Minor Essay got bigger with my usual cross over -itis
So what is hope?
Again, I've seen it defined in a way that looks like it overlaps some with planning and forward thinking.
Let's weed out some of the chaff in usage. 'We will eventually figure out how to get better than Carnot efficiency' is not hope, it is delusion. 'If we get rid of all this small change fiddly stuff, maybe we can build some really big nuke plants, and get a few percent more efficiency in the steam system' can be hope. Wanting something really badly, regardless of possibility, is not hope in this sense. True hope is not derived from transient emotions. It is a product of perspective, values, and expectations. A bipolar cycling from depressed to manic is not inherently an example of developing hope. A person in a dismal psychological state discovering something that they can see as positive to look forward to might be.
Remember Vathara's mention of Deep Survival? I'm reminded of that book, specifically what it has to say about the psychological state of being lost, as opposed to not knowing where you are.
Forecasting the future is a difficult thing. When I was trying to find examples of black and white 'this is possible, this is impossible' I eventually had to resort to thermodynamics, and even that is a bit weak. I think I'm going have to treat this as a subjective thing for this.
Hopes, in this sense, are possibilities in these predictions that are viewed positively.
I can interpret the whole painting episode in at least two different ways, which essentially have the same middle, but different starts and endings. There are both Hope scenarios.
Rhetorical question the first is what the states of the painting and Elias were before Miss Vandom enters the painting. Was it essentially unattended between Van Dahl's entry, and recent events?
Van Dahl has clearly experienced a significant amount of subjective time. Whatever else is going on is harder to say. Maybe he has been trapped between life and death, and is now only partly alive. Maybe he is fully alive, but the lack of normal company has had a psychological cost, or maybe the constant drinking has done something to him. Maybe it is essentially fairy land. Or maybe he reached the end of his normal lifespan, and there is some time shenanigans.
When Vandom comes on scene, Van Dahl is fairly clearly despairing, and has lost his ability to problem solve his way out. Compare Vandom, who keeps her head, and starts investigating. (That Vandom gets tired, where he doesn't, does suggest a possibility of a physiological difference.) He doesn't try to fix things, because he no longer thinks it is possible.
Vandom shows up, her presence implying a change, and her own lack of despair pulling him into her search for options. When the others show up, he is alert to the possibilities that they present. He is not happy with being essentially trapped, aware, in the moment, unable to paint, unable to live.
Now, some theories about what might have been going on in his head when there was a possible solution, besides, 'I can paint, I can paint, joy'. One thing he seems to have done was changed the painting, and I assume he intended this. Part of what restricted his ability to paint was the concept he worked into the painting in the first place. Additional possibilities are adjusting the last work to reflect life lessons, if only half alive, escaping fully into death, or if alive, being able to paint again.
Obviously, he can't go back to Metamoor. As for England, it has changed since he was alive, and he might not have been fitting in very well even there. He may feel that the years of drinking and social isolation have changed him from what could hope to function in normal society. He may feel that he is too close to dead to really live again. He may feel that if he continues to paint, no matter where he goes in the outside world, Cedric can find him and shove him in another painting.
So, if his foresight sees only negatives from attempting to reenter the real world, if he sees a personal positive from changing his painting, and continuing to be in it, that positive is hope. The hope that Vandom, originally, gave him.
Then, finally he acts on that. He frees the girls, but that is for their sake. He might be dead. He might be alive, in the painting, forever doing the only thing left that he has interest in. Safe from Cedric. I also see the possibility of him having aged to death about the instant he was tossed in the painting, Vandom and the girls travelling in near the end of this, and then the painting being altered in the past as the come out of it in the future. (This last can also be understood as a commentary on art being a collaboration between the creator and the viewer.)
These sorts of story can fairly open to interpretation. I suspect a combination of it being a pain to nail down specifics, and how easy it would be to alienate readers one didn't need to by trying.
In this specific instance, I see an additional layer to Van Dahl's paint being weak. In trying to create a world where sadness was locked away, he ended up sealing an important part of his ability to paint away while he was in that world. So some of column 'Van Dahl has issues with sorrow in life', some of column 'creation needs negatives as well as positives to be complete and of full strength', and some of column 'the sorrows in life are what give the joys any meaning at all'.
I saw Miss Vandom bring hope to Elias Van Dahl. I fear I've made an incoherent mess of my explanation.
I like the new bit. I'd note that as Will has some level of power over her, it is somewhat unethical for Will to be asking favors of her. I look forward to this episode, and whatever else you have in store for us.
Her pet squeaked enquiringly and knowing what would be most likely to
calm Will down I scooped the dormouse out from under her bed and dropped
into her stomach. She automatically began to pet it, and I judged the
tactic to be a success.
First sentence feels like a compound. I don't formally know the correct rules for punctuation in this case.
So what is hope?
Again, I've seen it defined in a way that looks like it overlaps some with planning and forward thinking.
Let's weed out some of the chaff in usage. 'We will eventually figure out how to get better than Carnot efficiency' is not hope, it is delusion. 'If we get rid of all this small change fiddly stuff, maybe we can build some really big nuke plants, and get a few percent more efficiency in the steam system' can be hope. Wanting something really badly, regardless of possibility, is not hope in this sense. True hope is not derived from transient emotions. It is a product of perspective, values, and expectations. A bipolar cycling from depressed to manic is not inherently an example of developing hope. A person in a dismal psychological state discovering something that they can see as positive to look forward to might be.
Remember Vathara's mention of Deep Survival? I'm reminded of that book, specifically what it has to say about the psychological state of being lost, as opposed to not knowing where you are.
Forecasting the future is a difficult thing. When I was trying to find examples of black and white 'this is possible, this is impossible' I eventually had to resort to thermodynamics, and even that is a bit weak. I think I'm going have to treat this as a subjective thing for this.
Hopes, in this sense, are possibilities in these predictions that are viewed positively.
I can interpret the whole painting episode in at least two different ways, which essentially have the same middle, but different starts and endings. There are both Hope scenarios.
Rhetorical question the first is what the states of the painting and Elias were before Miss Vandom enters the painting. Was it essentially unattended between Van Dahl's entry, and recent events?
Van Dahl has clearly experienced a significant amount of subjective time. Whatever else is going on is harder to say. Maybe he has been trapped between life and death, and is now only partly alive. Maybe he is fully alive, but the lack of normal company has had a psychological cost, or maybe the constant drinking has done something to him. Maybe it is essentially fairy land. Or maybe he reached the end of his normal lifespan, and there is some time shenanigans.
When Vandom comes on scene, Van Dahl is fairly clearly despairing, and has lost his ability to problem solve his way out. Compare Vandom, who keeps her head, and starts investigating. (That Vandom gets tired, where he doesn't, does suggest a possibility of a physiological difference.) He doesn't try to fix things, because he no longer thinks it is possible.
Vandom shows up, her presence implying a change, and her own lack of despair pulling him into her search for options. When the others show up, he is alert to the possibilities that they present. He is not happy with being essentially trapped, aware, in the moment, unable to paint, unable to live.
Now, some theories about what might have been going on in his head when there was a possible solution, besides, 'I can paint, I can paint, joy'. One thing he seems to have done was changed the painting, and I assume he intended this. Part of what restricted his ability to paint was the concept he worked into the painting in the first place. Additional possibilities are adjusting the last work to reflect life lessons, if only half alive, escaping fully into death, or if alive, being able to paint again.
Obviously, he can't go back to Metamoor. As for England, it has changed since he was alive, and he might not have been fitting in very well even there. He may feel that the years of drinking and social isolation have changed him from what could hope to function in normal society. He may feel that he is too close to dead to really live again. He may feel that if he continues to paint, no matter where he goes in the outside world, Cedric can find him and shove him in another painting.
So, if his foresight sees only negatives from attempting to reenter the real world, if he sees a personal positive from changing his painting, and continuing to be in it, that positive is hope. The hope that Vandom, originally, gave him.
Then, finally he acts on that. He frees the girls, but that is for their sake. He might be dead. He might be alive, in the painting, forever doing the only thing left that he has interest in. Safe from Cedric. I also see the possibility of him having aged to death about the instant he was tossed in the painting, Vandom and the girls travelling in near the end of this, and then the painting being altered in the past as the come out of it in the future. (This last can also be understood as a commentary on art being a collaboration between the creator and the viewer.)
These sorts of story can fairly open to interpretation. I suspect a combination of it being a pain to nail down specifics, and how easy it would be to alienate readers one didn't need to by trying.
In this specific instance, I see an additional layer to Van Dahl's paint being weak. In trying to create a world where sadness was locked away, he ended up sealing an important part of his ability to paint away while he was in that world. So some of column 'Van Dahl has issues with sorrow in life', some of column 'creation needs negatives as well as positives to be complete and of full strength', and some of column 'the sorrows in life are what give the joys any meaning at all'.
I saw Miss Vandom bring hope to Elias Van Dahl. I fear I've made an incoherent mess of my explanation.
I like the new bit. I'd note that as Will has some level of power over her, it is somewhat unethical for Will to be asking favors of her. I look forward to this episode, and whatever else you have in store for us.
Her pet squeaked enquiringly and knowing what would be most likely to
calm Will down I scooped the dormouse out from under her bed and dropped
into her stomach. She automatically began to pet it, and I judged the
tactic to be a success.
First sentence feels like a compound. I don't formally know the correct rules for punctuation in this case.