Some stories are dark

    As Halloween fast approaches, there are everywhere horrifying 'decorations' calculated to shock, terrify, and disgust. Of course, not everyone puts out a jack o' lantern with that intent; some would rather emphasize artistic ability on an unusual medium, or celebrate the recent and abundant harvest; others seem to simply enjoy stringing lights all over everything for as many months of the year as they can get away with it.
   There seems to be a parallel between decorations and stories. Lately, it seems that the categories have become more pronounced - some would rather show off their artistic ability than create a comprehensive story (or create a jack o' lantern that has nothing to do with harvest time or Halloween). These authors are enamored with words to the point that they cannot tell a coherent story with them. They are lauded for being 'original', 'unique', or 'innovative', but quite often it's hard to tell what their point is, other than obfuscating the quintessential denotation of their work.
   In moderation, a love of words is a wonderful thing - Tolkien was a philologist who devoted his life to learning more languages and creating his own, and it made his stories richer, because each word he placed on the page meant precisely what he meant it to. But he knew that words without understanding or significance behind them are empty; Tolkien knew well the beginnings of words, and thus his prose was laden with meaning, even if the readers are not philologists as he himself was.
   Then there's those who like to figuratively string lights. Quite often they have enthusiasm, but very little expertise, or they just enjoy creating a spectacle. There is nothing inherently wrong with this - movement in a story is essential, and neat ideas or clever twists often keep a reader engaged and willing to continue through a story. Unusual creatures and strange locales help us to think a little differently about our own, rather pedestrian world. And of course, occasionally such excess is used for satirical effect, or to show us the absurdities of society's way of doing things, as in Gulliver's Travels.
   However, when there is too much extravagance, when restraint is considered outmoded, the whirl of strangeness and constant escalating action can be overwhelming and exhausting (at least for me). When every thing in a story must be re-labeled simply to bring a sense of oddity to the story, it detracts from the story that the author intended to tell.
   In some cases, authors seem to write with the sole intent to shock, terrify, and disgust their audience, and claim that this is realism. I feel that writing horror is not an intrinsically bad thing; it can be cathartic. But calling horror realistic is an unsustainable idea, for after every pain there is a potential for healing, and before everything went wrong, it had to be right.
   This is not shown in, for example, George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. In his world, evil will always prevail, unfailingly, because it is stronger than good and right. Any good is quickly quashed; any kindness remains unrewarded. Evil runs like wildfire across the landscape, because those who are good in a small way are too cowardly to stand against its wrath, and those who are both strong and good are inevitably slain for shock value or to enhance the bleakness of his unhappy landscape.
   There are some stories that go against this ethic; their darkness only shows more clearly the unexpected glimpses of light. One such story is the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix. True, it is essentially a story about necromancy and undead or undying creatures, where magic can be all too easily tainted by corruption and people die with alarming frequency (or travel to Death for arcane purposes) - but in the midst of this rather dark and potentially unhappy tale is a sense that good might after all win. And against overwhelming odds, because of many small kindnesses and acts of mercy and courage, some of which come at great cost, light, order, and goodness have their chance to prevail in the end.
   Some stories are celebrations of abundance and a song of triumph over adversity, and these, I find, are best of all. Without forgetting that there is a valley in which the shadow of death resides, these tales celebrate the brightness that makes those shadows flee. These stories remind us that, though evil and perversion and hate may sometimes overwhelm us, if we continue on, those things will pass away. For what is winter but a short space of rest before spring? What is darkness but a temporary absence of light? And what is sorrow but a remembrance of joy, and a reminder of good things to come? 

Another random . . . thing.

Creation comes with a price:

Dissolution dogs its trail of glory.

Beauty also has its weight:

The loveliest things are most ephemeral.

Strength requires much of itself:

Constant strain towards perfection

Ends in weakness ere life's course is run.

Why, then, do we create?

Why do we, poor mortals, love beauty,

Revere strength?

For all these pass away

In time's great and unrelenting passage.

Yet we do not believe in endings

If we did, despair would crush us

And turn our deepest hopes to endless dread

So hope we must,

For perfect love

Which can create, and beautify, and strengthen

For all eternity to come.

Just Because

Turn my heart to Thee, O Savior of all,

Let Thy Atonement redeem those who fall,

As my heart softens, Thy Spirit now send

That I may walk in Thy ways to the end.

Thy ways I walk, Lord, with purest intent

And through the dark I know Light hath been sent,

For those who wander in paths broad and strange,

Thou art our Guide and our agent of change.

When I am lost, Lord, Thy presence I'll seek,

That I may learn to be humble and meek.

Thou who art ever the Way, Truth, and Life,

Grant me Thy peace in this world of strife.

Teach me obedience, as Thou hast done,

The Father's will to do, that we be one,

In Thy great purpose that I might take part,

Let me be worthy, O Lord of my heart.

   I do realize that this is not innovative, thank you. It just came to me as I was thinking in church last week (when I ought to have been listening to the lesson), and I thought it wasn't terrible. It fits the tune of 'Be Thou My Vision'. 

Just Hum Your Favorite Hymn

   There is singing, and then there is music - that mysterious sense of supreme beauty that runs a thrill down one's spine; that isn't so much a sound as a feeling of wholeness and grace. It has much to do with the musician's performance, though part of it is in the attention of the audience, the attuning of the performer's emotions to the piece and the listener.
   Of course, not everything that is called music can evoke that sensation. Some opera can do it; many concertos, sonatas and rhapsodies; toccatas, fugues, oratorios and cantatas; hymns as well, if sung in the right spirit. Much of the popular music fails to capture that peculiar sense, particularly the types that are filled with vulgarity, anger and anarchy, for the sense I am speaking of does not come through any of those forms: it comes through pathos, peace, joy or sacred purpose.
   To give a sense of what I mean, here are a few of the songs I've found that evoke the feeling I am attempting to describe:

   - And of course many pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach. 
   There is some power to music that has the potential to ennoble, uplift, and inspire. It is a sad reflection on our society (in any country!) that we cannot create music with the emotional resonance that our ancestors achieved.

A Deeper Thought

   Tolkien wrote, in his essay On Fairy-Stories, of the wonders that words can create.
   "The mind that thought of light, heavy, grey, yellow, still, swift, also conceived of magic that would make heavy things light and able to fly, turn grey lead into yellow gold, and the still rock into a swift water. If it could do the one, it could do the other; it inevitably did both. When we can take green from grass, blue from heaven, and red from blood, we have already an enchanter's power -- upon one plane; and the desire to wield that power in the world external to our minds awakes. It does not follow that we shall use that power well upon any plane. We may put a deadly green upon a man's face and produce a horror; we may make the rare and terrible blue moon to shine; or we may cause woods to spring with silver leaves and rams to wear fleeces of gold, and put hot fire into the belly of the cold worm. But in such 'fantasy', as it is called, new form is made; Faerie begins; Man becomes a subcreator."
   In the Kalevala, the national epic of Finland, Vainamoinen is just such an enchanter -- as are those who created the lays of the Kalevala itself.
   Though the simple expression of words cannot change the shape of our outer reality directly, they influence our inner reality profoundly. Truth brings out truth, or it makes us hide our secrets closer.
   How do we use our words? Carelessly, in anger, with malice? Or cautiously, taking time to consider their effect and weigh their impact? The Apostle James understood the power of words well: he stated, "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body." (James 3:2)
   Words are things of power and potential beauty; misused, they can bring ruin and sorrow, pain and lingering regret. As with any power that we possess, it is wisdom to weigh the consequences of our words, and to strive to use this gift with restraint and forethought.
  

Dilemma

   I am generally a very private person. I like being semi-invisible; starting a blog is somewhat antithetical to my nature.
   Therefore, most of my posts will not detail my daily life. Instead, I will post thoughts that I have, book reviews, stuff like that. I imagine that over time, this blog will become quite eclectic.
   Now for an explanation of the title of my blog. The Light Ascendant is the name of a story I have been writing for several years now. It is set in a fantasy world of my own invention, and I hope that someday I can publish it. If that doesn't happen, well, it's still a really cool title, right?
   I'm not sure I have any radically new ideas or incredibly cool things to share, but I hope at least that what I write can reach someone, somewhere, and make their lives better. And that, really, is my purpose: to bring light to a quickly darkening world.