will. We see this in “The annihilation of nothing”
where he sets up such a scenario “Look upward.
Neither firm nor free…Purposeless matter hovers
in the dark”. Nevertheless in the midst of this
pernicious existential abyss, “risks are authorised”
and freedom becomes a zealous struggle or “will to
power”. Gunn is forever the optimist in the midst
of this apostasy of existential despair when he
states “we control the content of our dreams”.
Gunn is the contemporary shaman who places
the reader in the situation of his protagonists who
must be responsible for their actions. In "My sad
captains" we see them "one by one…. The past
lapping them like a cloak of chaos". However,
Gunn is optimistic that the chaos is to be
embraced and when they "withdraw to an orbit,
and turn with disinterested hard energy, like the
stars", their magnanimous athanasy and heroic
coalesce resonates. Gunn sets the reader on a
"vision quest" to evade "soul-loss" or "bad faith"
in place of affirmative reification of spirt (Harvey
& Wallis, 2007). This is the hero's journey, the
path of individuation which Gunn lays out for the
reader. The goal is "mastery of Spirits", embracing
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