Discuss

[Ian Livingston]

And so we move from the catastrophic to the obscure animal?

On Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 11:54 AM, Markekohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:

> And such observations and quotes make me think, following Laura's first
> remarks, that TRP
> Is surely subverting Heraclitus' famous line in re Slothrop.
>
> And with the Chance theme later, and with Slothrop's "luck" and
> disappearance in GR, he too
> Believes more in Chance than any Greek concept of Fate---for ' modern'
> characters.
>
> When I had Philip Roth on Google Alerts for a long while, the line about
> "No one understands anyone" (later Roth) ...you can look it up....was the
> most-quoted from new readers' blogs....
>
> Modern man can't be known at all, mostly, is one theme.
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Feb 9, 2013, at 1:27 PM, Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> And then there's Chance, the gardner.
>
> On Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 9:52 AM, <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
>
>> And there's: "Chance is the fool's name for fate," the secret password
>> from the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie, The Gay Divorcee (1934).
>>
>> LK
>>
>> -----Forwarded Message-----
>> From: Al Haidar **
>> Sent: Feb 9, 2013 12:43 PM
>> To: kelber at mindspring.com
>> Subject: Re: Discuss
>>
>> "A man's character isn't his fate; a man's fate is the joke that his life
>> plays on his character." — Philip Roth, *Operation Shylock*:* A
>> Confession* ...a rather appropriately paranoid offering from PR.
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 9:18 AM, <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Your "lazy" definition of fate sounds pretty much like my definition.
>>>  Both are a far cry from "a man's character is his fate," which emphasizes
>>> a single variable.  That may work for playwrights, but isn't much help
>>> outside of the theater.
>>>
>>> Laura
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Ian Livingston **
>>> Sent: Feb 9, 2013 11:35 AM
>>> To: kelber at mindspring.com
>>> Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
>>> Subject: Re: Discuss
>>>
>>> Well, on the other hand, is fate a lazy way of referring to complexity
>>> too great to succinctly reference? That would fit with Hindu, Buddhist,
>>> Kantian, Spinozist frames of reference on the subject of fate. In which
>>> case, all the variables that come together to shape us impel us to given
>>> behavioristic styles, such as, for instance, dressing up in a pig suit to
>>> score some hash, but we have always the capacity for novelty, like using
>>> the pig suit to get laid along the way to the score.
>>>
>>> On Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 8:18 AM, <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Don't really believe in any sort of deterministic Fate - there are too
>>>> many incalculable and unpredictable variables.  At any rate, I'd say that
>>>> what happens in Slothrop's life has more to do with the fact that he was
>>>> experimented on as a baby, than anything to do with his friendly, and smart
>>>> but hedonistic character.
>>>>
>>>> Laura
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> >From: Markekohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>>>> >Sent: Feb 9, 2013 8:30 AM
>>>> >To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>>>> >Subject: Discuss
>>>> >
>>>> >"A man's character is his fate" with special reference to Slothrop.
>>>> >
>>>> >Sent from my iPad
>>>>
>>>>
>>> **
>>>
>>>
>> **
>>
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20130209/bb53eb9f/attachment.html>