ATDTDA - grace

[Joseph T]

On Feb 10, 2007, at 4:07 PM, Joseph T wrote:

>> "He understood that things were exactly what they were.  It seemed  
>> more than he could bear."
>
>> He doesn't exactly give away the store on that one.
>
>    thoughts on grace: The word first appears in the english  
> translations of the Bible when "Noah found grace in the eyes of the  
> lord" here it means favor . Of all the people on earth God just  
> really liked Noah,everyone else could pretty much drown. But the  
> roots of the word are in Roman/Latin mythology and language. The  
> Charites, figures of Greek mythology known as "The Three Graces".  
> In Greek mythology, a Charis is one of several Charites  
> (Χάριτες; Greek: "Graces"), goddesses of charm, beauty,  
> nature, human creativity and fertility. They ordinarily numbered  
> three, from youngest to oldest: Aglaea ("Beauty"), Euphrosyne  
> ("Mirth"), and Thalia ("Good Cheer"). In Roman mythology they were  
> known as the Gratiae.
>
> The word projects in 2 directions, physical gracefulness and  
> spiritual blessedness.
>
> The word is big  in the writings of Paul and "John", and takes on  
> the meaning of  the unmerited favor of God accessed through the  
> atonement of Christ.  In the reformation the concept of Grace was a  
> little like Shambalah in ATD; everyone wants to get their first,  
> colonize and own the keys.  Calvin says grace is pre-determined :  
> you're either doomed or saved , nothing you can do about it, the  
> good just know they're good(which is why they can act like such  
> pricks). Luther and Arminius have different takes focused on choice  
> and mercy, and so ad infinitum.
>
> Lew's vision of "grace" feels Calvinistic and hard. Miles and the  
> Chums  seem to be headed toward a much friendlier interpretation.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Feb 10, 2007, at 1:28 PM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:
>
>> SPOILER ALERT -- last page
>>
>>
>>
>> TRP uses (and defines) the word "grace," on p.42.  It's also the  
>> final word of the novel.  Not sure if there are other references  
>> in between.
>>
>> P. 42:
>> "One mild and ordinary work-morning in Chicago, Lew happened to  
>> find himself on a public conveyance, head and eyes inclined  
>> nowhere in particular, when he entered, all too briefly, a  
>> condition he had no memory of having sought, which he later came  
>> to think of as grace."  Next paragraph:  "He understood that  
>> things were exactly what they were.  It seemed more than he could  
>> bear."
>>
>> Right after this, he's hired by White City Investigations, after  
>> impressing Nate with his ability to observe things (just as they  
>> are?).
>>
>> A couple of reviewers seemed to take the mention of grace at the  
>> end of the book in its religious sense.  The Inconvenience has  
>> become sort of a public conveyance, the world in microcosm, and it  
>> flies toward grace.  But if grace is understanding that things are  
>> exactly what they are, it seems that TRP has something other than  
>> the religious connotation in mind.  Things that are exactly what  
>> they are don't have any particular grace of god bestowed on them.   
>> They belong more to the preterite than the elect.
>>
>> On a totally different plane, maybe TRP had this in mind:
>>
>>
>> "The goal of the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE)  
>> space mission is to obtain accurate global and high-resolution  
>> determination of both the static and the time-variable components  
>> of the Earth's gravity field."
>>
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_Recovery_and_Climate_Experiment
>>
>> Laura
>

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