It’s a tough question.
As a feeling, it forms our orientation every day. One
day this way, and the next, that-a-way.
But
the role of pure luck in life and history is a persnickety matter. Storytellers
avoid it, because one can not make sense of lucky coincidences.
Historians,
who are also storytellers when it comes right down to it, also avoid it for the
most part. Their jobs and whole professional discipline would evaporate if luck
is deemed central to events.
Philosophers
and theologians have argued about the place of coincidence. The understanding
of creation hinges on the notion that a thinker/great designer is behind it, or
a chain of gazillion coincidences just had a lucky streak.
Some,
like me, have come to understand that coincidences are few, but they do exist
and do play a part in all journeys. But
how to tell this in stories, and in what proportion to place luck in a
story?
Now,
that is the question.
4 comments:
When my daughter was a tween she decided to test my luck. I had to guess heads or tails on thirty consecutive coin flips.
I was wrong 27 times.
She said, "Dad you are sooo unlucky. You should be right 50 per cent of the time, not 10 per cent."
I said, "No, I'm not unlucky. It's reverse luck. Now I know not to bet on me."
:D
I think one is allowed a couple of well-placed coincidences in a story. But in life, this quote from Pope St. John Paul II has proven true: "In the designs of Providence, there are no mere coincidences."
Luck is also a matter of perspective. There was a time in my much younger life when I felt unlucky because of the circumstances I was in. As I matured, I saw how lucky I was and am. When I say, in a conversation, how lucky I feel, I’ve been told it’s not luck, but a matter of my consistently saying yes to opportunities that presented themselves, instead of saying no. Who knows? Luck is a mystery.
Dave, Google "Gambler's Fallacy," the only thing I ever learned in Statistics. Your chances of being right are 50-50 for each throw. :)
I think coincidence in a story is fine when it gets the character into additional trouble, but not when it rescues the character (deus ex machina).
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