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aruani have to admit my initial reaction was anger - anger at myself that i did not see the plot twist that i've been espousing about time travel coming: that leopold was meant to come forward in time to 2001 and fall in love with kate who was then meant to jump into this tear in the space-time fabric to be with him in 1876 so that the world would be as it was when she left it. argh! why didn't i see? well, there was the notable distraction of an impossibly charming and devastatingly handsome hugh jackman...
ahem. back to the cause for the boiling of my cerebrospinal fluids. consistent with the concept of memes, ideas that demand expression i.e. computers were brought about because of the meme of the "i love you" virus, everything that has happened (and will happen if time travel ever becomes possible) has/will come about because the grander schemes and conventions of whatever higher power you subscribe to. not even moving back or forth in time can change what happened - what's done is written. and if we do ever happen upon time travel, whatever we do has already been accounted for in history. that's what made kate and leopold so interesting - while distinctly aimed at the romance novel genre of humanity, the idea that leopold was not supposed to, but did (will?) follow stuart through time to fall in love with kate so that she would (did?) finally make that leap and follow him back was a pleasant little resolution.
a reassuring yet distressing prospect. my problem lies in that the existence of a power like fate undermines free will. sure you can be defiant and dress to the left instead of the right or consciously take the Powers That Be in vain, but really, if things like fate and destiny exist, not only is time predetermined and set in its procession but our efforts as players are kinda sidelined - if i made that catch, it was meant to be; if i missed that curve ball, it was never intended for my bat. of course this is on a much bigger scale, as details may go awry but if something is slated to happen no force (as none mightier exist) could possibly stand in the way. great for those who have love and fame and fortune in their cards, but what do you say to stillborn babies or the famine and disease-ridden populaces of third-world countries?
this is a very fatalistic conjecture, yet i seem to have mixed emotions about it. it's like the idea of god with the good things being accounted for and the bad that happens to the seemingly saintly going unconceivable. it also, again, gives people an easy out, in the case of fate to do nothing with their lives and glance dubiously at the obscene or difficult, deciding that if it's meant to be that no effort on their part can enhance or hinder the effects.
how romeo and juliet. and on that note, i'm off to ponder the dynamics of something even more bewildering and contrary to all rules of man and demonkind, not to even mention reason and logic... i mean, spike and buffy? unconventional is a gross understatement. then again, not playing by the rules has done nothing but serve buffy well, as well as always making for more interesting life in the process... plus there's always the chance of that cosmic monkeywrench factor, that there can be a variable so impossible in its probability that it went unaccounted for in the design of the universe, and its introduction would wreak not chaos or death or total collapse of life as we know it, but rather make for even more fun than anyone could've imagined. i have faith in the one they call Creator (so long as it's not my life being soap operized). did i mention i had a problem with determinism?
ahem. back to the cause for the boiling of my cerebrospinal fluids. consistent with the concept of memes, ideas that demand expression i.e. computers were brought about because of the meme of the "i love you" virus, everything that has happened (and will happen if time travel ever becomes possible) has/will come about because the grander schemes and conventions of whatever higher power you subscribe to. not even moving back or forth in time can change what happened - what's done is written. and if we do ever happen upon time travel, whatever we do has already been accounted for in history. that's what made kate and leopold so interesting - while distinctly aimed at the romance novel genre of humanity, the idea that leopold was not supposed to, but did (will?) follow stuart through time to fall in love with kate so that she would (did?) finally make that leap and follow him back was a pleasant little resolution.
a reassuring yet distressing prospect. my problem lies in that the existence of a power like fate undermines free will. sure you can be defiant and dress to the left instead of the right or consciously take the Powers That Be in vain, but really, if things like fate and destiny exist, not only is time predetermined and set in its procession but our efforts as players are kinda sidelined - if i made that catch, it was meant to be; if i missed that curve ball, it was never intended for my bat. of course this is on a much bigger scale, as details may go awry but if something is slated to happen no force (as none mightier exist) could possibly stand in the way. great for those who have love and fame and fortune in their cards, but what do you say to stillborn babies or the famine and disease-ridden populaces of third-world countries?
this is a very fatalistic conjecture, yet i seem to have mixed emotions about it. it's like the idea of god with the good things being accounted for and the bad that happens to the seemingly saintly going unconceivable. it also, again, gives people an easy out, in the case of fate to do nothing with their lives and glance dubiously at the obscene or difficult, deciding that if it's meant to be that no effort on their part can enhance or hinder the effects.
how romeo and juliet. and on that note, i'm off to ponder the dynamics of something even more bewildering and contrary to all rules of man and demonkind, not to even mention reason and logic... i mean, spike and buffy? unconventional is a gross understatement. then again, not playing by the rules has done nothing but serve buffy well, as well as always making for more interesting life in the process... plus there's always the chance of that cosmic monkeywrench factor, that there can be a variable so impossible in its probability that it went unaccounted for in the design of the universe, and its introduction would wreak not chaos or death or total collapse of life as we know it, but rather make for even more fun than anyone could've imagined. i have faith in the one they call Creator (so long as it's not my life being soap operized). did i mention i had a problem with determinism?
