So my family just tonight watched the first two episodes of Magnum P.I., which of course I used to watch as a kid. Unlike Murder She Wrote, I don't have nearly as strong of an attachment even though I remember the series fondly, and having watched the episode, I can see why; its flaws are far, far more evident to me and I'm not entirely sure I like the format of the show. (Basically, while Murder She Wrote was strictly formula, it was a good formula; Magnum PI isn't as great of one.)
But I still enjoyed it and it had its moments. Yet that's not why I'm making a blog post at this time. The reason I'm making a blog post at this time is something that I heard in the episode that is straight out of my novel.
...Rather, the other way around given that I watched Magnum P.I. as a kid and this is twenty years after the series was made, but I was absolutely convinced that sort of line (cheesy as it was) was entirely my own thing, because it seemed like just an off-handed thing. Now I know for a fact that at some points in some versions of my novel, I've lifted bits and pieces from songs. (In particular, Metric's Beating Like a Hammer was one of the inspirations for my novel's prologue, so I lifted some elements directly from there.)
But a line, oft-repeated throughout the book in multiple different ways? That I just casually write all the time without thinking about it being anything other than just a line? That caught me off-guard, and it made me smile, and basically highly-raised my appreciation for the series. It could be coincidental, sure, but it is VERY likely not, thus, I owe the show a shoutout for that very important line.
Now, to go into things, I have to first explain something. Hear me out. It's vaguely tied to the idea of choice, and whether we actually have it or not. Well, there are two words that deal with our future and how it forms off of our own actions. Those two words? Are fate and destiny. Some use them interchangeably as synonyms.
I don't.
Now, what I'm about to describe to you is my modern belief, as in, what I say this day. Basically, I differentiate the two in that for me, we get to choose our fate. We control what path we are able to go down. There are an infinite number of possibilities...yet we have the choice, we always have the choice, to choose to at least some degree what fate awaits us. We don't know that we do this. We might not know that, saaaaaaay, doing track will cause us do eventually get our first job as a lifeguard by following a series of related events. But we make the decisions to do it, one step at a time, and the fate that we end up with as a result of our choices is that of the lifeguard. (If you couldn't tell, speaking from experience.)
...Yet what makes us choose that path in the first place? Spontaneity? Calculated decisions we've weighed? A combination of both? Well, yes. But what makes us suddenly have the urge to make that decision? What makes us decide the way we do? What makes it so that when we've weighed things, we decide that this decision is better, not that one? That? That, I call our destiny. We choose our fate. Which fate we choose is our destiny. Destiny is what guides us to making the calls we do. Destiny is what makes us do what we do, even though we did what we did because we chose that fate.
In short, I both believe we control our future and have no control over our future at the same time. We have the power of choice over what future to take, what fate we choose for ourselves...and yet, what future we end up selecting for ourselves is our Destiny. (Which ties into the multiverse theory I mentioned before. Our Destiny is different from a different, but nearly identical, Destiny, where the decision was flipped off of the choice being flipped.)
...That wasn't always the case. That's how I define the two now. But back five years ago, when I was first beginning to write my novel, I had chosen to nail down the terms the other way. In short, I think we can agree that Fate and Destiny are not the same thing. They are two separate concepts, tied to two similar (but different) ideas, more or less along the lines of the above. Thus, they are not interchangeable.
...However, which word you have to which term can vary. Back when I started writing my novel (and it's still in there to this very day as a result), I basically elevated Fate to be the 'god', where Fate is what happens to us, whereas our destinies, we control. Same exact thing, just backwards with the words. Distinctly NOT interchangeable, just me having decided the concepts deserved different words back then. (The difference I think came from the fact that while there's both "choose your fate" and "choose your destiny", that "it is our destiny" is slightly more common than "it is our fate", thus my modern belief took Destiny to be unmutable and Fate to be mutable, meaning you can fight Fate but can't fight Destiny. Five years ago, though, my logic was the other way around, likely using similar but slightly different references that made it so that I said you can't fight Fate, but control your destiny. I do hope that this is clear and that I'm not hopelessly confusing you.)
The way it was when I started the novel is very relevant, though. Because it brings me back to the line I heard in the Magnum PI show. That line, if you couldn't tell, was basically, "fate will guide my way". Aaron, my protagonist, several times in the first few chapters, says that exact line, or variants thereof. So I think it's really, really cool. That's something I never, ever would have known I was using, without having seen it in front of my eyes. But now that I have, I'm incredibly glad for the experience. It's always, always, always good to know where your inspirations come from, especially if you didn't know you were being inspired.
It might discourage some people, but for me, this is nothing but a good thing.
But I still enjoyed it and it had its moments. Yet that's not why I'm making a blog post at this time. The reason I'm making a blog post at this time is something that I heard in the episode that is straight out of my novel.
...Rather, the other way around given that I watched Magnum P.I. as a kid and this is twenty years after the series was made, but I was absolutely convinced that sort of line (cheesy as it was) was entirely my own thing, because it seemed like just an off-handed thing. Now I know for a fact that at some points in some versions of my novel, I've lifted bits and pieces from songs. (In particular, Metric's Beating Like a Hammer was one of the inspirations for my novel's prologue, so I lifted some elements directly from there.)
But a line, oft-repeated throughout the book in multiple different ways? That I just casually write all the time without thinking about it being anything other than just a line? That caught me off-guard, and it made me smile, and basically highly-raised my appreciation for the series. It could be coincidental, sure, but it is VERY likely not, thus, I owe the show a shoutout for that very important line.
Now, to go into things, I have to first explain something. Hear me out. It's vaguely tied to the idea of choice, and whether we actually have it or not. Well, there are two words that deal with our future and how it forms off of our own actions. Those two words? Are fate and destiny. Some use them interchangeably as synonyms.
I don't.
Now, what I'm about to describe to you is my modern belief, as in, what I say this day. Basically, I differentiate the two in that for me, we get to choose our fate. We control what path we are able to go down. There are an infinite number of possibilities...yet we have the choice, we always have the choice, to choose to at least some degree what fate awaits us. We don't know that we do this. We might not know that, saaaaaaay, doing track will cause us do eventually get our first job as a lifeguard by following a series of related events. But we make the decisions to do it, one step at a time, and the fate that we end up with as a result of our choices is that of the lifeguard. (If you couldn't tell, speaking from experience.)
...Yet what makes us choose that path in the first place? Spontaneity? Calculated decisions we've weighed? A combination of both? Well, yes. But what makes us suddenly have the urge to make that decision? What makes us decide the way we do? What makes it so that when we've weighed things, we decide that this decision is better, not that one? That? That, I call our destiny. We choose our fate. Which fate we choose is our destiny. Destiny is what guides us to making the calls we do. Destiny is what makes us do what we do, even though we did what we did because we chose that fate.
In short, I both believe we control our future and have no control over our future at the same time. We have the power of choice over what future to take, what fate we choose for ourselves...and yet, what future we end up selecting for ourselves is our Destiny. (Which ties into the multiverse theory I mentioned before. Our Destiny is different from a different, but nearly identical, Destiny, where the decision was flipped off of the choice being flipped.)
...That wasn't always the case. That's how I define the two now. But back five years ago, when I was first beginning to write my novel, I had chosen to nail down the terms the other way. In short, I think we can agree that Fate and Destiny are not the same thing. They are two separate concepts, tied to two similar (but different) ideas, more or less along the lines of the above. Thus, they are not interchangeable.
...However, which word you have to which term can vary. Back when I started writing my novel (and it's still in there to this very day as a result), I basically elevated Fate to be the 'god', where Fate is what happens to us, whereas our destinies, we control. Same exact thing, just backwards with the words. Distinctly NOT interchangeable, just me having decided the concepts deserved different words back then. (The difference I think came from the fact that while there's both "choose your fate" and "choose your destiny", that "it is our destiny" is slightly more common than "it is our fate", thus my modern belief took Destiny to be unmutable and Fate to be mutable, meaning you can fight Fate but can't fight Destiny. Five years ago, though, my logic was the other way around, likely using similar but slightly different references that made it so that I said you can't fight Fate, but control your destiny. I do hope that this is clear and that I'm not hopelessly confusing you.)
The way it was when I started the novel is very relevant, though. Because it brings me back to the line I heard in the Magnum PI show. That line, if you couldn't tell, was basically, "fate will guide my way". Aaron, my protagonist, several times in the first few chapters, says that exact line, or variants thereof. So I think it's really, really cool. That's something I never, ever would have known I was using, without having seen it in front of my eyes. But now that I have, I'm incredibly glad for the experience. It's always, always, always good to know where your inspirations come from, especially if you didn't know you were being inspired.
It might discourage some people, but for me, this is nothing but a good thing.
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