Wednesday, October 06, 2010

The Back of the World


"Shall I tell you the secret of the whole world? It is that we have only known the back of the world ... If we could only get round in front!" 

~ The Man Who Was Thursday, by G. K. Chesterton ~

I listened to The Man Who Was Thursday over at Librivox just recently. It's one of the strangest surreal books you may read, but at the bottom (or the back) is that deep, wise, childlike humor Chesterton was given that make his works a delight.


This idea that we only see the back of things intrigues me. It is a theme of the Great Story, and it shows up again and again.

Slavery ending in songs of joy beside the sea.

A smelly little shepherd who is actually a warrior poet, chosen as king.

Wandering strangers who eat your food - divine messengers.


And then, the main character shows up unexpected and in disguise. People hoping for rescue were disappointed, He claimed to be God, visiting as a lowly man the ones he made, bringing life to their sick and hope to prisoners... But all he said was so preposterously good, it could not be true.

He didn't even look like God! How were we to know?

He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Isaiah
Perhaps you disagree, but I think we have a gloomy propensity to believe the worst is happening rather than the best in disguise.

We expect the Lion to eat us, not invite us to a feast.

Like Syme, it seems the world is turned upside down, and anarchist will rule the world. Who is a friend? Is anyone real and substantial? How can we escape the never-tiring, enigmatic man called Sunday? Or how can we catch him and find who he is?

Like Orual in Till We Have Face, I go through most of life complaining, martyr-like, overwhelmed with the sorrows and horrors of the world and my own ugliness, seeking answers and the face of the Lover who eludes me in a dance of mystery.

Like Sam's moment of horror in The Return of the King, when Frodo declares the Ring is his, and Gollum wrestles him in the cracks of Mount Doom - Everything has gone wrong, and The End of All Things has come.

But then like Sam, suddenly we we wake up in surprise, and find everything sad has come untrue.

 ~

4 comments:

  1. This post is beautiful, I love it. :) I'm reading the Old Testament for the first time all the way through right now and kind of discovering this--it is awesome.

    (Shameless lurker surfacing. I can't remember how I found your blog--maybe Narniaweb ages ago, or Xanga? Hi. :))

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey, Kelsey, thanks for the comment! I enjoyed writing this. That's exciting that you're seeing the same sort of thing in your O.T. reading!

    Wow, NarniaWeb or Zanga? That was indeed ages ago! ;-) Welcome, welcome! If you have a blog I'd love to read it. From looking at your "Interests" I can tell we have lots in common. :-)

    Have a lovely day, Kelsey!
    ~Rael

    P.S. I was Hobbitgirl on NarniaWeb... might I ask what your NarniaWeb screenname was/is? I haven't posted on that dear old forum in ages!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Aw, thanks for the lovely reply!

    A blog: kind of sort of. This is for the school year: http://kelseykline.blogspot.com/
    and this is my very sporadically updated 'regular' blog: http://friendoftheabc.blogspot.com/

    Oh right! I remember your hobbit girl avatar! I was Mossflower originally and now I'm Alyosha, but I don't post much there anymore either. Life took over... :)

    (ooh, and you're a NaNo participant too! I wish I could do it this year again but no time...)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh, I have been to your "Chasing My Hat" blog! Reminds me of G. K. Chesterton's book "Manalive!" actually, hehe! I have a rather atrocious memory, but Mossflower does sound familiar. :-)

    You're right, life takes over. :-) And that's probably as it should be. I certainly don't have time for posting on forums right now, and I may be crazy to think I have time for NaNoWriMo. But I'm going to give it a shot.

    Hope you have a lovely week over across "the Pond"! ;-)

    ReplyDelete