Sparkle Valley and Free Will
Updated: Oct 2
Emily ultimately decides whether Sparkle Valley survives. And it is a decision despite what the Beast wants her to think.
Working in the trenches, through the sub-conscious, the nihilistic Beast wants nothing more than to deny Emily this “free will” and foist numbness on her.
William James: Free will is a “necessary belief.”
The very act of belief is what does it. Abigail “believing” that she does have a choice creates the freedom (or agency) she needs to save Sparkle Valley.
Some symbols of Free Will in Sparkle Valley:
Inzos: they’re only as strong as you allow them to be, and Abigail makes a conscious choice over fear.
Blue Flower Power: Abigail’s superpower. It allows her to imagine a different future and then make it real (and save Sparkle Valley).
Leap of faith (Kierkegaard): Emily becoming numb to the world, and Abigail responds with a leap of faith. She believes in the impossible magic of the valley, even when all logic says she shouldn’t.
Powder of Life: Abigail chooses whether to move from being a toy to a person (which carries existential weight as well). Acting against her perceived self-interest, this choice is the ultimate expression of free will. At the expense of her own existence, she protects Emily’s imagination (Sparkle Valley)—the ultimate sacrifice and the ultimate metaphor for agency.
Rorty’s response?
“Move along, there’s nothing metaphysical to see here. Just moral vocabulary in action. Words like choice, responsibility, courage, belief do the work, shape the behavior. That’s what builds Sparkle Valley or destroys it. It’s futile to try to decide whether Emily and Abigail are “truly free” in some deep sense. That framing is wrong. My only interest? Is the vocabulary useful?"
For Sparkle Valley, yes.
Sparkle Valley operates as if free will exists. Abigail perceives real choice. Think of her leap into the chasm. It’s a creative act.
So that’s the real move in the trilogy: belief in free well is a creative act.
This belief changes the way you move through reality. And despite the Beast trying to push away the language of agency (freedom) pushing that “nothing matters” agenda, that moral vocabulary is always available. It’s only if you stop using it that the possibility of action (and Sparkle Valley) disappears. That’s essentially the thesis of Sparkle Valley. The language of choice is always available, so be ready when the Beast tries to take it away
So stripping out all the metaphysics, Abigail’s final choice in Book 3 is her just choosing purpose over impulse, which Rorty would say is ultimately all that free will really is. See what we’ve done here?
The whole Free Will debate is sidestepped and it all comes back to William James: act like your choices matter or watch the world collapse around you.
