Re: Double Cosmos and the nature of free will
Posted by:
calonlan (IP Logged)
Date: 17 December, 2010 10:03AM
In his tales, you will often find entities that function in ways that are entirely indifferent to the plight of the humans involved - and, whatever the principal players goals may be are meaningless in the presence of cosmic forces of such a nature - nevertheless, for Clark, as you can see in the poetry, the exercise of opportunity by we puny humans, should receive our full attention - whether is be food, shelter, safety, or love, one grasps what is at hand to grasp, and the choice is there - if there is one glass of Madeira left, drink it - another will come along when it will - if there is a woman willing to be loved, one is a fool to deny her, yet, the choice is there.
Much of Clark's attitude in such matters is, in my judgment, an existential response to his penurious reality - One may freely will that a Rolls Royce be in the drive, but circumstances completely outside one's control and, in his case, utterly beyond his understanding, dictate that it will not come to pass - but - the unexpected will surely arrive - storms, death, drought, etc - and escalators, machines, incomprehesible "devices" of obviously malign intent (that is, malign from our perspective, but in fact, cosmically indifferent - barring the reality of the occasional malicious entity).