Re: CHAT: models and miniatures

Christophe Grandsire scripsit:

> Strangely enough, my boyfriend uses this reason to explain why science-fiction
> and fantasy cannot entertain him: he cannot enjoy something he cannot believe
> to be real, or at least to be possible and realistic, *here and now*. And he
> does compare science-fiction and fantasy with lies.
>
> I always found it a quite narrow-minded view of things, quite strange compared
> to his usual character.
Many have felt so.  J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a poem about it
(http://www.ccil.org/~cowan/mythopoeia.txt); if your boyfriend's English is
up to the task, this excerpt is particularly relevant:

The heart of Man is not compound of lies,
but draws some wisdom from the only Wise,
and still recalls Him.  Though now long estranged,
Man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed.
Dis-graced he may be, yet is not dethroned,
and keeps the rags of lordship once he owned, [...]
Man, Sub-creator, the refracted light
through whom is splintered from a single White
to many hues, and endlessly combined
in living shapes that move from mind to mind.
Though all the crannies of the world we filled
with elves and goblins, though we dared to build
Gods and their houses out of dark and light,
and sowed the seed of dragons, 'twas our right
(used or misused).  That right has not decayed.
We make still by the law in which we're made.

--
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
Please leave your values        |       Check your assumptions.  In fact,
   at the front desk.           |          check your assumptions at the door.
     --sign in Paris hotel      |            --Miles Vorkosigan

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