Further to my earlier post:
http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/logic.html
Quote:
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For instance, I read an article by the admirable Mr. Tilden, the great tennis-player, who was debating what is wrong with English Tennis. "Nothing can save English Tennis!" he said, except certain reforms of a fundamental sort, which he proceeded to explain. The English, it appears, have a weird and unnatural way of regarding tennis as a game, or thing to be enjoyed. He admitted that this has been part of a sort of amateur spirit in everything which is (as he very truly noted) also a part of the national character. But all this stands in the way of what he called saving English Tennis. He meant what some would call making it perfect, and others would call making it professional. Now, I take that as a very typical passage, taken from the papers at random, and containing the views of a keen and acute person on a subject that he thoroughly understands. But what he does not understand is the thing which he supposes to be understood. He thoroughly knows his subject and yet he does not know what he is talking about; because he does not know what he is taking for granted. He does not realise the relation of means and ends, or axioms and inferences, in his own philosophy. And nobody would probably be more surprised and even legitimately indignant than he, if I were to say that the first principles of his philosophy appear to be as follows: (1) There is in the nature of things a certain absolute and divine Being, whose name is Mr. Lawn Tennis. (2) All men exist for the good and glory of this Mr. Tennis and are bound to approximate to his perfections and fulfil his will. (3) To this higher duty they are bound to surrender their natural desire for enjoyment in this life. (4) They are bound to put this loyalty first; and to love it more passionately than patriotic tradition, the presentation of their own national type and national culture; not to mention even their national virtues. That is the creed or scheme of doctrine that is here developed without being defined. The only way for us to save the game of Lawn Tennis is to prevent it from being a game. The only way to save English Tennis is to prevent it from being English. It does not occur to such thinkers that some people may possibly like it because it is English and enjoy it because it is enjoyable. (GK Chesterton 'Logic & Lawn Tennis')
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That's Chesterton on sport. I think it applies to literature too. Just like tennis (or football, or cricket, or baseball) its not enough for it to be a fun thing, a 'game'. It has to be made 'professional'. It has to be made useful, so that people can get something useful out of it.
I also note that our new Prime Minister likes to tell us how much the government intend to do to help 'hard working families'. Well, of course, what practical use are families that aren't working every hour or every day - well, apart from the 'quality time' they 'ought' to spend together 'doing things as a family' to strengthen the family bond & all that stuff.
Families who just sit around doing nothing, playing games, reading 'fantasy' books, daydreaming, are not contributing to society.
And fantasy is perceived to be such a waste of time. Its ok for kids to read about fairies, but there comes a time to 'grow up' & read proper books. Reading for fun, treating reading as a 'game' is too amateurish, & isn't going to help them get a job & contribute to the economy, or teach them how to be a good citizen.
It seems to me that child readers of fantasy are the dreamers, the artists, the interesting folk in potentio. They're also the ones who grow up to be the kind of nuisances who object to woodland being cleared to put up another shopping mall, to ugly office blocks being cloned ad infinitum across once beautiful cities. Because fantasy is actually seriously dangerous literature. 'Serious' literature which depicts 'the real world' only reflects our daily lives back at us & teaches us only that what we see around us is all there is, & all there can be. Its equivalent to replacing all your windows with mirrors.
Fantasy is like Pullman's Subtle Knife that can cut open ways into other worlds, & the thing that angered me most about HDM was that at the end Pullman forced the characters to close all those doors forever & left them all stuck in their own worlds - or risk destroying everything.