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

[Mark Kohut]

This guy grounds them almost metaphysically, one might say.................
Our very existence might be by chance......it is our good fortune, our good luck to be
alive...to be healthy....etc....
He repeats that it is "like grace" (in the Western religious tradition)
 
So, to give ourselves over to 'luck', chance is to opt out of The Protestant Ethic yet, maybe
to get secularly lucky....
 


--- On Fri, 6/27/08, Henry <scuffling at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Henry <scuffling at gmail.com>
Subject: RE: Chance as luck; yashmeen as Fortuna; later perspective on an earlier part of ATD
To: "'Pynchon Liste'" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Date: Friday, June 27, 2008, 7:12 AM

I've been interested in the nuances of the words for years: fortune, luck,
and chance.  A-and I'm always careful about wishing someone "Good
Luck,"
because it isn't wished unless it is thought to be needed.

HENRY MU
Information, Media, and Technology Consultant

http://www.urdomain.us/scuffling.htm 



From: Mark Kohut
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2008 6:03 AM
To: kelber at mindspring.com
Cc: pynchon -l
Subject: Re: Chance as luck; yashmeen as Fortuna; later perspective on an
earlier part of ATD

Well, maybe....but the author is pretty careful not to argue that Luck is
deserved.............
just happens............or usually doesn't............

--- On Thu, 6/26/08, kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
From: kelber at mindspring.com kelber at mindspring.com
Subject: Re: Chance as luck; yashmeen as Fortuna; later perspective on an
earlier part of ATD
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Date: Thursday, June 26, 2008, 7:50 PM
Doesn't this imply that Luck is as elitist as the Protestant Work Ethic, in
that it creates a group which, in some sense, "deserves" to be lucky?
 It's possible to be doubly preterite, both unlucky and economically
disadvantaged, screwed over by both the Magical and the Capitalist.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>

>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..............................................................


      
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