Early in YSPDD, Pandora had written down some new words she learned, back when she was studying under a different master, months before she had ever heard of DFW. While recently reviewing the diary, one of those words figuratively glowed like neon.
What was the Word? The word was 'eschatology' - which meant not much to her at that time, but now seemed to have the same etymology as IJ's Eschaton. 'Aha' moment, a serendipitous synchronicity to investigate!
DFW was a deft wordsmith, as we all know, so it stands to reason that he chose to name the highly intense encounter game 'Eschaton', which root meaning is, according to one simplified source, 'end times', or 'the ultimate destiny of humanity'. Might we then deduce that DFW regarded tennis - not just any tennis, but bloody vicious teen angst tennis aided, abetted and plotted with the assistance of teleputer, acronym, and Pemulis - as a sort of end game in itself? The determining factor in who would advance to the Show, and who was woefully unimaginative and/or inept/ and/ or lacking the requisite toolbox-motor integration to ever succeed in anything ever?
Or maybe it's just a metaphor for like, life.
Wikipedia lends some insight into eschatology. Directly quoting now : The Oxford English Dictionary defines eschatology as "The department of theological science concerned with ‘the four last things: death, judgment, heaven and hell’.... In the context of mysticism, the phrase refers metaphorically to the end of ordinary reality and reunion with the Divine. ...Researchers in futures studies and transhumanism investigate how the accelerating rate of scientific progress may lead to a technological singularity in the 21st century that would profoundly and unpredictably change the course of human history, and result in Homo sapiens no longer being the dominant life form on Earth." (end of quote)
Fascinating!
The end of humanity as the dominant life form on earth? Ooh la la. Blade runners, cyborgs, androids, ETs. All gods in the pantheon are welcome here. They bow to each other: Namaste. The byte in me sees the byte in you. Tennis, anyone?
It also fascinates Pox because she is always thinking about life and death and how to make the best of whatever time remains in her own lifespan. If only she could do what she envisioned happening in the Steeply, Herself saga....there would be no need to worry about silly things like aging, debilitating diseases, losing one or more of her 5 senses, and especially forgetting the purpose of the valuable tools in her personal toolbox. God forbid they should rattle and clang in her head like the kind of headaches for which there are no known cure. Pox needs a dose of mental Eschaton, it would seem to this objective observer, in order to keep her synapses all lubed and ready for action, and not all bollixed up in a heap of flung props like those on IJ page 341: ' a degenerative chaos so complex in its disorder that it's hard to tell whether it seems choreographed or simply chaotically disordered.'
ERROR...ERROR...ERROR.
No problem. The games continue.....the show must go on.
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