Have you read Chesterton's remarkable biography of Dickens? If not, you should and must. Regardless, here's a snapshot, via Lifesite:
The moment of Scrooge’s conversion is of course legendary, and is the closest depiction I have ever read of what happens in a man’s soul when he accepts the logical justice of damnation and undeserved privilege to repent. I could not describe the culmination of A Christmas Carol any better than the author who knew him best:
“The beauty and the real blessing of the story do not lie in the mechanical plot of it, the repentance of Scrooge, probable or improbable; they lie in the great furnace of real happiness that glows through Scrooge and everything around him; that great furnace, the heart of Dickens. Whether the Christmas visions would or would not convert Scrooge, they convert us. Whether or not the visions were evoked by real Spirits of the Past, Present, and Future, they were evoked by that truly exalted order of angels who are correctly called High Spirits. They are impelled and sustained by a quality which our contemporary artists ignore or almost deny, but which in a life decently lived is as normal and attainable as sleep, positive, passionate, conscious joy. The story sings from end to end like a happy man going home; and, like a happy and good man, when it cannot sing it yells. It is lyric and exclamatory, from the first exclamatory words of it. It is strictly a Christmas carol.”
Right on, eh?
God bless,
LSP
9 comments:
And now I know that I don't know anything at all!
Just remarkable, Ed, and right in the X Ring.
RE: "our" contemporary artists (spit): Scratch "ignore or almost deny" and replace with "actively deny" for some of them. Most of them?
"Are you not entertained?" No, I am not, although my cynicism meter is pegged. The list of contemporary artists I'd like to sit down and have a cup of coffee with is very short. Tom Selleck. Morgan Freeman. Denzel Washington. Maybe a couple more, but I can't think of who they might be just this minute.
"The story sings from end to end like a happy man going home; and, like a happy and good man, when it cannot sing it yells.".
From a some movie, somewhere: "You can only hurt this decrepit old body. You cannot possibly hurt me".
That is an interesting take, and I'd agree with you.
WWW, things have certainly moved on from the days of GKC, and I'm with you. Saying that, there's plenty of creativity out there and smarts to boot. Let's see what the next generation produces.
And to your point, the Left can't meme :)
Well said, RHT!
Really worth the read, NFO, with the caveat that "a bit of Chesterton can go a long way."
But to all... there were most definitely giants in those days.
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