The provided text consists of excerpts from Robert Coover's novel, Pinocchio in Venice, which reimagines the classic fairy tale with the puppet now an aged Nobel Prize winner and aesthete. The back cover copy describes the book as a carnivalesque reemersion that blends magic realism with themes reminiscent of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice and Nabokov's Lolita. The narrative follows Pinocchio as he returns to Venice for a final tribute and begins to revert back to wood while searching for the Blue-Haired Fairy and reuniting with old allies like the philosophical watchdog Alidoro and foes like the Fox and the Cat (La Volpe and Il Gatto). The table of contents outlines the plot through sections titled A Snowy Night, A Bitter Day, Palazzo Dei Balocchi, and Carnival, detailing his bawdy and intellectual journey concerning what it means to be human. Throughout the excerpts, Pinocchio's physical and mental disintegration is chronicled amidst the chaos and debauchery of Venetian Carnival as he confronts his past and his "fatal betrayal" into humanity.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.