G.K. Chesterton....Enough Said.

Credit: Patheos.com and Google Images

Not really. It's not really enough to just say G.K. Chesterton's name, though it should be, because everyone should know about his writing and everyone should read it (more than just his quotes on Goodreads and Pinterest) and everyone should be part of the American Chesterton Society.

Not really.
But actually, yes, everyone really should.

Who is G.K. Chesterton?

Chesterton was a journalist, novelist, and essayist during the early 20th century. He was a Catholic and much of his writing focuses on defending Christianity in general and Catholicism specifically. This brief explanation doesn't do the man justice.

To me, Chesterton is a wise man who has as much wonder and faith as a child, combined with the razor sharp intelligence of any author, intellectual, or philosopher I've ever read.

I'm afraid I'm "talking up the movie" though, and you will all have such high expectations about Chesterton that you will be a bit let down once you do finally read his work.

But no - what am I saying? Of course you won't be disappointed.

The thing is - this is a very difficult post for me to write because I don't know where to begin with Chesterton. I was first captivated by a lengthy quotation - I might say selection - from Chesterton's Orthodoxy which a friend quoted and posted on his blog. Orthodoxy was the first of Chesterton's works I read. I found it online and read most of it immediately, in a sort of frenzied inhalation, like I'd suddenly discovered oxygen.

Don't get me wrong, there are muddy parts in Orthodoxy that I struggled through and there are times when I read something written by Chesterton in which I am only mildly interested (and sometimes mildly disinterested in). But on the whole, I am startled by Chesterton, the way I might be startled by my own reflection when I walk into a room with a mirror in it - a room in which I did not expect to find a mirror, so I am startled to see myself reflected back at me.

This is what I experience when I read Chesterton: a familiar start of recognition.

My humble suggestion is that you begin reading Chesterton's work immediately.

Begin with Orthodoxy, if you like spirituality, religion, fairy tales, dragons, exceedingly wonderful things, wonder in general, romance, romanticism, nature, God, wit, insightful observations, and paradoxes.

If none of those things appeal to you I suggest the book In Defense of Sanity, which is a collection of Chesterton's essays. They cover a range of topics, including gargoyles, Charles Dickens, Father Christmas, chalk, drawing on the ceiling, writing, Christian mysticism, cheese, the importance of fiction, women's roles, etc...

I am certain you could find at least one essay to read which might interest you.

To close, I wish to let some of Chesterton's words speak for themselves. Here are some excellent quotes.

Also, I would be interested in purchasing Chesterton quote wallpaper - if you know where I might find this, let me know in the comments.

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Quotes from G.K. Chesterton (thanks Goodreads for letting me copy and paste all of these!):

“There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.” 

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” 

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.” 

“People wonder why the novel is the most popular form of literature; people wonder why it is read more than books of science or books of metaphysics. The reason is very simple; it is merely that the novel is more true than they are.” 

“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.” 

“A dead thing goes with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.” 

“We are all in the same boat, in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.” 

“We fear men so much, because we fear God so little. One fear cures another. When man's terror scares you, turn your thoughts to the wrath of God.” 

“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.” 

Ode to Imagination

The other day I took my friend's kids to the park. They are ages 4 and 2 and Baby Melon is almost 10 months now. I feared for myself. But, like all good warriors, I strapped on my armor (or in this case my baby carrier), made good use of my pockets, and dove into the fray.

It was great actually. The oldest is right at that age of make believe where you don't need anything to play other than a wide open space for lots of running and falling over dead. During one of his make believe escapades, he raced out of the jungle gym yelling, "Quick, we've got to get away from the bad guys!" Another little boy who was probably around the same age looked at his mom with sudden anxiety: "Bad guys?" he whimpered. "No, no," I looked at the mother apologetically, "these are just pretend." The little boy looked relieved. Meanwhile my friend's son had fallen over "dead" in the dirt.

I was delighted to see that someone in the world still only needs their imagination and their pointer finger (for a gun, of course) in order to enjoy themselves. I so rarely see that anymore, which is probably because I don't spend a lot of time with children that age, but also because of the evil television. I say that jokingly. I love TV and movies, especially good TV and movies. I'm really not super anti-TV. I'm just anti-only-TV.

I've been rereading the Anne of Green Gables series and Anne has imagination to spare. She has so much imagination that it makes me feel like a dull lump of reality-focused clay. Not only do I want "kids these days" to be more like Anne, I want to be more like Anne.

Why does Anne have so much imagination and I seem to have so little? What can I do to be more imaginative? After considering this for some time, I decided that Anne's main inspirations for imagination include people, books or poems, and nature.

Not even the Anne girl can just imagine things out of thin air. She needs a spark, some ideas rolling around in her head to begin with. My little friend on the playground needed to read stories about bad guys in order to make up his own. As Tozer pointed out, "We learn by using what we already know as a bridge, over which we pass to the unknown. It is not possible for the mind to crash suddenly past the familiar into the unfamiliar." I would add that we imagine by using what we already know as a bridge from the real to the unreal. For Anne, the starting point for her imagination is always a combination of people, stories, and nature.

These are often things that we don't let into our lives. I live in an apartment complex, where my view of the sky is blocked by a large hotel and a call center. When I drive I listen to music or the radio, when I'm bored I look at my phone (there's an app for boredom). I do read a substantial amount, to be fair, but I know lots people don't have the time. But Anne had the time. Anne looked at the sky, not her phone; Anne looked at people and if she didn't talk to them, she imagined things about them; if she did talk to them, then she imagined things about them later based on what they had said. I'm going to try to be more like Anne in the hopes of resurrecting my imagination.

So this is my exhortation: Feed your imagination, lest it die. Give it whatever it needs: people, books, and nature, or stranger fare than these. It is imperative that we do this -- otherwise we will be left scared on the jungle gym while others fly by us in a rush of enthusiasm for things unseen.

What sparks your imagination?

Saving the world through fiction

Welcome!
I am glad your internet travels have led you here to this humble blog. Perhaps your attention was arrested by the wildly catchy title of this blog post: "Saving the world through fiction." Perhaps you are thinking that is an absurd claim and you are about to navigate away from such silliness, but wait! If you give me a few minutes of your time, I will convince you that reading fiction is healthy, will improve your life and the lives of others around you, and might just SAVE THE WORLD.

I used to read for fun, when I was younger. My parents decided to make me a leper by giving away our television so I had nothing better to do with my time than read. It was one of the best decisions they ever made.

Reading transports you to a different world, similar to the way movies or TV shows do.  The difference, I believe, is that you learn to appreciate story when you read, whereas watching television without being an experienced reader is nothing more than vapid entertainment. Appreciating story means learning to empathize with a character, learning to put yourself in the setting of the book, learning to suspend disbelief and learning to imagine.

So when I was little, I read for fun. Then I went to college and I read for school. Then I took a break because I thought I didn't have time for reading and I hadn't yet realized how important it was. But one glorious day I picked up another book and by the time I had finished, I was wondering why I had ever stopped making time for reading. The difference between little me, reading for fun, and big me, reading as a grown up, was that I realized how powerful literature was. I wasn't reading for fun anymore - though it was fun - I was reading for other reasons. To escape. To understand. To imagine. To believe.


That is beautiful, you think, wiping away a tear, perhaps, at my touching commitment to literature, but it still doesn't explain how reading is healthy and can improve my life.

Well, alright. If you insist:
How can reading fiction be healthy?
It can be healthy because it taps into the emotions, offers consolation and joy, offers an outlet for stress, and helps you communicate with others about both the difficult and wonderful things in life. As Brian Viner points out in his article "Well Read," "words on a page can sometimes reach the parts the medical profession cannot." You can read that article here. It examines the non-profit initiative Get Into Reading (based in the UK) that is using literature as a form of group therapy for various troubled souls, including high-security psych ward patients.

How can reading fiction improve my life and the lives of others around me?
Reading teaches empathy. I have seen it in classrooms myself and heard many teachers talk about this phenomena. There was a recent study done that examined the connection between fiction and empathy, finally determining that reading fiction makes people more empathetic with others around them. Here is the link to another blog that also discusses this study. I don't think I need to state how much we could use more people who were more empathetic in the world.

There you have it. I'm sure you are smart enough to figure out that people who live healthier emotional lives and are more empathetic can make a very big difference in the world; it isn't too much of a stretch then (notice I said "too much") to believe that reading can, albeit indirectly, save the world.

Before I let you go, I must offer a disclaimer: I am not a doctor, I am not a therapist, and I am not trying to suggest that you read a book INSTEAD of seeking counseling if you feel that you need it. I am merely suggesting that fiction can improve your life and help you deal with reality. And I'm also suggesting that fiction makes the world a much better place to live in.

Now go get a book off the shelf, crack it open and feel the slide of the crisp pages between your fingers, contemplate the first page and the tantalizing hints that the title gives you about what might be contained in its pages. Then turn to chapter one...and start saving the world.