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From: "Roy C. Lackey" <rclackey at stic.net>
Subject: Ex-lurker
Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1999 04:02:26 -0500
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As for the logic of what came when; in a circular, time-travel story,
one point on the circumference is about as good as another. If the circle is broken at any point, the whole thing collapses. I don't have a better answer than that; I don't know that there is one. If there is one, it may be related to Wolfe's views on predestination. I don't know whether or not the views expressed by Silk could be taken as Wolfe's, but on the second page of chapter V of Nightside he has Silk thinking:
"...the Outsider had assured him that his regard for him was eternal and perfect, never to be changed by any act of his, no matter how iniquitous or how meritorious."
Now that is predestination, pure and simple. FWIW
Roy
No, absolutely not. That is unconditional love. It is not predestination.
Predestination would be "the Outsider had assured him that the future was crystalline, never to be changed by any act of his, no matter how iniquitous or how meritorious," which Wolfe did not say.
Universalism (the doctrine or belief that all men will be saved, or made happy, in the future state) is also not considered a form of predestination save in a trivial sense.
Kieran "not a theologian, but I play one on TV" Mullen
Kieran Mullen email: kieran at mail.nhn.ou.edu
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy phone: (405) 325-3961
The University of Oklahoma FAX: (405) 325-7557
Norman, OK 73019, USA http://www.nhn.ou.edu/~kieran/