A couple epigraphs and a thought on fiction
Can’t have courage without passion. Can’t have much of anything without passion, really.
Few things are as ironic as a war buff who can’t stand the sight of battle.
Speaking of fiction..The Puritans banned fiction and dramatization. Most people think this is a silly, piddling thing and a prime example of micromanagement. Why ban fiction? It’s a silly little thing, not evil at all.
The more I think about it, though, the more I understand it. Fiction isn’t real, yet sometimes it seems like it is. The writer creates worlds, creates people. Once I was watching a making-of video for an RPG (role-playing-game), and one of the men who created the game said he felt like his characters really existed somewhere.
Are fiction writers gods? No, not at all, I say. That would be a radically egotistical statement, even an abuse of power. I weep for the worlds created by fiction writers; they are all so nonsensical and incomplete that they would have fallen apart in a matter of hours.
The real issue, though, is the nature of humanity itself. There are caricatures, even complete fictional replications of men; still, no matter how beloved the printed man is, he will never leave his paper. Books are like real life, yet distinctly unreal in themselves. If a living man is ignored, he can still change the world. If the printed man is unread, he has the power of a dragon in winter. There is little safety for cold blood in a blizzard. There is no substitute for the breath of life in a man.
Still, I suspect the Puritans understood the power of the make-believe far more than our imaginative 21st century minds ever have. To restrict something is to recognize its power, and the law of the land is a reflection of the mind of the man. Mark the music.
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