The superversive Mr Simon
Below please find a comment by Tom Simon on an issue being discussed recently in this space. I add it here both to show that he can say in a paragraph what it takes my rather more mundane mind ten pages to say, and to urge any who have not read his essays to do themselves a favor starting with my favorites, here and here and here.
Today, as it happens, I was rereading the inimitable G.K.C.’s Tremendous
Trifles; and there I found, and paused to ponder, this neat turn of phrase which
seems apposite to the matter at hand:Folklore means that the soul is sane, but that the universe is wild and full of
marvels. Realism means that the world is dull and full of routine, but that the
soul is sick and screaming. The problem of the fairy tale is — what will a
healthy man do with a fantastic world? The problem of the modern novel is — what
will a madman do with a dull world?I would submit that the magic of fairy tales is the magic of a wild and
marvellous universe; and the magic of the occult is the magic of a sick and
screaming soul — the art of the Elves and the deceits of the Enemy, as Galadriel
called them respectively. I would submit that if we keep them clearly
distinguished, and reserve our admiration for the former and our condemnation
chiefly for the latter, we shall have done our duty as Christians not to aid the
Enemy. Moreover, we shall do two positive goods: the good of what Chesterton
called Mooreeffoc and Tolkien called ‘Recovery’, of waking the imagination to
the marvels that are in real things, and recalling the divine gift of
astonishment; and the good of discernment, of teaching our readers the vital
difference between the joyous appreciation of wonders and the dry, salt lust to
possess and control them. Neither of these goods will they be likely to obtain
from any other source.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
