A non-predestined post on Calvin, time travel, therefore ATD and Chance again

[Bryan Snyder]

The beings from the future are I think Pynchon's ultimate preterite
example... They are invisible... Thiers's is a future of obvious misery born
at the start of the 20th century... Possibly much much earlier





On 5/12/08 2:25 PM, "kelber at mindspring.com" <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> Somewhere between rigid determinism and chaotic anti-determinism is the
> idealistic (in the political, not philosophical sense) notion that individuals
> can control their destiny. ATD doesn't seem to put Pynchon in that camp.  His
> viewpoint seems more an odd mixture of the deterministic (fore-seeing WWI) and
> the chaotic (beings coming from the future to exploit/change the past).
> 
> Laura
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>> Sent: May 12, 2008 2:10 PM
>> To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Subject: A non-predestined post on Calvin, time travel, therefore ATD and
>> Chance again
>> 
>> 
>>  Predestination may sometimes be used to refer to other, materialistic,
>> spiritualist, non-theistic or polytheistic ideas of determinism, destiny,
>> fate, doom, or karma. Such beliefs or philosophical systems may hold that any
>> outcome is finally determined by the complex interaction of multiple,
>> possibly immanent, possibly impersonal, possibly equal forces, rather than
>> the issue of a Creator's conscious choice.
>>   
>>  For example, some may speak of predestination from a purely physical
>> perspective, such as in a discussion of time travel. In this case, rather
>> than referring to the afterlife, predestination refers to any events that
>> will occur in the future. In a predestined universe the future is immutable
>> and only one set of events can possibly occur; in a non-predestined universe,
>> the future is mutable.
>>   
>>  In Chinese Buddhism, predestination is a translation of yuanfen, which does
>> not necessarily imply the existence or involvement of a deity. Predestination
>> in this sense takes on a very literal meaning: pre- (before) and destiny, in
>> a straightforward way indicating that some events seem bound to happen.
>>   
>>  Finally, antithetical to determinism of any kind are theories of the cosmos
>> which assert that any outcome is ultimately unpredictable, the ludibrium of
>> luck, chance, or chaos.
>>   
>>  Now, has TRP shown his 'face' about it all in ATD?
>>   
>>   
>>   
>> 
>>       
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>