsciously with shuffling). The implosion of meaning that follows from this collapsing of traditional understanding enriches our discussions of being, existence, and perception.
Max, I think your explanation of what I initially passed as a simple entrance to the novel truly brings the section the meaning it deserves. I would like to bring up an example in the book that supports the idea of the “exterior physical world of the body and the interior conscious world of the mind” operating together. In chapters 11 and 13, we see the preparation and end results of shuffling the data. It becomes clear that the narrator has lost consciousness while shuffling when he says, “The first things to claim recognition were the bathroom door emerging from the far right and a lamp from the far left” (124). Even though he was unconscious, he goes on to discuss the state of the pencils he used and the notepad filled with numbers, which he must have wrote while unconscious. While the part of his mind normally exposed to the world is not functioning, some inner portion is working in overdrive to shuffle the data. What I find most interesting is that the inner portion of his mind can still interface with his body; however, it cannot work while the part of the mind that normally interfaces with the world is “on”. What is the meaning behind this? I’m not sure, but perhaps the author is trying to say we cannot grasp the true desires and thoughts in the depths of our mind while we remain conscious in this world.