English Literature's Fieldings & Joneses

“Of course, billions of such coincidences take place in the world every second. I dream of writing a big book: The Theory of Chance.” – Milan Kundera “In any event, whether it was a matter of one in a million or one in a billion, the meeting was absolutely improbable, and it was precisely this lack of probability that gave it value. For existential mathematics, which does not exist, would probably propose this equation: the value of coincidence equals the degree of its improbability.” – Professor Avenarius Cosmic coincidences, rhyming events, “miracles” are fated to occur in our universe. Coincidences have to happen, otherwise we wouldn’t be here to remark upon their remarkableness. Our universe would not exist if not for a singular cosmic event, the Big Bang, along with a succession of climatic events that produced the galaxies of stars, our solar system, life on Earth, & human consciousness. Fortuitous meetings have led to grand discoveries & inventions. Accidental occurrences have produced valuable developments in science (X-rays), mathematics (the Calculus simultaneously devised by both Newton & Leibniz), & medicine, such the small-pox vaccine, quinine, insulin, allergies, & Alexander Fleming’s rediscovery of penicillin (originally noticed by a French medical student, Ernest Duchesne, in 1896), though the use of penicillin could not begin until Howard Florey & Ernst Chain isolated the active ingredient during the 1940s & developed a powdery form of the medicine. Wikipedia notes: “One aspect of Walpole’s original definition of serendipity, often missed in modern discussions of the word, is the need for an individual to be ‘sagacious’ enough to link together apparently innocuous facts in order to come to a valuable conclusion. Indeed, the scientific method, and the scientists themselves, can be prepared in many other ways to harness luck and make discoveries.” One I find fascinating comes from English literature: Henry Fielding, who wrote The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749), & Helen Fielding, author of Bridget Jones's Diary, are like bookends with over 250 years of English literature separating them while sharing a fictional genealogy of very similar names, both the writers themselves (though I’ve found no actual family connection) & their characters.