purely rhetorical question

[chelidon]

Is precognition a blessing or a curse?

Comments

[k-navit.livejournal.com]

Personally, if I believed in infallible precognition, I would believe it a curse. Remove the "infallible" and concept of "destiny" or whatever and my tune changes somewhat, though to an octave that is finer and harder to explain in plain old words.

[ravenedgewalker.livejournal.com]

both...

[draiguisge.livejournal.com]

I dunno, but I'd love to know what you predicted ...

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

Depends on whether you like surprises, I suppose.

Gee, Cassandra...

[christeos-pir.livejournal.com]

I guess it depends.

[eeedge.livejournal.com]

It would depend partly on whether what was being foretold was inevitable. If I could "see" that my daughter was going to be hit by a car and could therefore keep her out of the street at that time, I would consider it a blessing. If I knew it was going to happen and had to live with the knowledge until it did, it would definitely be a curse.

Also, the whole Cassandra bit comes into it. If I wouldn't be believed no matter what I said, that would be decidedly cursely.

[kitten-goddess.livejournal.com]

Actually, there's a fairly obvious way to get around the Cassandra bit. Predict the opposite of what you see. Then everyone will believe the truth.

[mystfemme.livejournal.com]

Yes.

Um,

[criblet.livejournal.com]

doesn't "rhetorical" mean we're not really meant to comment? Or perhaps that the author plans to ignore any comments...


And what sort of a game is that, putting up a "purely rhetorical question" on LJ (which -- admittedly, this is my dream -- is all about the commenting...)?


[The above is offered as an example of what this author (possibly incorrectly) believes is a rhetorical question. Because I might come back and read any response to this, but I don't think so, mainly because it's not my journal. But is that ignoring? Might not ignoring require some extra bit of effort to make something "go away"? (Now I know there will be no easy internet answer for this one... referring to how easy it really was to go find out what a rhetorical questions is. But the requirements of ignoring, that's more complex.)]

Re: Um,

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

What I had in mind was more along the lines of anacoenosis (http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/A/anacoenosis.htm), that is, to begin a dialogue with a question, rather than merely seeking a specific literal answer to a question.

Have you ever played the Question Game?

[kitten-goddess.livejournal.com]

If what you see is something you can do something about or something good, then it is a blessing. If it is something that is inevitable and deadly, then precognition is a curse.