The title is, I think, deliberately provocative and audacious. The prose is clear, workmanlike--sometimes a steep uphill gradient, but never littered with scree. He takes about 200 pages to reach his punchline and then 250 defending it. The punchline is a combination of (1) the once-novel notion, now pretty-much conventional wisdom, that human consciousness is the product of many preconscious subsystems interacting, and (2) the borrowing of Richard Dawkins' 1976 notion of the "meme," which Dennett grabs and runs with (think of the most spectacular kickoff return you ever saw). Does he deliver on the title? As indicated, I was never quite convinced (although his model was more persuasive by far than Jaynes' to my way of thinking), but I believe he might have reached the neighborhood if not the actual address, and provides, in any event, a helluva ride. Also recommended: Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea, AKA Huxley vs Wilberforce: The Rematch (Soapy Sam loses--again).

cordially,