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

[Mark Kohut]

Yea, pynchon has a narrow V-shaped funnel of .................Possibility in AtD?

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 Pyncyeahon 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 
>Sent: May 12, 2008 2:10 PM
>To: pynchon -l 

>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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