Damn - this is insane. Sounds like tolkein made your decision for you ; ) but seriously…. This is such a great primer on metaphysics! So provocative… I can tell you made it back to the woods where you told your best stories.
Glad you entered the Tolkien- Lewis space, perhaps fray. I give personal credit to Lewis for getting me past my intellect, surprisingly with only a couple parts of Mere Christianity which to be honest I never finished. And the ahah moment derived from Screwtape I return to again and again. But I agree that I would take Lewis into a debate, and Tolkien to a war, or a chivalric quest for woman or self sacrifice. I love CS and he was on his way, but I would not take a symbol over Body and Blood.
Gina read a Tolkien quote to me today before we listened to your essay. I will share that:
"Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: The Blessed Sacrament ... There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth, and more than that: Death. By the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste (or foretaste) of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, which every man’s heart desires." —J.R.R. Tolkien, p. 119
With Tolkien I would expect to find assistance from saints and acceptance of failure only to be graced by eucatastrophic rescue. In this life or our next.
Happy to hear you have a thriving parish out there. Greetings from Corpus, which is as you know is without a building and yet not without a body.
Next up I would love when you return again to JRR for your take on two distinct subjects-
1. Tom Bombadil
2. The scouring of the Shire
Maybe they are not so distinct. Please let me know
I would argue that CS Lewis’s best novel is Til We Have Faces, which people hardly ever seem to talk about. The ancient setting feels more grounded than anything else he ever wrote.
This made me think about the Latter-Day Saints conception of hell. Their worst destination for your soul is not fire and brimstone, but the 'outer darkness'. Hadn't considered how similar that description is to literal space. Interesting especially because I assume that doctrine was developed before Lewis wrote his take.
Why do men climb mountains? "Because it was there" - because of pique, in defiance of the natural law to stay put; to stay near the systems that can support your life. To climb a mountain is to flaunt your earthly capacities, and to plant a flag where many can see it. That's the true quality of "up" - visibility. We all see the same moon, the same sun; climb the social hierarchy, and eventually all will see you, too. This is all well and truly orthogonal to the Good; one can be "up" for Good or for Bad. For every gross "nerd in a tube" story of sin, there are surely two life affirming stories like The Martian or Jon Bois' series on the competition for the highest jump. I enjoy the inversion, like I enjoy a funhouse mirror, that outer space is Down rather than Up -- it highlights the truth that what Matters is matter; where matter is more dense, there is more Good, and it follows that Earth is infinitely better than a random patch of vacuum in extrasolar space. But ultimately we live in a multidimensional, multipolar world. It is a terrible danger to reify the Good into a simple, legible, single dimension - that's precisely the mistake of Lewis and the moderns that you criticize
Damn - this is insane. Sounds like tolkein made your decision for you ; ) but seriously…. This is such a great primer on metaphysics! So provocative… I can tell you made it back to the woods where you told your best stories.
Glad you entered the Tolkien- Lewis space, perhaps fray. I give personal credit to Lewis for getting me past my intellect, surprisingly with only a couple parts of Mere Christianity which to be honest I never finished. And the ahah moment derived from Screwtape I return to again and again. But I agree that I would take Lewis into a debate, and Tolkien to a war, or a chivalric quest for woman or self sacrifice. I love CS and he was on his way, but I would not take a symbol over Body and Blood.
Gina read a Tolkien quote to me today before we listened to your essay. I will share that:
"Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: The Blessed Sacrament ... There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth, and more than that: Death. By the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste (or foretaste) of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, which every man’s heart desires." —J.R.R. Tolkien, p. 119
With Tolkien I would expect to find assistance from saints and acceptance of failure only to be graced by eucatastrophic rescue. In this life or our next.
Happy to hear you have a thriving parish out there. Greetings from Corpus, which is as you know is without a building and yet not without a body.
Next up I would love when you return again to JRR for your take on two distinct subjects-
1. Tom Bombadil
2. The scouring of the Shire
Maybe they are not so distinct. Please let me know
Clark
Great read, and a killer final thought! Orienting ourselves toward the Good—that way is up!
I would argue that CS Lewis’s best novel is Til We Have Faces, which people hardly ever seem to talk about. The ancient setting feels more grounded than anything else he ever wrote.
This made me think about the Latter-Day Saints conception of hell. Their worst destination for your soul is not fire and brimstone, but the 'outer darkness'. Hadn't considered how similar that description is to literal space. Interesting especially because I assume that doctrine was developed before Lewis wrote his take.
I enjoyed reading this, thank you for writing it!
Why do men climb mountains? "Because it was there" - because of pique, in defiance of the natural law to stay put; to stay near the systems that can support your life. To climb a mountain is to flaunt your earthly capacities, and to plant a flag where many can see it. That's the true quality of "up" - visibility. We all see the same moon, the same sun; climb the social hierarchy, and eventually all will see you, too. This is all well and truly orthogonal to the Good; one can be "up" for Good or for Bad. For every gross "nerd in a tube" story of sin, there are surely two life affirming stories like The Martian or Jon Bois' series on the competition for the highest jump. I enjoy the inversion, like I enjoy a funhouse mirror, that outer space is Down rather than Up -- it highlights the truth that what Matters is matter; where matter is more dense, there is more Good, and it follows that Earth is infinitely better than a random patch of vacuum in extrasolar space. But ultimately we live in a multidimensional, multipolar world. It is a terrible danger to reify the Good into a simple, legible, single dimension - that's precisely the mistake of Lewis and the moderns that you criticize