AtDDtA(16): A Secret Determinant of History

[Dave Monroe]

"... he'd been growing doubtful about starlight in any practical way,
having lately been researching historic world battles, attempting to
learn what lighting conditions might have been like during the action,
even coming to suspect that light might be a secret determinant of
history--beyond how it had lit a battlefield or an opposing fleet, how
might it have come warping through a particular room during a critical
assembly of state, or looked as the sun was setting across some
significant river, or struck in a particular way the hair, and thereby
delayed the execution, of a politically dangerous wife one was
determined to be rid of--" (AtD, Pt. III, pp. 431-2)


"four-space at its purest"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacetime


"doubtful about starlight in any practical way"

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves ..."  --Julius Caesar I.ii,140-1

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/julius_caesar/julius_caesar.1.2.html


"a secret determinant of history"

One of the overarching themes of the book, it seems. Natural light vs.
artificial and what it means for us humans.

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_429-459#Page_431

Not so much ...

A History of Light and Lighting

http://www.mts.net/~william5/history/hol.htm

... as, e.g., ...

http://www.bhere.com/plugugly/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect

http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/shermer_contingency.html

And consider as well ...

http://www.uchronia.net/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_history

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0111&msg=62858

E.g., ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline-191

http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/greatwar.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_Want_of_a_Nail

Cf. ...

"... how had it happened here, with chances once so good for
diversity?" (Lot 49, Ch. 3, p. 181)

"Could he have been the fork in the road America never took, the
singular point she jumped the wrong way from?" (GR, Pt. III, p. 556)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0311&msg=87369

"'Sometimes,' she'd told Che, 'when I get very weird, I go into this
alternate-universe idea ...'" (VL, Ch. 15, p. 334)

"Does Brittania, when she sleeps, dream?  Is America her dream? [...]
serving as a very Rubbish-Tip for subjunctive Hopes ..." (M&D, Ch. 34,
p. 345)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0405&msg=90546

Hm ...

http://www.geocities.com/athens/acropolis/5616/prufrock.html

And see as well ...

http://etext.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-38#

... but I have a sneaking suspicion that there are actual exaples of
how light  "might have come warping through a particular room during a
critical assembly of state, or looked as the sun was setting across
some significant river, or struck in a particular way the hair, and
thereby delayed the execution, of a politically dangerous wife one was
determined to be rid of" to be found here, but ... so once again,
help!  Thanks!