Question re: “I Am a Strange Loop”

Cafe Society
1

In one chapter of I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas R. Hofstadter illustrates Gödel’s incompleteness theorem via an elaborate metaphor involving two fictional stage plays: “Prince Hyppia: Math Dramatica” and “The Posh Shop Picketeers.” The first title is an obvious enough pun on Principia Mathematica, but what’s the pun supposed to be in The Posh Shop Picketeers?

2

Hmm. I looked at excerpts of “Strange Loop” and both “plays” have authors who are clearly versions of Whitehead and Russell, so I suspect “Posh Shop Picketeers” is (somehow) also a reference to Principia - but I’m darned if I can see how

3

It may be notable that Posh ends with sh, shop starts with sh and ends with p, and picketeers starts with p.

4

Could “picketeers” be “pictures”? Though I’m not sure how much that helps…

5

“Picketeers” isn’t a word, it has an extra e. That makes me wonder if it’s an anagram rather than a pun.

6

The cheese shop skit prop.

7

And the characters have references (from here):

  • The Posh Shop Picketeers, written by social activist playwright Rosalyn
    Wadhead (Russell / Whitehead)
  • This play is about a wildcat strike called by the workers at Alf and Bertie’s Posh Shop (Alfred / Bertrand)
  • the world-famous play Prince Hyppia: Math Dramatica, penned in the years 1910–1913 by the celebrated British playwright Y. Ted Enrustle (Whitehead / Russell)

Here’s a subtle one that took me a minute to get:

  • In fact, the picketing Posh Shop worker named “Cagey”, who disgustedly proclaims, after a brash matron pushes her aside and arrogantly strides into Alf and Bertie’s upscale showroom

“Cagey” = KG = Kurt Godel.

I think The Posh Shop Picketeers is probably a Godel reference specifically, but I couldn’t say what. Though maybe it somehow encompasses all of them and is a more general math reference.

8

The Posh Shop Picketeers was allegedly written in 1931, which is the same year that On Formally Undecidable Propositions in Principia Mathematica and Related Systems was published. So, not likely to be a coincidence. But it’s hard to see any other connection.

Posh is an anagram of shop, which is possibly relevant. As are the years 1931 and 1913 (the year Principia Mathematica was finished).

9

This feels like a stretch, but:
On Formally Undecidable Propositions in Principia Mathematica and Related Systems

Formally => Formal => Posh
Propositions => Prop => Shop
Principia => Princip => Picket
Related Systems => RS => eers

10

Impressive! I think this might be it.

Thanks all!

11

By George, you’ve got it