On The Superfluity of Corporeal Substance
Created | Updated Feb 25, 2004
Does Mickey Mouse exist?
There isn't much doubt about it really. Mickey Mouse is an icon the world over, and has achieved that status without the encumbrance of possessing a body.
No, don't argue. Maybe you happen to have a little fridge-magnet or something that resembles Mickey Mouse, but that doesn't count.
Representations of Mickey Mouse might well have bodies. They could quite possibly have mundane properties like mass, and they probably do extend into a third dimension. The real Mickey Mouse doesn't even have the depth and weight of a few molecules of pigment on celluloid. The Mickey Mouse that the world has seen is no more than an ephemeral flicker of light.
In Mickey's case, it's taken a bit far. He has omitted to be alive. Sure, loads of people sort of think he's alive, but that isn't much good to Mickey himself, is it?
It would be a neat idea to exist Mickey-wise, but actually to be alive. A body is inconvenient. It's very maintenance-intensive and it generally disappoints on close inspection. So much better if people only ever met your perfect, pristine projection and would judge you on that. Then you could get on with the indignities of being human in private.
Impossible, you reckon? Let's give this some thought....
Do politicians exist?
