The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Colombe rings for Renée an hour before concierge hours begin, so Renée turns her away. Renée doesn’t care for Colombe, who dresses like a Bohemian even though she’s wealthy, but she does respect that Colombe is a brilliant student. Instead of returning to Renée, Colombe sends her sister Paloma, who asks Renée to be on the lookout for an envelope for Colombe. Renée invites Paloma in for tea. Paloma tells her she purposefully tries to make Colombe think she’s stupid. Paloma asks Renée if she can visit her again; she admits that she needs a new hiding place. On her way out, Paloma tells Renée that she is clearly very intelligent.

Colombe’s envelope arrives unsealed, so Renée reads the contents. The envelope contains Colombe’s dissertation draft with notes from her professor. Colombe’s dissertation is about a medieval monk/philosopher named William of Ockham. She reads through the dissertation and judges that Colombe understands the philosophy but in a useless way. One of the questions Ockham poses is whether universal things exist. He posits that general things are only tricks of the mind and that everything truly exists as an individual entity.