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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 April 2010
The main thesis of Kluge (Farber and Farber, paperback edition, 2009) is that the human mind is an evolutionary kluge (rhymes with huge, not sludge). As Gary Marcus informs us, the term was popularized by Jackson Granholm's 1962 article ‘How to Design a Kludge’ where it was defined as ‘an ill-assorted collection of poorly matching parts, forming a distressing whole’. A kluge may be clumsy and inelegant but, surprisingly, it works. And the mind, according to Marcus, is ‘[t]he most fantastic kluge of them all’. Unlike the view of the human mind that is advanced here, Kluge itself is not a kluge. It is clear, smooth, well-organized, well paced and well written; it can comfortably be read in a few sittings. Unlike a kluge, the parts match well, the collection is not ill-assorted, the whole is not particularly distressing – and, as I will argue, logically speaking it does not work.