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BETWEEN_SOUL_AND_FATE

                                              February 11, 2005

                                                     ALLUSIVE

   "But as far as individuals changing things?
   Well: master of your soul?  Maybe.
   Captain of your fate?  Never."
             -- Delany's "1984", p. 86, para 7.



Early in Delany's novel Dhalgren
the main character claims to               WANDERING_PURPOSE
have no purpose beyond survival,
but it's clearly just a fiction;    (*another* kind
an over-simplification,             of fiction)
something you say to avoid
thinking too hard, or avoid             His purpose is not
saying too much.                        something that he
                                        knows a lot about.

                                                       WHY


   Is there a
   contradiction
   here?

   No one can be in control
   of their fate, and yet,
   to not even try to control       Though it could be that
   it is a guarantee that           the woman here may
   you'll be "deadly dull".         literally be making the
                                    point that he's allowed
                                    to be this shapeless,        Or realer than
                                    *because* he's a real        most fictional
                                    character.                   characters.


Anyway, my first impulse,
my prejudice, is to agree             (e.g. as in           WAR_AND_PEACE
with the view of human                 "War and Peace")
nature as expressed in
"1984" -- but Delany puts                      HISTORYS_SLAVE
it rather strongly.
                                                                WARRING_PIECES
                       Strongly enough to
                       make me wonder if
                       it's right.

            Maybe it's the         Try to think of some
            sort of thing          counter examples.
            that sounds
            good because it                  
            sounds bad.                      

                     Ugly truths
   Perhaps this      sound so much          Really, I expect that
   is the true,      truer.                 there are some
   central                                  circumstances where
   difference           PRETTY_TRUE         individual action is
   between the                              ineffective, other's
   realist and                              where it's crucial.
   the romantic.


                What kind of character can you be?
                In what sort of story?




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