The Great Chase

The Great Chase

Why Friendship and Joy-Chasing are Essential for

A Life Well-Lived

 

In lieu of the increasing fans (like you),

here's a new post!

I'm not really sure what to write. It happens more often than not, actually. What really kills me, though, is how I'll get these excellent writing moods... all the stars will align and a hallelujah chorus will shimmer down from above... and then I'll get distracted.

Seriously.

And no, before you bring it up - it's not all social media distractions, either. Life gets distracting. My mind just becomes all cluttered up sometimes. Lately, I've been without a car - which has been frustrated. I don't like always being stuck at home, and it can drive me up the walls. As a writer, and really just as a regular ol' human being, the ability to get out when the fancy takes you is essential. I'm sorry Emily Dickinson... but no... I have mad respect for you and all... but still no.

I guess what I'm trying to say is how I think really good writing is something which, barring a gift from fickle muses, comes out of life well-lived. Good-bad-ugly... but still life well-lived.

What makes for a well-lived life?

I'm no Marcus Aurelius, but I think CS Lewis was on to something when he writes about Joy-Chasing in his Surprised by Joy, and also in his Pilgrim's Regress. There are things you will find, uncovered within yourself - or introduced to you by others, which stir up a Longing inside. For me, they're things having to do with mythology, theatre, traveling, Autumn, the rain... It's funny, because a tell-tale sign that you're probably on the right track to identifying exactly what your Joy is - the harder it becomes to say exactly what IT is. - Like those who have tasted of the magical food from Faerie... after you've returned from the Perilous Land, you're always left wanting in a delightful sort of agony.

Lewis humbly suggested that what we want is not, perhaps, the Thing ITSELF, but the chase. So the next time something moves you, don't try to possess it. Merely enjoy it while it is, as it is, and then carry on. Keep IT secret - keep IT safe.

Another thing I think lends to a life well-lived are good friends. A man may be the poorest in the whole world, yet if he has genuine friends he is rich. Friendship is one of those things which lend to Life's sense of meaning and purpose. When you suddenly discover that the guy or girl over there likes the same thing you do... that same secret Joy... there is often a moment, whether spoken or not, where each thinks something like, 'What? You too?'.

- This same thing is partly how I first met my to-be wife, Steph... it's how I first met my esteemed friend (and fellow author) R.E. Dean... Friendship helps make us MORE. A Joy we may have inside remains only that one Joy, but when friendship allows people to share a Joy... its like light splitting through a prism into a million new possibilities we never could have come to on our own. Shared Joy via Friendship is like staring down from a great height... we see all the twists and turnings which could have taken us higher up and deeper in - and all the other paths which could have led us on... but our Journey would have been radically different. Thus, WE would be radically different, in turn.

What does any of this have to do with writing, though?

It has exactly, precisely to do with writing because when we finally do sit down and write, we are not just putting words on a page, but little pieces of us. This is not ink, nor mere pixels which you now read - but the confluence of hundreds of thousands of interlinking friendships formed over shared Joy-chasing. Each word is not only my own - but also immaculately blended bits and pieces of people I've known and loved from all over the world - living and departed.

And it's the same when you create something, too.

Whenever someone pours their heart and soul, time and energy - blood, sweat, and tears - into something beautiful - we see Life as Art. (Tolkien would call it 'Sub-creation')

In all your Joy-chasing - happy hunting. Write on! Read on!

- Ryan
 

On Chronological Snobbery

On Chronological Snobbery

(A Rant) 

 

When researching through mythology and history for my fantasy works, I think it's an important point to remember the dangers of Chronological Snobbery.

What is Chronological Snobbery?

Roughly, it is a term coined by Professor CS Lewis used to describe people who assume their time and culture are right and how others which came before are obviously wrong.

A good example of this is the general idea of Modern Progress, which has its distant roots grounded in The Renaissance and its nearer roots embedded with the Industrial Revolution.

Are we living in the greatest moment in all of Time? 

Isn't that a bit conceited to assume we are? 

What about other times and places?

Now, it could possibly be an easy route to take, in trying to say that oh, well since we don't live in 1548 or some such era, we can't very well say, either way, which has it better.

As my good friend, fellow author, and budding Medieval Historian, R.E. Dean would say (probably),

"PREPOSTEROUS!"

When you read old works, try and understand what the authors mean - not what you assume they might mean. One of the wonderful qualities of History is how it can tell us exactly what WAS witnessed, believed, and considered important. Professor Lewis, while remembered mainly for his outspokenly Christian-based fantasy and lay-man theological works, also wrote other things, too. 

(As a British Professor, he was sort of expected to, you know...)

In one of the other excellent books he wrote, On Words, Lewis explores the importance of how words are used through the ages, by following a few of them. By doing so, one can learn just how easily passages from Shakespeare to Caesar can be misread because linguistical context is misunderstood.

Will we always only read things 'correctly'? 

Is reading and understanding 'rightly' all there is to enjoying a good book?

(*rolls eyes) What do you think?

But the ideas and sentiments behind what is being recorded through History and Myth - the storied voices and mirrored Truths which other eyes witnessed and other hands now long turned to dust touched come to life. They rise like long shadows cast down through the years to illuminate our own modern history and everyday lives. When we read intelligently, we are not reading books. We are peering through another's eyes.

Good History does that. - It is not merely the analytical recording of tedious events, but second-life. When you pick up the Illiad, it's not assigned reading or something you're finally getting around to... You see the world as it was thousands of years ago. You're not learning dates, you're re-experiencing other people's lives, passed down through countless oral stories and translations, because what they saw and felt is important. Primal, even. And we're not too different from them, on a human level, either.

But only, if we continue to learn - and also think critically, with intelligence and an open mind.

To remain ignorant is to live in the Dark.

...

Other excellent reads relating to this rant include the following:

- Lies My Teacher Told Me

- The Book That Made Your World

- From Homer to Harry Potter

- The Discarded Image

- The Greek Way

- On Faerie Stories

Read On!

- Ryan

PS, my up-and-coming fantasy novel, Rienspel, releases THIS Halloween!!

(Don't worry, I'll keep you posted)