The advent of Advent

This Sunday is the first in Advent, marking the start of the church's celebration of the Christmas season. I am no great follower of the traditions of the church but as a Christian I do love this season. Quoting from Tolkien (see the last blog) "The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man's history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy." So this is truly a joyous celebration. The event which the Old Testament prophets had all looked forward to, the event which God had promised way back at the dawn of history finally happened. Isaiah foresaw the time of it's occurence as a time of darkness in this world. "For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people...." How true that prophecy was to prove. God's people under the heel of the Romans following centuries of Greek influences - pagans had taken over the world. Even the worship of God had been corrupted and the religious leaders had lost touch with the nature of the God that they paid lip-service to. But into that darkness came light. "Arise, shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the people. But the Lord shall arise upon you and His glory shall be seen upon you. The gentiles shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising."

Advent heralds the coming of the light, the dawn of glory. The great story begins in joy with the incarnation - the eucatastrophe, the sudden joyous upturn in the history of Mankind - the pivotal moment in history when God came down into His creation. What story can compare with this?

Tolkien - The Epilogue to "On Fairy Stories"

Among Tolkien's published work there is very little that he wrote directly concerning his Christian beliefs. However, in the epilogue of his essay "On Fairy Stories" as he considers the element of consolation or joy which he sees as the final and essential ingredient for a good fantasy he cannot resist following this through to speak about the gospel. In a famous conversation with C.S. Lewis, who was at that time an atheist, he pointed out that the gospel - the good news - was in fact historical truth and its overarching story (meta-narrative in modern parlance) was the realisation of all that is best in myth and fantasy. His words are far better than mine.

"It is presumptuous of me to touch upon such a theme; but if by grace what I say has in any respect any validity, it is, of course, only one facet of a truth incalculably rich: finite only because the capacity of Man for whom this was done is finite.


I would venture to say that approaching the Christian Story from this direction, it has long been my feeling (a joyous feeling) that God redeemed the corrupt making-creatures, men, in a way fitting to this aspect, as to others, of their strange nature. The Gospels contain a fairystory, or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. They contain many marvels—peculiarly artistic, beautiful, and moving: “mythical” in their perfect, selfcontained significance; and among the marvels is the greatest and most complete conceivable eucatastrophe. But this story has entered History and the primary world; the desire and aspiration of sub-creation has been raised to the fulfillment of Creation. The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man's history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy. It has pre-eminently the “inner consistency of reality.” There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many sceptical men have accepted as true on its own merits. For the Art of it has the supremely convincing tone of Primary Art, that is, of Creation. To reject it leads either to sadness or to wrath.


It is not difficult to imagine the peculiar excitement and joy that one would feel, if any specially beautiful fairy-story were found to be “primarily” true, its narrative to be history, without thereby necessarily losing the mythical or allegorical significance that it had possessed. It is not difficult, for one is not called upon to try and conceive anything of a quality unknown. The joy would have exactly the same quality, if not the same degree, as the joy which the “turn” in a fairy-story gives: such joy has the very taste of primary truth. (Otherwise its name would not be joy.) It looks forward (or backward: the direction in this regard is unimportant) to the Great Eucatastrophe. The Christian joy, the Gloria, is of the same kind; but it is preeminently (infinitely, if our capacity were not finite) high and joyous.


But this story is supreme; and it is true. Art has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels, and of men—and of elves. Legend and History have met and fused. But in God's kingdom the presence of the greatest does not depress the small. Redeemed Man is still man. Story, fantasy, still go on, and should go on. The Evangelium has not abrogated legends; it has hallowed them, especially the “happy ending.” The Christian has still to work, with mind as well as body, to suffer, hope, and die; but he may now perceive that all his bents and faculties have a purpose, which can be redeemed. So great is the bounty with which he has been treated that he may now, perhaps, fairly dare to guess that in Fantasy he may actually assist in the effoliation and multiple enrichment of creation. All tales may come true; and yet, at the last, redeemed, they may be as like and as unlike the forms that we give them as Man, finally redeemed, will be like and unlike the fallen that we know."

I for one find this not only moving, but enlightening, encouraging and true.

Flash

Tolkien - Consolation

The final aspect that Tolkien reckoned to be vital to good fantasy is Consolation which embraces the aspect of joy. It's really the endlessly satisfying theme of the happy ending, or better - those moments in a fantasy story when it takes a sudden and unexpected joyous turn at a moment of the most desperate circumstances in the story. Tolkien invented a new word for this - eucatastophe. The word catastophe comes form the Greek kata which means down or against and strophe - which comes form the verb 'turn' i.e a down turn - a sudden calamity. Adding the eu (meaning 'good') to the beginning of catastophe reverses its sense in that it is a sudden good, joyous turn of events. But I'd best let Tolkien speak for himself because he regarded this aspect of fantasy as critially important (for fairy tale read fantasy in the following)

"Since we do not appear to possess a word that expresses this opposite—I will call it Eucatastrophe. The eucatastrophic tale is the true form of fairy-tale, and its highest function. The consolation of fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous “turn” (for there is no true end to any fairy-tale): this joy, which is one of the things which fairy-stories can produce supremely well, is not essentially “escapist,” nor “fugitive.” In its fairy-tale—or otherworld—setting, it is a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium (gospel, good news), giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief."


"It is the mark of a good fairy-story, of the higher or more complete kind, that however wild its events, however fantastic or terrible the adventures, it can give to child or man that hears it, when the “turn” comes, a catch of the breath, a beat and lifting of the heart, near to (or indeed accompanied by) tears, as keen as that given by any form of literary art, and having a peculiar quality."


"This ”joy” which I have selected as the mark of the true fairy-story (or romance), or as the seal upon it, merits more consideration.


Probably every writer making a secondary world, a fantasy, every sub-creator, wishes in some measure to be a real maker, or hopes that he is drawing on reality: hopes that the peculiar quality of this secondary world (if not all the details) are derived from Reality, or are flowing into it. If he indeed achieves a quality that can fairly be described by the dictionary definition: “inner consistency of reality,” it is difficult to conceive how this can be, if the work does not in some way partake of reality. The peculiar quality of the ”joy” in successful Fantasy can thus be explained as sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth. It is not only a “consolation” for the sorrow of this world, but a satisfaction, and an answer to that question, “Is it true?” The answer to this question that I gave at first was (quite rightly): “If you have built your little world well, yes: it is true in that world.” That is enough for the artist (or the artist part of the artist). But in the “eucatastrophe” we see in a brief vision that the answer may be greater—it may be a far-off gleam or echo of evangelium in the real world. The use of this word gives a hint of my epilogue. It is a serious and dangerous matter.

My final post on this subject will look at the epilogue that Tolkien refers to here

Flash

Tolkien - Escape

The second element of Fantasy that Tolkien recognised is escape. He had this to say

"I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which 'Escape' is now so often used. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?" — J.R.R. Tolkien

Tolkien views escape, not in the bad sense of the word as it is often applied - that is escapism as though a temporary but foolish escape from reality only to be dumped back in it again some hours later, but escape in the sense that we are temporaily transported to another world to return to the real world refreshed and somehow the better for our experience. It may be a world of knights and dragons, of Cavaliers and Roundheads, of Centurions and Silurans, of White Witches and fauns and lamposts in the snow, of elves and goblins and dwarves. We come back to our own reality refreshed and in some mysterious way strengthened by the experience. One important aspect of Tolkien's thinking is that this world - that is the phyical reality of all about us - is not everything. He was of course a Christian and as such his world view would have included the belief that this world and our life in it is not is not the sum of reality. Christians believe that this world is imperfect through the fallenness of the human race but that this will not always be so. Christian's are described as strangers and sojourners in this world and as those who are looking forward to the restoration of perfection of both this world and themselves (more of this again).
 
Flash