Sandman Sentiments #7
I visited Sanditon Books today, and picked up various novels of interest to me. It is not as cozy and designed as Figments, but SB has a quiet charm of a church yard, disturbed only by the shuffling of feet and shifting of books. The music is mostly acoustic or instrumental, like the light pull of harp strings, it is background to let the patrons know that they are not alone in the silence.
For silence is fearful responsibility - it forces people to be alone with their thoughts. All their insecurities and unanswered questions come burbling to the surface, requesting address to reconcile accounts. I chose a paperback copy of the Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss. It is an excellent semi-fantastical narration of a legendary folk hero in retirement, carving through the cobwebs of fictions that have crept into his actual adventures. I also found a copy of The Return of Don Quixote, by G.K. Chesterton. I have a particular fondness for this novel - there is an estate librarian who has a mental discipline of a branch of Hittite tradition and culture. He is roused from his simple life of research and contemplation by the daughter of the lord of the manor. She requests that he fill a role in a play she is staging in the coming months. At first, Michael Herne defers to this arrangement - he protests that he is afraid that it isn't his field of study and he shall ruin the verisimilitude of the setting. This is a man who takes history so seriously, that his humility requires that he not involve himself in attempting to recreate a period character in a production set in an unfamiliar era.
Eventually, Michael Herne consents to be in the play, but on the self-imposed condition that much period research is required to understand his character and be accurate in actions. This role he assumes to such an investment, that he refuses to leave it even when the last curtain falls. It is beautiful the way Herne lives out the philosophy he so recently studied - it is not pretension for attention, as much as it is empathy with the character though wearing its skin. Herne extends beyond the written lines and breathes the role to reality.
It is a powerful natural magic to meet such passionate people, even though they are commonly held to be boisterious and loud about it. Herne is quiet and unassuming, he stands alone with such dignity, that it draws the curiosity of the area and persuades them to follow.
"Noise proves nothing. Often a chicken who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she laid an asteroid." - Mark Twain.
It is my pleasure to know few such persuasive people who lead by example. I would encourage us to learn from Chesterton's prose and wistful reasoning. While the characters in a Chesterton novel may not exist in reality, each time I read, it awakens in me a great longing to see such strength of character woven into reality. I believe that the way things are is not always the way they should be. Though many of us would prefer the association to end in the comfort of intellectual hypotheticals, it is more convincing to see such philosophies lived out in our daily lives.