Fredrick Turner and the Book of Acts

"And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power" (Acts 1:7)

I am not quite finished with Shakespeare's King Lear. This go around I would like to take a look at the play through the looking glass of Fredrick Turner and his work Shakespeare and the Nature of Time. This connection to the bible happened on accident but became inspiring for a new wave of unintelligible thought. While reading The Brothers Karamazov there was a little foot note that read, "Acts 1:7". Thanks to the Ipad I was able to quickly look at my KJV Bible App (I know right?) and find the line above. I found it interesting because it reminded me a lot of Turner and some things happening in King Lear.

According to Nasa's (good name drop) historical records on the date of October 12, 1605 Europe experienced a total solar eclipse. Now Shakespeare seems to allude to this event in King Lear when Edgar and Edmund are having a discussion in Act I.2 Now Edmund and Edgar in this conversation there is a line that reads, "I promise you that effects he writes of succeed unhappily: as unnaturalness" (Shakespeare). Not only does this simply act as an omen as to tragic events to following (foreshadowing) but it lends to the idea that natural time is out of sync. The natural cycle of the moon and the sun, and day and night are disjointed. Using Turner's aspect of natural time as order of things could easily be attached to the natural process of aging. However in this case the natural order is screwed up. Typically Edmund or Edgar would usurp their father as soon as he passed like the moon that rises once the sun as fallen, but this is all undone. With total solar eclipse comes the foretelling of the son that will eclipse his living father.

How this pertains to the book of acts is that the time even in Turner's natural sense is not a constant. With an event like an eclipse, and leap years. The point being that time even in the most cyclical sense is not a constant because our sense of natural time is based on the celestial bodies in the sky, thus when things like eclipses happen time changes the cycle is broken, much like natural time is in the power of the 'Father'. And what that really means is that the future is unforetold, and that despite our best efforts to control time and the events of the future it way be futile.

This was not typically revolutionary blog but I just like when things come together.