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Thin fabric Gregory Andras AN 312. 16 I. Thick fabric II. Stoicheia III. Three types of prose narration IV. The Augustan novel V. Conclusion ."..
no matter what kind of pleasure may await his senses, unless it serves exclusively the glory of God, he needs to cut it off of him, giving it up out of his love towards Jesus Christ... " 1 I. Taking its time to establish a radically theological point of view, this essay aims to apply it to the body of novel literature in 18 th century England, probing and inquiring it whether it is in support of Christianity as laid down in the New Testament or not. It assumes the stance of an advocate of "the narrow path", the strict and unforgiving measuring scale of those few taking the Christian way of life truly seriously. Thus, the arguments and deductions featured herein - which are the actual purpose of the piece - may well strike materialist and novel-advocate minds as unstable and subjective. The author, on the other hand, is firmly convinced - on the grounds of faith - that the conclusions to come are as objective as it is possible, being based on the revelations of the Holy Trinity. All views and opinions featured are his own except where signified.
First of all, we may start the discussion with an analogy that sets the mood and aligns the frame of mind to the possible uncommonness of the argument system to be introduced. The images of this analogy will also come handy later and might ease the essay's overall understanding for those unaccustomed to the exclusively religious take on life. Picture, if you will, a high wall and thousands of bricks it is comprised of; now picture one of the single bricks coming to life, finding itself as part of the wall. This brick in the wall is unable to measure the dimensions of the structure it was built inside. In case it could come loose and jump out of the wall with the help of a supernatural force, it might be frightened at the sight of the oppressive building it used to support for long - and vow never to return to it, but serve its saviour instead.
The only means of establishing a distance between the Truth and human culture's tailor made 'truth' we indulge in does not seem to be any of the traditional manmade tools for extracting and gathering knowledge: psychology, sociology, philosophy and their clever alloys leave us running in circles when seeking the cure for all the ominous signs and phenomena in our society. The only means seem to be the one 'science' which was initiated by Someone other than man: theology. The liberated brick from the wall, now supported by God, might arrive at the following conclusion while gazing at the building: something is inherently wrong with this structure. Junk relationships, junk ideals and junk goals form the cornerstones of people's lives, while they are walking about with a wide plastic smile and are made to believe that they are following a flawless, unquestionably great life-scheme that will lead them to permanent happiness. Better yet, they are already following it. The brick would now feel terribly sorry for all his ex-fellows still in the wall in oblivion.
He would keep on contemplating: this is not a new issue at all, tracing back to ancient Rome, and even further back in time, perhaps right down to the original sin. What can be said for sure is that by the Eighteenth Century human culture had finally become something that has nothing to do with God's original purpose for mankind. Slowly but surely, we have defined a value system that makes society appear more and more similar to a Satanic cult when compared to the authoritative systems of ancient times: those of Greece, Judaism and Christianity. Now Satanic cults - especially those masquerading as righteous organizations - utilize the methods of brainwashing, mass deception, hypocrisy and driving devotees to commit ever worse sins, while making them believe that they are on their way to personal and social fulfillment. It is as if man's culture has become a hermetic homeostasis created by his weakness and tunnel vision based on materialism.
According to God, children need to be connected to Him mentally and emotionally in order to get to know life and gather experiences with His guidance. Now young people born into this society are first of all cut off and pulled away from God and then treated with internalized skills instead, which are needed in the process of linking them with a set of sophisticated, prefabricated 'pleasure hooks', designed to bind them into this homeostasis. The thick fabric of both 'high' and 'low' literature, education and upbringing swiftly builds up these devices in the children, and the devices start to function as pleasure hook receptors from a very early age. Those affected with them become active seekers and users of a range of 'activity packs': shopping, dating, sex, 'polite conversation', travel, newspapers, sports and so on. As exaggerated as it may sound, these packs have the power to permanently 'claim one's soul' for the fee of some pleasure. They are subject to constant propagation, glorification and accentuation from the part of this thick fabric, which is the reason why young adults quickly develop the conviction that these comprise the essence of being.
They are persuaded to feel that they are 'alive' only as much as they pursue these activities. The infinite domain of life, where this fabric grows thin and finally disappears - and where the liberated brick is now happy to fade into - remains in hiding from them. To illustrate our point even further, we may also turn to a parable by Simone Weil 2, mystic mind of the early 20 th century. The world is a labyrinth, she explains, and the opening of this labyrinth is none else than the beauty of the world, alluring all of us to enter. And we do enter, during the beginning of our life, enchanted by the beauty of the world. After a few steps, however, we come to realize that this beauty is frayed and quickly dissolving before our eyes.
The tunnels of the labyrinth destroy its memories and the original opening is nowhere to be found. All of a sudden we feel completely alone, wandering lonely, losing the help of everyone important to us, losing even our sense of ourself. We do not know anymore if we are actually progressing or just circling around ourself. Most of our fellow wanderers give up their unsung struggle without the slightest bit of knowledge on their situation. They eventually become bricks in the wall of the tunnels. There are only a few who do not lose their bravery and continue their way towards the inside of the labyrinth.
And there, in the center of it, God is awaiting them and devours them. Transfigured and digested by Him, they are now sent to the entrance to become guardians of the labyrinth. There they stand at the opening in order to gently invite those who are approaching. II. The mystic-tinted parables and trains of thought written above may seem out of place in a literary essay, but they very much have their purpose in this particular piece. Having established our standpoint, we are almost ready to face the novel genre in general and later the 18 th century British novel in particular.
First, though, it is felt essential to reach directly to the Bible and single out a crucial phrase voiced in three thoughts by St. Paul. The sentences 3 in question are: "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. " (Colossians 2: 8) "So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. " (Galatians 4: 3) "How is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?" (Galatians 4: 9) The Greek original for the highlighted phrase is "ta stoicheia tou kosmos" 4 and in strict translation means "the building blocks of the world", referring to the inherently godless fundaments of secular universe in general. The blocks are really principles and values, a huge system of them unwittingly observed by mankind for millenia.
In essence, these principles are all clever lies and half-truths perpetrated by none else than Satan in order to alienate man from God. Instead of presenting another list of these, we might just add that basically all materialist and mundane principles and values are stoicheia 5, thus nearly everything that man stood for since the beginning of history. In fact, there is no way out for the individual of this entrapping in cultural and spiritual lies but one: through the grace of God - as we saw in our two metaphors. Man is victimized by Satan to the degree that not even the majority of his thoughts are his own - they are implants or 'devices'. III. What is the purpose of novel literature?
Basically it is to narrate in prose and in epic length a slice of life concerning the focal point of the text. This very broad definition of the genre already arouses an objection from our stance. Given that we live in stoicheia entrapped in an oblivious wall of lies, why would we need epic prose narration of any subject whatsoever - apart from the one enclosed in the Bible that alone may save us? The deduction is simple: any lengthy form of narration that is not the Old and New Testament is a deadly digression designed to entangle man in their subject matter that has to be absolutely irrelevant when compared to the one and only valid engagement of finding and being with the saviour, Jesus Christ.
Neither the act of looking for him nor the state of being with him requires or tolerates 'prose narrations of epic length'. The establishment of the novel genre, thus, is in alignment with the conception of Satan, that is, a supporting part of stoicheia, perpetrated to digress and entangle humans in peripheral subject matters for the longest possible durations. According to a Christian saying, the cleverest lie Satan had...
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