Chance as luck; yashmeen as Fortuna; later perspective on an earlier part of ATD

[Mark Kohut]

I have picked up a book called Something for Nothing, by social historian jackson Lears. 2003.
 
He explores Luck..in gambling, in life, in our relation to the universe, American locus..........
 
He links Chance/luck with magic and divination......and in America, citing Weber among others, says it is the necessary Counterforce, so to speak, to the Protestant Puritan religion of control, hard work and success in life manifesting one's salvation................
Ah, I hear Pynchon listening..............................................................
 
Very relevant to that section we did a bit ago.................Henry James' and his multiverse
brought in.................Luck/Chance as a way of connecting to ...the divine buried in the everyday........is why we are drawn to it...............................................
 
I have learned that the pig is a symbol of luck in a Germanic tradition................Fortuna, like yashmeen means fecund and winning at games of chance................................
 
With the Chums and the link to the whole American philosophical tradition and a major
vein of certain traditional religious societies.........................I'd say we see pynchon much
more clearly there.............
 
Two footnote-like details......................in certain natural African-American artistic tradtions,
even the form of certain artworks are wilfully dissimilar within them, to show that Chance
not overarching control is part of the meaning...(from an art critic)
 
2) In a Sengalese myth, often echoed by other communities............evil is a straight line!
hermes, the trickster, embodying unpredictability, zigzags!
 


      
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