Chuck Grimes wrote:
>
>
> I return to the stunning example of the role of `history', or
> `fortune' as the Medieval mind named it---in the Baboon
> example. Whatever happened in the ancient past of humanity, obviously
> fortune played some part.
I once had a yen, really strong, to write an account of Fortuna in literature, but I was ignorant of 95% of the works I would have to know to write it. "Fortuna" can also be translated by "Contingency," which plays a strong role in the best of contemporary thought.
Carrol
P.S. A whimsical idea that flashed on me just before I hit the send button. Wallace Stevens had a really bad case of the Lust for Order, combined with a really strong recognition or sense of Contingency, and that combination led both to his career as a Corporate Soldier (order) and as a poet (ordered chaos).