The shape of chance: what can stones tell us about artistic creativity and literary theory?

Abstract

What does literature tell us about the concept of chance? And how is chance relevant to literary theory and comparison? Relating chance to theory is counter-intuitive, because the very attempt to theorise seems to aim at reducing the coincidental and advancing systematic interpretations of literature. But writings about stones tell us otherwise. By highlighting stones’ aesthetic qualities and quasi-artistic status, these writings raise questions about the role of chance in the natural processes that form stones, and in the human perception that frame them as aesthetic objects. I read Roger Caillois’s lithic writings alongside the poetics of Chinese scholars’ rocks and poet Lu Ji’s 陸機 (c. 261-303) Rhapsody on Literature (文賦 Wenfu). Their writings raise questions about the intersections between chance, writing, and literary theory: What can stones tell us about our understanding of chance and creativity? Can creativity and criticism flourish by promoting instead of calculating or eliminating chance? If yes, how? I discuss how lapidary writings and practices posit stones as poetic and discursive objects that engage with chance reveries, aesthetic sensations, and effects of human-mineral symbiosis.