sync dev-stories

notes/themes/primary.th.txt

@@ -9909,12 +9909,32 @@ destiny
 =======
 
 :: Description
-The idea that some or all of what will happen to us is predetermined and
-cannot be influenced by our decisions.
+Destiny, or "fate", is the idea that some or all of what happens to us is
+predetermined and cannot be influenced by our decisions. This idea is featured in
+the story. It shouldn't be confused with the idea of (backwards) "timetravel"
+and usually isn't used in conjunction with the timetravel theme.
 
 :: Parents
 folk belief
 
+:: Notes
+Typically, destiny is a major theme in stories where a character has been told about
+their future through a prophesy or the like, and strives to change some part of it
+(generally in vain). It is a minor theme for example when a character mentions the
+idea but it has little relevance to the main storyline. Note that words like "destiny"
+and "fate" are sometimes used in figures of speech (say "come, destiny awaits" or
+"that fateful day") where the speaker is not particularly concerned with the idea
+behind the word in question. In such cases it is not used as a theme at all.
+
+Timetravel stories are most often paradoxical but tend to involve a character
+actually changing what has, in a sense, already happened. In some stories
+a character changes the past futilely in order to escape an event in the present
+and it may in some sense look similar to the idea of destiny. However, it is
+difficult to make sense of such stories in the context of "a singular predetermined
+course of events", which is the basis for the classical idea of "destiny". Therefore,
+as a rule of thumb, "destiny" stories tend to be completely separate from
+"timetravel" stories.
+
 :: Examples
 Data was destined to find his own severed head in tng5x26 "Time's Arrow".
 

notes/themes/timeperiod.th.txt

@@ -401,6 +401,27 @@ family living in the Bengali city Varanasi around 1920.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_India
 
 
+life in late modern India
+=========================
+
+:: Description
+We are shown a reasonably sincere idea of what life might have been like for
+some category of people living on the Indian subcontinent, typically under British
+colonial rule, roughly between the years 1750 and 1947.
+
+:: Parents
+human life in late modern times
+human life in historical Britain
+human life in historical Asia
+
+:: Examples
+In "Aparajito" (1956), we followed the everyday life of young Apu and his
+family living in the Bengali city Varanasi around 1920.
+
+:: References
+https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_India
+
+
 life in late modern Italy
 =========================
 
@@ -580,24 +601,3 @@ Victorian England.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_era
 
 
-life in late modern India
-=========================
-
-:: Description
-We are shown a reasonably sincere idea of what life might have been like for
-some category of people living on the Indian subcontinent, typically under British
-colonial rule, roughly between the years 1750 and 1947.
-
-:: Parents
-human life in late modern times
-human life in historical Britain
-human life in historical Asia
-
-:: Examples
-In "Aparajito" (1956), we followed the everyday life of young Apu and his
-family living in the Bengali city Varanasi around 1920.
-
-:: References
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_India
-
-