On fate and fiction
Apr. 26th, 2019 09:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
There’s a kind of story where lots of things happen around the main character, but not much happens because of them. They just pinball around without any agency, while absorbing lessons that are meant to get them to do something. Then at the very end, they finally get a choice, and they do exactly the thing all the lessons are telling them to do. And there’s a part of me that always wants them to make the opposite choice, if only out of spite. Fight that fate!
Greg Egan has a story about a character who’s clearly supposed to be C.S. Lewis. He faces off against a Glorious Transhumanist in the Egan vein, and the whole story is about putting him in a position where he might potentially say yes to becoming a Glorious Transhumanist. In the end, he finally gets the chance to make a choice. And after everything, he still says no, because that’s not how C.S. Lewis rolls.
Greg Egan has a story about a character who’s clearly supposed to be C.S. Lewis. He faces off against a Glorious Transhumanist in the Egan vein, and the whole story is about putting him in a position where he might potentially say yes to becoming a Glorious Transhumanist. In the end, he finally gets the chance to make a choice. And after everything, he still says no, because that’s not how C.S. Lewis rolls.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-29 01:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-29 03:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-29 02:40 pm (UTC)I'm not sure if Lewis explicitly agreed with St Anselm that the God that exists must be the best imaginable God. His writing points that way, though.