An Accumulation of Random Thoughts

The past week we have touched on a number of topics that intrigued me as well as brought about questions that I still have no definite answers to.

The first aspect that stayed in my thoughts was about the attainability of happiness and whether we could 'escape the clutches of negativity". I noticed that many have written on the topic of happiness and whether it is a choice that we can make, again bringing about this idea of agency we so rooted for in previous discussions. One of our classmates brought up the idea that happiness may in fact lie in the way we interpret things and that we can choose to see things on a more positive side instead always going to the dark side. This made me think a lot about the concept of agency even more so then before. There are times it may seem to one that everything is going wrong in life all at the same time and finding that silver lining is near impossible. The fact that Thassa is able to be as happy as she is having been through all that is great but had she no moment of sadness prior? I do believe that we can choose to lead happy lives but emotions, which are often connected to imbalance of chemicals in our body or sudden reactions can only be controlled after they've occurred no?

Also on the topic of agency, a line was brought up in our Thursday discussion that said "fate has no power over anything crucial" and it immediately made me think  about a film I saw recently, called the Adjustment Bureau, which really had me thinking about agency. In this film a man basically fights against Fate and an organization put together to keep everything "in order and on the path" to be with his love. To some its a great love story but to me it really brought about the idea that maybe we control less of our lives than we think we do and what if their was a super secret organization "adjusting" our lives back on track?

Another question that arose in class was the idea of a linear story and how characters should correlate to make sense. We were asked if any other novels or even films have had different stories going on simultaneously and I thought about Crash and Valentine's Day. Two movies that I feel play on the idea of many different stories of several characters occurring simultaneously, then go on to show how they are all somehow connected and affect each others lives at the end. Is this not what was being touched upon?

Generosity brought up lots of really interesting topics, thoughts and discussions but the one I am really stuck on is the role of fiction in evolution. No matter how far science gets to making the unthinkable achievable, will not our minds go further?