Discuss

[Ian Livingston]

All my deceased kin have been incinerated. Would that make them (or me)
other than human, I suppose? I've long suspected as much, so don't pull any
punches. We really might be alien plants into terrestrial culture, so worms
may avoid our roots. I can't listen to this clip now, so West's potential
response is unknowable to me, thus supporting the claim that modern man is
unknowable by modern men. I hope you women folk are better off!

On Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 1:20 PM, <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> Or there's this definition  from Cornell West, in this great little
> snippet of remarks about Jane Austen:
>
> Being human is "to be featherless, two-legged, linguistically conscious
> creatures, born between urine and feces, whose bodies will one day be the
> culinary delight of terrestrial worms.."
>
> Interview here:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHZGqnI8Gow
>
> Laura
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ian Livingston **
> Sent: Feb 9, 2013 3:51 PM
> To: Markekohut **
> Cc: "kelber at mindspring.com" **, "pynchon-l at waste.org" **
> Subject: Re: Discuss
>
> 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
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> **
>>>>
>>>>
>>> **
>>>
>>>
>>
> ********
>
>
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