Sparkle Valley, Free Will, and Richard Rorty
- Apr 22
- 5 min read
Updated: Jun 8
Let's talk about Free Will - a staple of traditional philosophy. Does Sparkle Valley address Free will? It certainly can be read that way.
Here are some of the ways it appears in Sparkle Valley:.
The Power of Choice:
Sparkle Valley isn’t a place that is just “saved.” It has to be chosen over and over by Emily, who ultimately believes that feeling and imagination are worth the emotional risk.
The Inner Struggle
It plays out in Emily’s internal struggle against the forces of numbness and nihilism foisted on her by the Beast (It)
Choice Impacts the World
This is where Kierkegaard comes in, where he says that “freedom” is the ability to choose based on your own “inwardness.” What this means is that the actual state of the world (i.e. Sparkle Valley) is a direct reflection of a person’s choice to stay open to joy and grief. (feeling). Sparkle Valley exists because Emily chooses to make it exist.
Free Will is a “Necessary Belief”
William James believed that free will is itself a necessarybelief – i.e. that if we don’t believe we have it, then we lose motivation to even try. And this is exactly what the Beast (IT) is fighting against. He’s trying to convince Abigail that her actions are meaningless, hopeless. What makes Abigail the hero is that she refuses to accept this. By “believing” that she does have a choice, she effectively creates the freedom (agency) she needs to save Sparkle Valley.
Some Symbols of Agency ("Free Will") in Sparkle Valley
The Inzos
- the “smoke-like” creatures who try to snuff out your spark by manifesting your internal fears and doubts represent the mental barriers to free will. And when Emily and Abigail learn that the Inzos are only as strong as they “allow” them to be, that is the pivotal moment. Emily (Abigail) is making a conscious choice over fear.
Blue Flower Power (from Novalis) –
This is Abigail’s engine, her superpower stemming from imagination, joy, and courage (and balance). This power is what allows her to imagine a different future and then act to make it real (to save Sparkle Valley).
Leap of Faith (from Kierkegaard) –
When Emily starts to become numb to the world, exercising free will requires a “leap of faith.” She chooses to believe the “impossible” magic of the valley even when all logic says no.
The Powder of Life –
This is the clearest symbol of agency in the trilogy. It represents the power to transform one’s nature through a conscious choice. In the case of Abigail, it's the shift from object (a toy, a puppet of fate) to self (a person, an agent). In that sense, it captures not just free will, but the existential weight that comes with it.
The Powder of Life is paradoxical. It offers the chance to become “real," but there's a big cost. To become human is to become mortal: to age, to feel pain (to feel the "numbness"). Because real choice only has weight if something real is at stake.
What makes Abigail’s decision matter is that she refuses the powder. It's the ultimate expression of Free Will because she's actually acting against her perceived self-interest. By refusing to take it, and accepting her nature as a necessary "fragment" of Emly's emotional imagination, she protects Sparkle Valley. She places her "purpose" (as a toy/muse) above the temptation of becoming real. This is the ultimate sacrifice - and the ultimate metaphor for agency.
Abigail's choice, not the power itself, is the real expression of freedom.
What about Rorty?
Let's back up now and bring in our old friend, Richard Rorty. What would he say about Sparkle Valley and "Free Will"?
For Rorty, Sparkle Valley is not making a metaphysical argument. Like every story, it’s simply a moral vocabulary in action. It gives us a framework where words like “choice,” “responsibility,” “courage,” and “belief” actually do work. They shape behavior. They build (or destroy) a world.
He would say (rightly) that trying to decided whether Emily and Abigail are “truly free” in some deep sense is futile. He’d reject that entire framing. For him, the question isn’t whether free will exists as some property of the universe—it’s whether treating others as agents of choice is useful.
And in Sparkle Valley, it clearly is.
Because while Sparkle Valley does not prove Free Will—it operates as if it’s real, and shows what becomes possible when you do. Emily’s “leap,” Abigail’s refusal to give in to the Beast, their decision to resist the Inzos—none of this is about solving the ancient determinism vs Free Will debate. They depend on something much more practical - seeing oneself as capable of choosing differently.
Belief in Free Will is a Creative Act
So the real move the trilogy makes is this:
It shows that believing in free will is itself a creative act.
Not because it reveals some hidden truth about reality—but because it changes how characters (and readers) move through it.
The Beast (IT) tries to strip that vocabulary away. It pushes nihilism, nothing matters, everything is empty. In Rorty’s terms, it’s trying to remove the language of agency altogether. And once that language disappears, so does the possibility of action.
That’s the real threat.
And make no mistake - this is a real threat. That's what Sparkle Valley is all about. The catch is that this language isn’t always available. When the Beast takes hold, the language of choice can collapse—and with it, the ability to act.
So this totally reframes Abigail’s final choice in Book 3.
Her refusal to use the Powder of Life isn’t just a Kantian sacrifice. It’s a conscious commitment to a certain way of describing herself: not as someone chasing self-interest, but as someone who chooses purpose over impulse.
Rorty would say that’s all “free will” ever really is.
Not a metaphysical power. A stance. A practice.
It's Abigail's decision to keep using the language of agency even when it would be easier not to.
So on a Rortian interpretation, Sparkle Valley doesn’t settle the free will debate at all.
It sidesteps it.
And in doing so, it makes the important claim that the world you live in is shaped by whether you continue to act as if your choices matter.
In the end, it comes down to this:
Act like your choices matter, or watch the world collapse around you.
Continue Exploring
If you want to see these ideas in the story
→ Abigail’s Impossible Choice — agency through sacrifice
→ Emily — choosing to re-engage
→ Inzos — fear versus action
If you want the broader philosophical framework
→ What is Sparkle Valley Philosophy? — the bigger worldview
→ New Romanticism — imagination in action
→ The Beast— the force of nihilism
If you want the practical version
→ Blue Flower Power: Courage — participation over passivity
→ Finding Your Own Sparkle Valley — acting like your choices matter
Field Guide Notes (Quick Reference)
Concept: Free will in Sparkle Valley — belief in agency as a creative force
Core move: shift from “does free will exist?” to “what happens if you act like it does?”Philosophical roots: Kierkegaard (inward choice), William James (necessary belief), Richard Rorty (agency as useful vocabulary)Key idea: free will is not proven — it is enacted
Sparkle Valley logic: the world reflects Emily’s choices; belief sustains it, neglect weakens it
Core tension: agency vs nihilism; choice vs resignation
The Beast (IT): removes the language of agency; promotes meaninglessness and passivity
The Inzos: internal fear; weaken when confronted through choice
Blue Flower: imaginative force that enables new possibilities and action
Leap of Faith: choosing belief without certainty
The Powder of Life: ultimate agency — the power to redefine one’s nature
Paradox: true freedom includes the ability to refuse power
Abigail’s choice: rejects self-interest; affirms identity as a choosing agentRorty’s lens: free will is not a property — it is a stance sustained through language and practice
Key shift: from metaphysical freedom to practical agency
Core claim: belief in free will shapes outcomesGuiding line: Act as if your choices matter
