Rocks and Sticks and Knives and Pain

What is fear? The dictionary says that fear is a distressed emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the treat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid. Fear can also be defined as reverential awe, specifically awe toward God. The second meaning, at least in my mind, is the more insightful definition in that it portrays some of the emotion felt in fear. That emotion is respect. I can think of no instance when something is feared and not respected because if something does not have respect then it is not worthy of fear. This separates fear from the act being afraid. If one is afraid of something one does not necessarily respect it. Fear, because of the respect it has, can therefore become terror. Terror is simply an overpowering feeling of fear, although terror can not be described as simple. An emotion so powerful that it can completely nullify the senses or can inspire greatness. Fear and terror are forces to be reckoned with and there are substances and instances which are worthy of fear. There is nothing wrong in fearing something, some things should be feared. There is, however, something wrong with being afraid of fear, or more namely, as fear is worthy of respect, of fearing fear. If one fears fear then one can lose their freedom. Fear should never control our actions, it should inspire within us courage. In the words of Victor Hugo:

The man on the run, let us repeat, is a man inspired. There is starlight and lightning in the mysterious glow of flight, and the straining for liberty is no less remarkable than the soaring of the spirit to the sublime. To ask, as we do of Corneille, 'when did he know that he was dying?'

Hugo talks of a man in fear of being caught, but the man is not controlled, he is instead inspired to acts of daring, to acts of courage, to acts of greatness; the man is free in his flight for freedom.

Child of the Snows

There is heard a hymn when the panes are dim,
And never before or again,
When the nights are strong with a darkness long,
And the dark is alive with rain,

Never we know but in sleet and in snow,
The place where the great fires are,
That the midst of the earth is a raging mirth
And the heart of the earth a star.

And at night we win to the ancient inn
Where the child in the frost is furled,
We follow the feet where all souls meet
At the inn at the end of the world.

The gods lie dead where the leaves lie red,
For the flame of the sun is flown,
The gods lie cold where the leaves lie gold,
And a Child comes forth alone.

- G.K. Chesterton

The Everlasting Man

For Christmas, here's a quote from one of my favorite passages in G.K. Chesterton's, The Everlasting Man:

Christmas for us in Christendom has become one thing, and in one sense even a simple thing. But like all the truths of that tradition, it is in another sense a very complex thing. Its unique not is the simultaneous striking of many notes; of humility, or gaiety, of gratitude, of mystical fear, but also of vigilance and drama. There is something defiant in it also; something that makes the abrupt bells at midnight sound like the great guns of a battle that has just been won. All this indescribable thing that we call the Christmas atmosphere only hangs in the air as something like a lingering fragrance or fading vapour from the exultant explosion of that one hour in the Judean hills nearly two thousand years ago. But the savour is still unmistakable, and it is something too subtle or too solitary to be covered by our use of the word peace. By the very nature of the story the rejoicings in the cavern were rejoicings in a fortress or an outlaw’s den; properly understood it is not unduly flippant to say they were rejoicings in a dug-out. It is not only true that such a subterranean chamber was a hiding-place from enemies; and that the enemies were already scouring the stony plain that lay above it like a sky.

There is in this buried divinity an idea of undermining the world; of shaking the towers and palaces from below; even as Herod the great king felt that earthquake under him and swayed with his swaying palace. This is perhaps the mightiest of the mysteries of the cave. Indeed the Church from its beginnings, and perhaps especially in its beginnings, was not so much a principality as a revolution against the prince of the world. It was in truth against a huge unconscious usurpation that it raised a revolt. Olympus still occupied the sky like a motionless cloud moulded into many mighty forms; philosophy still sat in the high places and even on the thrones of the kings, when Christ was born in the cave and Christianity in the catacombs.

The Stars look down on the meak and lowly

"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." Luke 2: 8-14

I've always loved this passage, imagining the confusion and terror of the shepherds as their peace is broken by the hosts of heaven. This scene, however, is repeated on an almost nightly basis. All you have to do is go out on a clear night and gaze at the heavens. Stars, which are so often seen as synonymous with angels, look down as they dance through the heavens. The Angels coming at the birth of Christ was enough to shake people from their sleep and draw their eyes upward, while the quiet twinkling of stars every night is a reminder of this mystery and evidence that all of creation sings God's praise.

The change, it had to come, We knew it all along

Time is like an ocean, sometimes rushing and crashing forward and sometimes rolling gently on, but always moving. Nothing in our lives is stationary for it is all a part of this constant flux. Some are more steady and do not so much change as shift and grow. This is how relationships are, with family, friends, associates, everybody you meet, some last forever and you spend a lifetime deepening them and others fade out. Certain people can be a huge part in your life, but then times change, you move or graduate from school or change jobs and some of those people are gone. You're left with the memories and the impressons.

This is what allows us to mature and enrich ourselves: new experiences, new people, new knowledge. We move through this life and use everything that we've encountered to make each new decision we come across. We have countless opurtunities to shape our lives and the world around us.

But time brings change and all progress has a cost. There are tradeoffs and sacrifices that accompany every choice we make and so with every gain there is a tiny, lingering sense of loss. There are, however, certain beliefs, values and ideas that I will not let change, certain people I will not lose. I've been told that this is part of being young and an idealist and as I grow older these passions will turn into a deeper but more detatched love and my dreams to change the world will shrink in scale. Well I don't know if I believe that's true, but even if it is at the root of who I am will still be the same ideals. There are certian absolutes in this ever shifting world which should never be compromised.

Dreams

"He said, "Listen to my words: "When a prophet of the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams."-- Numbers 12:6

The Greatest Story Ever Told

I was surprised when reading a review of a new book has come out entitled The Magician's Book: A Skeptical Visit to Narnia, to note the bitterness with which the author, Laura Miller, recalls her realization as a teen of "what is instantly obvious to any adult reader: that the Chronicles of Narnia are filled with Christian symbolism."

C. S. Lewis is so forthwith about the Christianity in his works that her sense of betrayal is surprising. More surprising, however, is her claim that reading the Chronicles of Narnia as religious allegory is a willful misinterpretation and that she mean to reclaim them. "The Chronicles are unified," she writes, "not by anything resembling the exhaustive cultural stuff that Tolkien invented for Middle-earth . . . not even, really, by a cogent religious vision, but by readerly desire. Lewis poured into his imaginary world everything that he had adored in the books he read as a child and in the handful of children's books he'd enjoyed as an adult. And there is more, too: treasures collected from Dante, from Spenser, from Malory, from Austen, from old romances and ballads and fairy tales and pagan epics. . . The Chronicles," Miller concludes, "are a portal to other worlds, literary worlds."

Now, I have not read her book, but all of the reviews said generally the same thing. Which left me wondering how stories, other worlds and Christianity are mutually exclusive?

Myths and religion form the backbone of most fantasy. Sometimes their presence is overt-in The Iliad the gods are active participants in the plot. Other stories mask religion's presence but it is there; the injunction to follow a rule that is seemingly incompressible, to not open a box, eat an apple or to return home from the ball by midnight, points to the mystery of faith. The quest for some unattainable end, epic last stands, reliance on something besides oneself, these are all tropes that mirror and point to a Christian life.

Not only do most stories owe something to Christianity but the story of salvation history is itself thrilling. I know a professor who claims that you know the Bible was divinely inspired because of how perfect a work of literature it is, no person could have written it. It contains paradigms of tragedy and comedy, soul stirring pieces of poetry, the story of Jonah is even a perfect example of a ring cycle.

This is the point which seems to have eluded Ms. Miller, you cannot dismiss the religion and focus on the fact the C. S. Lewis wrote a smashingly good story because it is in large part the religion that makes it a smashingly good story. Grace, temptation, salvation these are what drives the plot of the Chronicles of Narinia. Incidentally, the same is true for many of the other books which Miller claims inspired Lewis as opposed to Christianity (Dante, have Christian undertones? No! He hid it so well also).

Sorry for the very heavy C. S. Lewis theme of late, I am going to leave off before start ranting about what was done to Peter's character in the Prince Caspian movie.

Will you have some tea?

"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me" -- C. S. Lewis

Symbols vs. Allegory

Of all words that have begun to lose their meaning and to be conflated in modern society the ones that have been bothering me most of late are symbol and allegory, which it seems people have begun to use interchangeably.

Allegories are man made constructs--a one-to-one correlation between two things. They are simple and contained within their subjects. That is why when, in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when people kept telling the Pevensie children that Alsan was not a tame lion I only half believed them. It is true within the constructs of the story and they way they meant it, Alsan couldn't be called or beckoned. Yet at the same time the reader could expect him not to be too terrible or do anything unexpected because he is confined by being an allegory. Aslan can be depended on not to do anything Christ wouldn't.

Symbols are much wilder things, which point to something else, not as a correspondence but as an illumination of its mystery. Chesterton gets to the heart of this paradox with his customary wit and insight in his essay "The Heraldic Lion," saying: "For all the mystical animals were imagined as enormously big as well as incalculably fierce and free. The stamping of the awful unicorn would shake the endless deserts in which it dwelt; and the wings of the vast griffin went over one' head in heaven with the thunder of a thousand cherubim. And yet the fact remains that if you asked a medieval man what the unicorn was supposed to mean, he would have replied 'chastity.'"

Symbols are not human constructs in the same way allegories are, but rather are a way to illuminate a mystery already in existence and to point to a truth that humans have only partially grasped. In the case of the unicorn this truth is that Chasity is not an absence or a lack of something, but instead something powerful, alive and flaming. I believe that elsewhere Chesterton made the comparison to Joan of Arc--something pure with the power to shake the world.

In the Renaissance a philosophy called The Doctrine of Signatures gained prominence. Essentially what this said was that everything in creation was created for a purpose with and end in mind and God "signed" each bit of creation to let man know its purpose. While not being as literal as looking for ear shaped plants to cure ear infections, this is what symbols do. They help unlock the secrets of creation by pointing to meanings beyond the superficial and illustrate a world full of mystery and wonder.

Not every man truely lives

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."-- Martin Luther King Jr.

English Marks a Million

A thought for the end of your week: The Economist, in its preview of 2009 issue, reports that the Global Language Monitor predicts that on April 29th 2009 English will officially pass the one million words mark.

In other news the average text message or IM conversation uses less than 50 of these.

A defense of monsters

The chatter around the library for the past few weeks has been unarguably focused on Twilight: Was the movie any good? Who is the best character? Who would make a better boyfriend, Edward or Jacob?

The last question caused me to pause, one is a werewolf and one is a vampire so neither should make a good boyfriend. Oh wait, that's right, they are not really vampires or werewolves, Stephenie Meyers managed to strip them of what made these creatures monsters, the subject of horror movie-their uncontrollable nature, their complete otherness. This is most evident in the werewolves who did not have to change at the full moon, who could transform back and forth at will, and who retained all of their mental capabilities. While in the fourth book she at least has the decency to say they are not traditional werewolves but rather shape shifters, it still felt week. Despite both Jacob and Edward's frequent assertions that they were monsters neither Bella nor the readers bought it.

I began thinking then about the Harry Potter books, the last big fad in teen lit which transcended that genre and were popular with a broad spectrum of people. In that, at least, the monsters are monstrous--no one meeting a dementor, troll or Voldemort would expect compassion and they were not objects of infatuation. Yet in Harry Potter it is set up as a one-on-one struggle, not part of a larger problem. Voldemort is the evilest wizard and Harry the boy destined to kill him, an act which will restore order the the world and everything will be fine again.

Stories where the monsters stand out, where they are truly terrifying are those where defeating a monster does not eradicate evil but merely stems the tide until the next monster arises. At the beginning of the Dark Knight Gordon tells Batman that his taking the out the mob bosses did not save Gotham but opened the door to a new generation of criminals. In the Lord of the Rings the unspoken knowledge that Sauron was not the first dark lord and probably would not be the last is evident. For the characters in these stories this is no reason to stop resisting, but there is also no talk of chosen ones, just of a person standing against the monsters until it is someone else's turn.

Tolkien got at the heart of this mentality in his essay The Monsters and the Critics, "The monsters had been the foes of the gods, the captains of men, and within Time the monsters would win. In the heroic siege and last defeat men and gods alike had been imagined in the same host. Now the heroic figures, the men of old, remained and still fought on until defeat. For the monsters do not depart, whether the gods go or come."

Defanging monsters robs the struggles of everyday life of their virtue. The fact Beowulf still resonates with modern audiences, that the Lord of the Rings has not flagged in popularity since it was "discovered" in the 60's, and that superhero stories are becoming popular with a whole new generation means that the idea of an unending struggle against evil still speaks to people at least as much as stories where the main problem is finding a date to prom or staying on top of your clique. Leaving monsters monstrous sparks the imagination and gives people a guide for when the dragons come.

There is power in me yet, my race is not yet run

Who are we? we who claim to know so much yet know so little. Are we so arrogant that we cannot confess to be proud? We have but one chance to do something in this world, who are we to falter? Why are we afraid to fight for the right to be free? I want to run I want to fly I want to do something with my life. There will come a time when we must decide who we are. In this world why are we restricted in professions that we deem others will want to emulate? Why simply cannot we walk and learn and hope to understand? Damn their warnings damn their lies, they will see the people rise! I want to learn, I want to learn so much. To travel to learn the trades of better men. I want to wander I want to be free. I want to be remembered for the life that I led. I want to be written in the stars. Let the rains fall and the seas rise! Let us walk unafraid of what is to come. Let us reach for the stars and let the stars be changed. Who cares about your lonely soul, we strive for a higher goal, our little lives don't count at all! The trumpets wills sound for the Lords of Gondor have returned. I would have called you my brother. my captain. my king. We do not know the path that we tread, but He does, and so we must content ourselves with this knowledge, the knowledge that there is a being greater than us, that there is a will greater than our own. The stars can be changed. The Son also rises. Are we willing to give our lives or are we to afraid to even say our name. He stood as if challenging the world, and all who looked upon him concluded that in the case of a rumble, the world would lose.

To all the Farsighted

"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." — Mark Twain

Brand New Hero

When people look back, who will be seen as the heroes of our age? What artists' names will endure? What musician's work will resonate with future generations?

Perhaps this is merely a problem of perspective, and as members of this generation we are unable to recognise which of our contemporaries will achieve greatness, but it seems as though we lack people who can be numbered among the giants of the past.

Looking at the politicians of today it is easy to pick out the major players who will dominate the history books. However, there do not seem to be any people who would sacrifice their careers, their health, their lives for a cause merely people who are very good at the political game. There is no one like William Wilberforce, Gandhi, Lincoln, or even someone like Churchill who saw what needed to be done and did it, regardless of popular opinion, a fact which eventually cost him his career. There do not even seem to be the type of person powerful enough to define an age; no Robespierre or Napoleon, who, regardless of whether people see them as a hero or villain, had the power in their generation to change history with a word.

I don't see someone like Annie Lebowitz ever being listed with Da Vinci, Rembrandt or Picasso. As much as I love the work of Seamus Heaney I don't think he equals Elliott, Yeats, Milton or Dante. There is a lack of greatness among our generation.

I think this is largely the result of education. It is hard for genius to grow when everyone is taught at the same pace, held to the same standard, when there is one acceptable answer and deviation is not tolerated. This is not necessarily bad, it raises the fortunes of the majority a moderate amount as opposed to a few achieving greatness.

According to Henry Newman fostering greatness is not the purpose of education: "It neither confines its views to particular professions on the one hand, nor creates heroes or inspires genius on the other. It is the great ordinary means to an great but ordinary end; it aims at raising the intellectual tone of society, at cultivating the public mind, at purifying the national taste, at supplying true principles to popular enthusiasm and fixed aims to popular aspiration, at giving enlargement and sobriety to the ideas of the age, at facilitating the exercise of political power, and refining the intercourse of private life. It is the education which gives a man a clear conscious view of his own opinions and judgments, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in urging them."

Yet, in an age when professional athletes are revered as never before, when the lives of pop sensations are followed with rabid enthusiasm, when the story of an orphaned wizard who might be the chosen one has launched an unparalleled franchise, when superheroes have finally become mainstream and widely popular, when a Batman movie was the summer blockbuster, it seems as though this is not enough and people want a hero, need greatness to inspire them.

(While not the original intent, this post may or may not have developed into an excuse to include the above picture by Alex Ross).

Wonder of Wonders

The world will never starve for want of wonders; but only for want of wonder. -- G. K. Chesterton

Is it written in the stars?

Words don't just tell the story-they can complete a deed, or they can begin one. The telling of a story can be part of the action itself. In the Anglo-Saxon world a deed was not complete until it was reported. That is why in Beowulf there is the recap once Beowulf returns home--he had to bring the story with him and report, else his task was not yet done. In this retelling the person is immortalized and the deed kept alive. If a persons deeds are great enough, they will be retold again and again, their tale preserved in stories and song. As Cohen says in The Last Hero, "I've got a sword and it's a good one, but all the bleedin' thing can do is keep someone alive ... A song can keep someone immortal."

Stories take on a life of their own, gaining a certain truthfulness regardless of the actual facts of the events they are reporting. They have the power to strike fear or to inspire, to teach or to caution. Every great person eventually fades from memory but the story endures, even if only in bits of popular wisdom or folklore.

"'In the olden days," she said, "when a hero had been really heroic, the gods would put them up in the stars." THE HEAVENS CHANGE, said Death. WHAT TODAY LOOKS LIKE A MIGHTY HUNTER MAY LOOK LIKE A TEACUP IN A HUNDRED YEARS' TIME. "That doesn't seem fair." NO ONE EVER SAID IT HAD TO BE. BUT THERE ARE OTHER STARS.'"

According to Genesis, the world was begun with a Word. The world then is the greatest story, which is constantly being told through peoples words and deed.

To Entertain Immortals

Words do indeed have power, each containing a meaning, allowing us to communicate. This is what allows us to preserve knowledge of all sorts: facts, songs, stories, and legacies. Words have the power to immortalize. Galileo says "looking to things even more stable and enduring, others have entrusted the immortal fame of illustrious men not to marble and metal but to the custody of the Muses and to imperishable literary monuments." He places this honor only under having a portion of the heavens, a constellation of stars, named after oneself because he believes only that is more enduring than having ones name and deeds preserved within words. 

This can be either a blessing or a punishment to men, depending on the deeds they perform throughout their lives. Compare the legacy of Julius Caesar to that of Brutus, Peter to Judas, Gandhi to Hitler. Each is remembered to this day for the choices he made during his life. This increases the accountability men have for their actions. Many discoveries and victories are the result of men searching for glory, trying to transcend their brief lives by having their accomplishments remembered. It is a constant concern of leaders. For what will they be remembered? It is  a guiding force in the back of every mind, affecting every choice, for with each man is creating his own legacy. 

Not all things are preserved in a truthful or accurate way. Often, the victor gets to tell the story. But even so, writers have a great responsibility - they must tell the story.

Not even Orwell could have dreamed this up

"…Text-messaging or The Sun, these are perfect Orwellian ways of limiting the vocabulary and thus limiting the consciousness…" -- Alan Moore

- 'Stand up and say your name!'

Why is it that we as persons are inclined to give out names as if on a whim? It can be said that one does not really know another until that others name is known. And, in the knowing of a name is power. But why, why do we have names at all, are we not content to be simply called man, as a lion is simply called a lion. But even onto lions, even onto animals we bestow names. If one has a pet usually a name is given, most of us do not simply say 'dog'. Are we so possessed that we name even inanimate objects? We are. We give names, we have names because we are different. One does not simply say man because that man is not the same as the previous one. They look different and the only way to differentiate between the two is with words.

One of our greatest freedoms is the power of speech. The power to articulate, the power to voice our thoughts and dreams, and the power to inspire others to dream. So great is the power of words that I am unable to adequately express them, so I will take a passage from one who is, G.K. Chesterton.

"Well, we won't quarrel about a word," said the other pleasantly.
"Why on earth not?" said MacIan, with a sudden asperity. "Why shouldn't we
quarrel about a word? What is the good of words if they aren't important enough
to quarrel over? Why do we choose one word over another if there isn't any
difference between them? If you call a women a chimpanzee instead of an angel,
wouldn't there be a quarrel about a word? If you're not going to argue about
words, what are you going to argue about? Are you going to convey your meaning to
me by moving your ears ? The Church and the heresies always used to fight about
words, because they are the only things worth fighting about. I say that murder
is a sin, and bloodshed is not, and that there is as much difference between
those two words as there is between the word 'yes' and the word 'no'; or rather
more difference, for 'yes' and 'no', at least, belong to the same category.
Murder is a spiritual incident. Bloodshed is a physical incident. A surgeon
commits bloodshed."

Such is the power of words. And so great is their power that we use them even when there is no one but us to hear. We talk to ourselves. "It may indeed been said that the word is never a more splendid mystery than when it travels in a man's mind from thought to conscience and then back again to thought."

Digital artifacts?

The peculiarities that accompany blogging have struck me repeatedly since beginning this. Since my last post, which touched briefly on some of the effects of technology, I have been thinking about the interesting relationship it has with information.

I doubt we have any readers this dedicated (obsessive), that they frequently peruse the blog as a whole, but if such a person were to exist they would probably note minute changes occur frequently. This is because I am compulsive and always believe that it could be a little bit better, slightly more polished, more articulately phrased or artistically laid out. In the past I have gone through phases where I kept a journal or diary (usually I would write compulsively for a week or two and then stop). Every edit, change in word choice, misspelling is evident on the page, layered, as the revision was written over it, while the margins are filled with doodles providing a more accurate view into what I was thinking and feeling. These journals are actual artifacts, which could be studied and mined for information (I am not sure what would be discovered except that my younger self was very strange, but it is the nature of the medium and not the content which is the point). When I make changes on the blog, all you see is the new finished product, no evidence of the process behind it.

I do not believe that books will eventually die out and everything will become digitized but it is interesting to consider the possibility. Books, and the information they contain, can be lost or destroyed--just look at the library of Alexandria. However, a book itself is static and cannot be altered without the creation of a new entity. If everything were converted to digital media there is no guarantee that information remains constant. It almost seems like the perfect Orwellian plot-information kept in such a way that it could be constantly, subtly manipulated. Kind of like this blog. . .

Words and Meaning

I am amazed at how well Aloysha's comments about exclamation marks dovetailed with this weeks quote of the week, and a little worried that he thinks like Alan Moore. However, they both have a very good point--words have power and the ability to offer freedom, but only if we allow them.

Language is not static, influxes of new groups of people add new words to a language while technological innovation and new discoveries or theories in the sciences or social sciences necessitate new words to express them. Great poets and writers also craft words to fit their meaning, enriching the English language. The problem then is not that language changes, but rather the speed at which it is currently changing and the fact that it seems to be contracting rather than expanding.

Modern trends in slang have been to over use adjectives, thus stripping them of their weight and power. Awesome is a prime example--no longer is it reserved for things that do truly inspire awe but is now used to describe everything from new shoes, to a card trick, to not having any homework. Weird, whose root means fate, used to refer to something that seemed out of the ordinary in either a supernatural sense or a fateful sense. Now it is any deviation from the status quo, or worse, anything which makes us slightly uncomfortable. The devaluation of language has been exacerbated by instant messaging and text speak which encourage people to boil down feelings and emotions to acronyms or emoticons. This limits the range of feeling which a person can express--instead of being sad or melancholic or disconsolate or morose or despondent or forlorn or upset, all of which have a slightly different shade of meaning, you are now :(

While this is not a government conspiracy and there is no big brother watching your every move, George Orwell, in the appendix on Newspeak in 1984, best expressed the effect of pairing down language. He says, "the purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible. . . . Countless other words such as honour, justice, morality, internationalism, democracy, science, and religion had simply ceased to exist. A few blanket words covered them, and, in covering them, abolished them."

Replacing vast swaths of words with a single one or overusing words until they have lost all nuance and retain only the most basic of meaning limits people ability to express themselves. This is turn, limits freedom for, as Orwell pointed out, if you cannot vocalize an idea or a feeling you cannot share it and so it becomes dead. If words are the currency of thought devaluing them is detrimental to all of society.

Lift your gaze on high

And, though all other animals are prone, and fix their gaze upon the earth, he gave to man an uplifted face and bade him stand erect and turn his eyes to heaven. -- Ovid

We shall overcome their power!

First off the title of this post has an exclamation point in it. This is in the attempt to demonstrate the passion with which the line is being said. But I think that, at least in my eyes, this mark of feeling has been altered from what it should be and has been transformed into something on the verge of being superficial. This exclamation mark therefore fails to capture my intended meaning, which causes me to Wonder why? It is a truly remarkable symbol, one meant to evoke a feeling of power and wonder. Yet this feeling can be excitement, joy, anger, and courage, or it can simply be used to show increased volume. Even when one simply looks at it the exclamation point is incredible, unlike any other symbol. Come to think of it, all the letters of our language are remarkable. Each being different than the others and representing a different meaning with its own distinct sounds and distinctive characteristics. But how we view these letters are derived from our experience with them; how they are used in reading and writing. When we listen to intelligent people and read eloquent and thoughtful works we are influenced. This is the power of words. The power which all the distinct letters are able to create when put into words. Words which arranged are capable of unbelievable things. Therefore I deem that the ways in which I have seen the exclamation point being used are what has led to its loss of value. And the way to remedy the situation, to give ! back its grandeur is to use it intelligently and passionately. The exclamation point must be reclaimed!

I have no idea where that last paragraph came from, I simply wrote. But now on to the actual subject of this post; art. Both Enjolras and Robert Owen Hood have recently spoken on the subject, so I feel obliged to do the same. Art is the closest representation of dreams. It is the attempted perfection of persons, and the aspirations of all people. Art gives us an opportunity to portray things in the way which they actually appear. "Artists use art to tell the lies that politicians try to cover up." It is where we create, it is one of the ways with which we can we make a difference in this world. And we must choose to make a difference, we must choose to fight. People must take initiative and change. We must vote and we must care or we shall fail our potential. We will cease to create and art will die. We must care about events such as that of yesterday; November Fifth, and like Guy Fawkes we must try to make a difference.

The change it had to come

This past weekend has been tumultuous, bring up many things to ponder and not nearly enough time in which to ponder them. So in attempt to order my thoughts and to test if the unified thread running through all of them works, this post will be an amalgamation of some of these musings.

I feel as though we have just begun to scratch the surface in our discussion of art and I believe and stand by everything that has been said. However, I am reading Stephen King's memoir "On Writing" in which he makes the point that "Life isn't a support system for art. It is the other way around." Art should be an end not a means to an end. But it cannot stop there, art should not be a dead thing that once created lies there, it must give back and go beyond itself. Art should engender a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment in the artist, it should evoke a sense of wonder and greater understanding of the world, or at least of its mystery, in the viewer and it should spark a dialogue between other artists. While the existence of art enriches the world on its own it should also create an environment and a mindset which fosters discussion, and wonder and speaks to the human soul. Art is one of the tools which change the world.

Today is the 5th of November a day other parts of the world celebrate as Guy Fawkes day. It is a day largely given over to bonfires and fireworks, which are celebrations of a concept. While the holiday was begun to celebrate the survival of Parliament and the foiling of a serious terrorist plot the day is named after the leader of the conspiracy Guy Fawkes, and in a way is celebration of him. In his journal several years ago Neil Gaiman said this about the day, "As a boy I wasn't sure whether we were meant to be celebrating Guy Fawkes as someone who tried to change the system by doing something about it, or whether it was just that the English love a good loser. When I grew up I realised that it was a thanksgiving for the fact that the Parliament had not been exploded." The first reason though is an equally good reason for a celebration and Guy Fawkes today should serve as a reminder to citizens that if they want the world to change, they need to take steps to make it occur. I am not advocating blowing things up or terrorism of any kind. However, our country was founded in the spirit of activism with people upset by unreasonable taxes doing something about it. Women's suffrage, the civil rights movement, ending American involvement in Vietnam-- all of these were issues spear pointed by citizen activism.

That brings me to my last point. I am sorry for bringing this up, because after 2 years of constant campaigning I am sure this is the last thing you want to hear about, but I am, like everyone else, going to comment on the election. In all of the campaigning and the speeches and the promises no politician dared to ask something of the American people. No one said "the economy is going through a rough patch, we may have to gird our belts for a while" or "if we are going to beat poverty, violence, and a poor education we need each and everyone of you to go out into your community and do what you can" or "it may be hard for people for people in those industries but if we want to stay competitive in a changing world we are going to need change and reform in farming, energy and education." Both candidates made populist promises pandering to special interest groups instead of offering a realistic prognosis of the situation and calling on the ingenuity and resilience of the American people to step up and solve those challenges. In fact, no president has do so since Kennedy with his famous inaugural address telling people to "ask not what your country can do for you, but rather what you can do for your country." If you expect nothing from the people than that is exactly what you will get.

Someone once said, and I am convinced that it was James Madison but I cannot find the quote so I will attribute it to the all knowing someone, "We are politicians and soldiers so that our children can become doctors and scientists and their children can be poets and artists." We need people working at every one of these levels to bring about the change necessary, from people who deal with making sure that the basic needs are met for everyone to people who nourish our souls with poetry and painting. And we need these people to inspire us to go beyond ourselves and make our own contributions to the world. As Gandhi said, "Be the change you wish to see."

We need only await it with confidence and receive it with gratitude.

"Throughout the world sounds one long cry from the heart of the artist: 'Give me the chance to do my very best.'"
-- Babette's Feast

The oppoiste of war isn't peace, it's creation

Both Alyosha and Enjolras have brought up topics that I find fascination, love to ponder, and could discuss for hours, and they know it. However, I also am going to wait to broach the almost limitless topic of music.

I have been indoctrinated at various points in my education, and some of you know by whom, to believe that every conflict, every relationship, every moment in History can be explained in terms of economics. While I do not completely buy this, Enjolras's lament over the lack of creativity in today's society instantly made me think of Marx's theory of the worker and the effects of the industrialization and modern economics on the theory of the person.

Now don't worry, this is not going to turn into a complex discussion about economic theory. Marx, however, believed that people did not work to live but rather lived to work--humans by definition were workers, cogs in the economic machine. This idea has been so integrated into modern thought that many politicians and economists, in America at least, would be horrified if they realized they had bought a piece of Marxist philosophy so whole heartily.

This is one of the primary things that has removed the idea of creation from everyday life. A single person is rarely responsible for a product from start to finish anymore. Instead, they are another point on the assembly line, mass producing identical products that are devoid of all craft. Work, the act of creating something and of providing for yourself and your family has a salvific value. The shift from people as craftsmen to people as workers has done its best to remove the human dignity and the value of the product.

In particular, this is can seen in the arts, where it is almost impossible now to earn a living do art for arts sake. There is no obvious economic value in painting pictures, writing poetry, or composing music so these have been subordinated to other ends. Now if you want to study art it is usually in terms of a career such as graphic design or interior decorating.

Creating something for no commercial purpose does, like Enjolras said, bring a certain amount of satisfaction. More than that however, by creating something is a way for man to imitate his creator-it is a form of prayer and something that so desperately needs to be reclaimed in modern society. So bake an pie, knit a sweater, paint a picture and when ever possible support those who are craftsmen rather than huge corporate chains.

the answer is blowin' in the wind

Sorry Aloysha, I am not going to talk about music, not yet anyways.

Yesterday the weather was very angry, or at least frustrated. The wind seemed like it was trying to blow the world away and at the time this seemed like an excellent idea. I felt trapped in the details of life. I had to go to work, then spend hours doing homework when all I really wanted to do was go for a walk, in the wind and dancing leaves, and then curl up in bed with the The Graveyard Book. But I did not think my Professors would agree that this was an acceptable alternative.

I felt like the windstorm, angry at the world, trying to it blow away, destroy it. The wind has a freedom that is too often lost in everyday life. And I'm free, like the wind, like I'm gonna live forever. It's a feeling time can never take away. It's so easy to get sucked into a routine and have your life consumed by details. This goes back to the idea of contemplation that Aloysha and Robert Owen Hood have been talking about. It's not always that we don't appreciate the beauty around us or know that it's there, although sadly this is often true, but that we don't have time for it right now.

One of the problems with the modernity of our lives is how much it removes us from our world. It is easy to live out a day without any interaction with nature. Our technology, our cities, our advanced methods of transportation all make our lives more convenient, but in the process make it easier for us to take for granted things like trees, grass, the smell of a forest or the sound of water trickling down rocks. We have to designate time now if we want to experience this, have to go out of our way, and too often our busy lives make this difficult. And so we do it less, forget it, and replace it with television.

But there is another component to this, one I think was more related to my frustration the other day. I wanted to destroy because I felt I could not create. There is not any time in my life right now to devote to creating anything. Cooking, gardening, knitting, all simple acts, but each has a product. I am spending so much time studying and advancing my mind that sometimes I feel like I am not utilizing it. This raises the question is there a practical aspect to contemplation? I do not think there has to be, but I think man requires this, needs to feel he is contributing to the earth in a somewhat tangible way. There is a satisfaction in being able to look at something and know that you made it. Ultimately this is realized in art. Man attempting to perfect his creations, achieve a better painting, a more beautiful song, each reflecting his world, himself, his humanity.

Will there be music or will there be war?

I am sorry for the length of time between this and my last post, but I too suffer from a lack of leisure time. In our current culture the absence of work is looked down upon. It seems to be the thought that if one is not working then one is not being productive. This is completely false. As Robin Hood has stated "leisure is more than a state of not working, it is an attitude of the mind and a condition of the soul which allows people to look on the world in wonder and wonder in turn leads to contemplation." If our world is to change people must think. They must contemplate on their existence, on the world around them, and on ideas and ideals. This is part of the very essence of being alive, of taking each day as it comes.

This brings to mind, at least it brought to my mind, music. The very word has a passion and fire, yet also a sense of peace and understanding. It is alive, and ever changing. A force so powerful that it can change history, create wars and revolutions. Music most perfectly realizes the endless yearning of the soul. It is so powerful that it can never be explained. To one never having heard of it, it would be impossible for one to convey the passion, the life, the moods of music. Music is one of the highest forms of art, giving inspiration to anyone who has the ears to hear. If one does not have time for leisure, if one does not think, not contemplate, then they will never hear, they will never even be able to hope to understand.

As I have said previously my lack of leisure time has effected my posting. Again it causes me to barely even start to explore a topic that even the most powerful and insightful minds have great difficulty in properly conveying the meaning of, for that is the power of music. Therefore I say we use this as an introduction that has simply opened the floor to music.

Stand and Stare

I am sorry to beat the topic of Halloween over the head, but it is difficult to ignore at the moment and I have just a few things to wrap up. First, Aloysha accepted my challenge and carved an amazing pumpkin last Sunday, thereby celebrating (in a small way) the holiday. Secondly, I think that my qualms about the current attitude towards and celebration of Halloween is indicative of a deeper problem--lack of leisure.

That may seem like a very strange assertion, but without real leisure there is no contemplation. Thus, people spend no time trying to figure out the meaning behind the holidays they celebrate, or to wonder why they perform their daily traditions let alone admire and celebrate the world. For leisure is more than a state of not working, it is an attitude of the mind and a condition of the soul which allows people to look on the world in wonder and wonder in turn leads to contemplation.

Current society does not really allow for leisure. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics tells me Americans work, on average, more than 50 hours a week. This leaves little down time. The time they are not at work Americans have filled with consumer substitutes for leisure--either they scheduled that time with activities so they are still on the go, or spend it shopping, watching tv, or the like. When time not at work is spent in such pursuits is it surprising that holidays have become so commercial? According to Josef Pieper, the pursuit of these mindless distractions not only prevents people from confronting the awesome reality of existence. It undermines and even corrodes civilization and culture.



As a parting thought I will leave you with a favorite poem of mine on the topic.


What is this life if full of care
We have no time to stand and stare?

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep, or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this, if full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

--William Henry Davies

Beauty in the madness

"You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star."
-Friedrich Nietzsche

Better to light a candle

... One day a tortoise will learn how to fly

Everyday life is saturated by traditions that most people perform without thought. Removing one's hat upon entering a building, placing flowers on a grave or candles on a birthday cake, even putting the fork on the left when setting a table--these are customs that people observe on a daily basis, usually without giving their actions any thought. Just, however, because people do not think about the rituals they perform or the traditions to which they subscribe does not mean that those traditions should be abolished. Each of these has a meaning and purpose which they do not loose just because people no longer think about them. In his book "The Thing--Why I am Catholic" Chesterton tells a parable of a gate approached by two reformers, the first of whom looks at it and says "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." The second, whom Chesterton calls the more intelligent reformer, replies "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."

The same can be said about the traditions surrounding Halloween. Carving jack-o-lanterns, distributing candy, dressing in costume, there was a meaning behind the establishment of each of these and they should not be abolished until that meaning is remembered and understood. Because a knowledge of the origin of these things is not reflected in peoples current practise of them is not a reason to stop, nor, as Aloysha claims, does it turn them into nothing. Whether giving out candy on Halloween originated from grave offerings for the dead, from the tradition of providing strangers with hospitality or from something else entirely, the original meaning is honored whether people do so intentionally or not. And, perhaps more importantly in this day and age, there is something to be said about people performing rituals and practicing tradition whether they realise what they are doing or not. For, whether you bow or courtesy to the queen, genuflect before a tabernacle, watch fireworks on the 4th of July, or merely hold a door for a stranger, the point of rituals is to pay respect to something outside oneself and to put oneself in perspective of system larger than themselves--something modernity, with its emphasis on individuality and conflation of liberty and a complete lack of rules, tends to forget.

So the beauty of the day is in the traditions. The mystery of the Danse Macabre is that it was not a one time thing but rather happened regularly allowing everyone to participate. So, if Aloysha wants to attempt to be alive this Halloween he will attempt to carry out the traditions, but with the proper reflection about what those traditions mean and proper reverence to those they honor.

You wanna fly...

then lets fly.

Robert Owen Hood has previously stated that Halloween has become a day celebrating consumerism and promiscuity. In this remark we agree completely. Whatever it once was, Halloween has become a day of costumes and candy for children, a day which many people in the United States would say is their favorite holiday. However, underneath this corrupted mindset, under this superficial day, there is something more. As Robin Hood has said, it was a day meant for remembering the dead, who, by all means, should be remembered. Now I know not how peopled viewed death at the birth of this day, but I know that now death is viewed completely wrong. And that wrongness is exemplified in Halloween.

Death is dark, it is a mystery, it does have fear, but it is not evil, it is not "spooky," with ghouls and zombies and the such-- it is a beauty. And in this culture of Halloween that beauty is gone. The day celebrating death should be like the Danse Macabre. It should have that feeling, that aura of mystery and not only darkness but also light. As was said, there are two sides to every coin. The dead should be remembered. We should care, as Enjolras said, about what they died for. They're death meant something, it still means something. And we should honor them. In death the greatest victory, the greatest mystery of all occurred-- Christ died. Death, therefore, should have a day in remembrance of its beauty, and it should forever be remembered as one of the greatest gifts from God to man.

That is why I have a vendetta for Halloween. It has taken one of the most extraordinary things and turned it into nothing. it has taken the evil in this world and made it friendly and childish. I am against the superficial aspects of this day, but that does not mean, as Robin Hood as pointed out, that one must not live. We must throw out the fakeness, so that the beauty may be seen. We must dance the Macabre. It is a two sided coin, yet I make my own luck. Therefore, concerning a challenge I was recently issued, I accept. I will strive not to let the culture ruin the day, and will attempt to be alive. I will remember, and hope to understand.

There are two sides to every coin

I would like to begin by saying that I agree with everything that Aloysha said in his last post. However, I believe that it is only half of the story. As artists employing the chiaroscuro technique know, it takes deep shadows to bring out the light. The powerful and haunting depictions of humanity present in the work of Edgar Allen Poe, among others, is achieved by their continual awareness of the skull beneath the skin. Silas's exhortation to Bod at the end of The Graveyard Book is made more poignant by the fact that the boy had been raised in a graveyard.

What I am saying, of course, is that people can only achieve the zeal for life that Aloysha is advocating if they keep their mortality in mind. This is what Tolkien meant when he said that death is the gift of the One to Men. While it can be a bitter gift, it is death, the knowledge that time is limited, makes each experience touching and meaningful and focuses people on the moment at hand.

This discussion is especially apt at this time of year, with Halloween around the corner. The origins of Halloween are in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which was their New Year celebrated on November 1st. This feast, coming at the end of the harvest was their way of remembering the year past and preparing for winter which so often brought death with it. They further believed that on the eve of the New Year the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred, and so used this night to remember their dead.

The current issues with Halloween then lie not in their original origins but in the modern distortions of the day. It was not until more recent times that Wiccans and others tried to make it a day devoted to the devil. However, I believe it is the much more common practise of ignoring all meaning of the day that is more troubling. It has become a day celebrating consumerism and promiscuity. As said Cady says in Mean Girls, "Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it." But I will come back to this idea at a latter point.

So my challenge to all of you, but particularly to Alyosha who has a vendetta against the day, is to enjoy Halloween but to use it as an opportunity to memento mori. That knowledge is a gift that will help you truely live.

P. S. The quote of this week is my response to Enjolras first post.

If everyone were hobbits. . .

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." - J. R. R. Tolkien

Taking a stand

I was at a debate the other day where some girls tried to convince me that there was no difference between the lives lost in war and those claimed by abortion. They told me that being pro-life, that believing life is sacred and needs to be treated as such, meant that I could never be in support of any war. No matter what your religion or your stance on abortion may be, this claim should appear absurd. There are things or people worth dying for, causes in this world worth laying down your life. Denying this robs human life of some of its dignity, its sacredness.

I'm not arguing either side of the current war in which the United States is involved. I am simply arguing against complete pacifism, the idea that there are no causes worth going to war over, is very dangerous. I don't understand how these girls could see themselves as so passionate and such crusaders for their ideas if they don't believe this. Your beliefs, your ideas, your dreams, your morals, your ideals, your faith, these are what constitute you. They influence every decision you make, the way you see the world, and the way you live your life. What is your life worth if not these? A mark of being truly alive is being willing to lay down your life for something greater than yourself, believing or caring strongly enough about something else to make that sacrifice.

I am not advocating throwing your life away. I agree with President Bartlett, "A true hero will give his life for his country, but he would much rather live for it." Do what you can, live for what you believe is right, chose those things for which you will fight to the death, and when the world truly demands it, follow through.

A human mind

Knowledge quells wonder. In a sense this is true. The more you know about something the less you I don't want to wait why can't I just write write like I usually do write what i think write what i've never thought or at least never realized i've thought. what's in my head what's blocking my brain why do I have trouble finding the words i love words it's never been a problem before that's not true some papers just wont come some ideas sometimes thinking too much gets in the way i second guess i dont know enough can't express ideas in a smooth fluid way cant say what im trying to say dont know what it is im trying to say just write the words that come there's a story out there, capture it writing in itself can lead to truth so many of the greatest writers went insane writing is dangerous you explore things maybe youre not meant to go too deep take a step too far this is my mind you want to see inside you wont understand i dont understand i dont want to write things out for you do i have an obligation to the others does this have to fit a format is there something acceptable, something unacceptable when i write does it need a style a convention will you be mad if it's this, if i don't follow the rules. i love english i love structure i believe its necessary in language in writing i think its proper i think it reveals a beauty in the words and there's a magic to it someone like Oscar Wilde who can use words like that creates a whole new dimension its an art form there's a message in the style not just the words. but sometimes you need to throw that away just write for the sake of writing just see where the ideas take you just take what you get what comes into your head and then goes onto the page. why are you reading this? why am i writing this? when i started i had an idea in mind, maybe i'll come back and write about it later, but the words wouldn't come my mind is a jumble and i couldn't say what i wanted. this is how i journal, stream of consciousness, no rule is absolute, sometimes there's structure sometimes though you have to throw away the rules. you have to get the ideas some things can't be constrained there's a freedom to this. a freedom from convention that lets you get to something deeper and then you can go back and refine it, make it comprehensible to others, but sometimes just write for yourself, it can help you figure out what you're really thinking and probably show you something about yourself, something about what goes on inside your head how brilliant it can be even in it's randomness the connections and associations you make without even realizing it. there's something beneath all of this, there's something deeper, something more, get there however you can, think in different ways, wonder, question, consider however you want, don't let others tell you how. That won't get you somewhere new, just where they are. Go down your own path, fly on your dreams

Half of me wants to apologize for this. I was serious when I said I started off with an idea in mind, hence the beginning couple lines and then the leap into confusion. But after a week of midterms I couldn't really handle writing anything resembling an essay. So instead I wrote a journal entry, which is scary because this really is a glimpse into my mind, displayed on a page and I don't usually let other people see that. So you don't get an apology, just a promise that I won't do this often, that usually my writing be much more comprehensible. Take this as whatever you want, try to enjoy it, but at the very least laugh at the absurdity of a human mind.

MANALIVE

Is it so great a thing to be alive? After being asked this question my immediate response was: Yes!
Not simply surviving, but living is one of the greatest challenges. Every day we must face this same difficulty and every day we must both accept it and rejoice in it. We have but one life in this world, let us live it. It is the way in which we live, it is the prospect of treating each inconvenience rightly, treating them as an adventure.
"I don't want to survive, I want to live!" The Captain in Wall-E says this remark to Auto when Auto is telling him that they will survive in space. The captain has seen this world's wonders and its beauty and he wants to live, he wants to experience these wonders, to see these beauties first hand. He doesn't want to survive, he wants to live, he wants to be alive. This mere line makes this movie astounding, but the fact that an animated film, meant for children can have such a incredible message, brings up the fact that people do care about other people in this world. It gives credit to there being persons in this world who want to spread joy. And one of the things which will allow people to enjoy living, which will allow people to love being alive, is for people to take each day as it comes, and as Neil Gaiman puts it, to leave no path untaken.
In Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book the same point about living is made. Bod, a boy raised in a graveyard, is told by his guardian Silas "you're alive, Bod. That means you have infinitepotential. You can do anything, dream anything. If you change the world the world will change. Potential. Once your dead, its gone. Over. You've made what you've made, dreamed your dream, written your name. You may be buried here, you may even walk. But that potential is finished." As Gaiman so poetically phrased when we are alive in this world then we can do anything. When we are alive we must be alive, not simply walk though this life, but live our life to the fullest. "Every man dies, not every man truly lives. " (William Wallace, Braveheart)
And finally, G.K. Chesterton's MANALIVE, one of the most profound books which I have ever read, deals almost entirely on this subject. But I am by no means capable of giving a justifying summary, nor will I attempt to pick out a quote that exemplifies my point in a book where every line is profound. I will only say to read it, and live your life.
MANALIVE.

The Point of Fantasy

The other day a teacher brought a class into the library requiring that each student check out a book. Most students just wandered up and down the shelves waiting for something to catch their eye. One such group skipped the Fiction section altogether with several comments along the lines of "fiction is dumb" and "what is the point" (phrased much more vulgarly and less articulately).

Mentally I immediately objected and began formulating a defense of fiction, which for me centered on fantasy, the most fictiony of fiction and what I am sure was the actual focus of their objection. "Fantasy isn't suppose to have a point--it is something above quantifiable practicality, like hope or freedom or chocolate. As Terry Pratchett said 'Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can.'"

I, after mulling it over for several days, no longer am of this opinion. While that might be the point of most fantasy I do not think it is what the goal of fantasy should be or what good fantasy achieves. Fairy stories, like those by the Brothers Grimm, are meant to teach us how to view the world. That there is good and evil in the world, that people's fate and success are not necessarily tied to their virtue, and that there is a transformative power in the world (grace or a fairy godmother) are all lessons learned in fairy tales. As Chesterton said in Orthodoxy (and Chesterton usually puts things best): ".. the chivalrous lesson of 'Jack the Giant Killer'; that giants should be killed because they are gigantic. It is a manly mutiny against pride as such. For the rebel is older than all the kingdoms, and the Jacobin has more tradition than the Jacobite. There is the lesson of 'Cinderella', which is the same as that of the Magnificat - exaltavit humiles. There is the great lesson of 'Beauty and the Beast'; that a thing must be loved before it is lovable. There is the terrible allegory of 'Sleeping Beauty,' which tells how the human creature was blessed with all birthday gifts, yet cursed with death; and how death also may perhaps be softened to a sleep."

That does not mean that fantasy must than be allegorical or meant to teach a specific moral like Aesop's fables. Instead, it takes the world and puts it in a new light, thereby illuminating some truths that might get blurred in day to day life. Good fantasy and fairy tales help mold a persons imagination and to provides them with a framework to interpret the world. It does more than tone the muscles of the mind, it provides a road map and guide book for the created world.