Thursday, January 10, 2008

Destiny

There's much talk in the book about fate, chance, God, self-determination -- and the way circumstances and decisions line up to produce the facts of Cal's life. Do you think there's an overriding message? Does Cal believe his life is directed by fate, chance, free will, a combination?
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2 comments:

kc said...

This is unforgiveably cliche and is an insult to the book's genius, but I sensed a notion that you're dealt a hand and how you play it is ultimately up to you. Not that you can will yourself to win the game. But you can make some choices based on the givens. Like Cal's decision to run away from the doctor after learning that the procedure could deprive him of sexual pleasure. He chose sexual joy over sexual convention, and that steered his life in a new direction.

12:28 PM, January 11, 2008
rev amy said...

I think his running was about much more than not being able to enjoy sex. I think he was reazling who he was, fully, and he didn't want to be changed. I think it was a statement about non-conformity, about refusing a standard definition of "normality."

I don't remember a strong sense that Calliope longed to be like other girls (correct me, citation master, if I am wrong!)

Though he certainly fills the doctor with stories of what he thinks the doctor wants to hear, when it comes down to facing a permanent change in his body, Cal chooses to embrace his unique self. I think the whole book is a commentary on that process, knowing yourself, embracing yourself.

As to the mechanisms behind the unique factors that lined up to create Cal, I don't think he draws a conclusion. Certainly he points out to us again and again how specifically things had to align to produce his life, but isn't that true of all of us?

The fact that he never says much about what makes genes mutate and that he refuses to see himself as diseased in some way to me means he is refraining comment about God or any universal significance.

10:37 AM, January 28, 2008

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