Do You Create for Good or Evil?
Breathing a Lie through Silver
We are creative beings, and therefore, we will create.
The question is:
Will it be for good or evil?
Late one night, after finishing up a college paper, I looked for something to read.
I was in that shadowy place between sleep and consciousness, where a good book can be just the vehicle needed to drift off into that hazy fog of dreams.
I fingered through my heap of books on the nightstand for Tolkien’s On Fairy-stories.
To see into the mind of the author behind such legendary works as The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit is quite a trip.
That night, as I was leafing through the pages, one part in particular enchanted me.
It was during Tolkien’s argument for the legitimacy of the fantasy genre. It seems many in his time looked upon fantasy literature as, at best, childish stories and, at worst, as a degenerate literary form of a bygone era.
Amidst these critiques, Tolkien responds in a letter to a man who “described myth and fairy-story as ‘lies’ ” (p. 65). Tolkien states that he decided to do this man justice and answer him in this beautiful poem, “Breathing a Lie through Silver.” The words have stirred the cauldron of my imagination ever since.
“ ‘Dear Sir,’ I said — ‘Although now long estranged,
Man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed.
Dis-graced he may be, yet is not de-throned,
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.
Through 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.’ ”
Alas, the alchemy of creativity,
The Muse,
Where does it come from? This is a question many writers, artists, musicians, and creatives have wondered over the centuries.
Tolkien and I would propose that it is from the Creator by which all creativity flows, that is God.
God (the Creator) created humanity in his image; therefore, we are naturally creative creatures. Tolkien tells us that a diminishing has occurred in an age “now long estranged.”
Tolkien’s poem harkens back to the time of Genesis when humanity had its great and terrible fall. We are “dis-graced” because the fall was no accident but our own doing. We used our abilities for evil and lost paradise along with ourselves. Though horrific as it was, this fall did not bring about the total destruction of the image bearer. By the Creator’s grace, fractured pieces remain in us.
We still bear the image of our maker. God, our creator, has not left us in complete darkness. With the Creator’s light, we can refract it and let our creative purpose flourish into the full spectrum of all its brilliance. As “Sub-creators,” we can return to the work we were intended for.
We can not create the light as Sub-creators. That is what the ancient serpent tricked us into believing we could do, which brought about our doom. But as Sub-creators, God allows us to utilize the light he gives to make endless creations. We were designed to weave what the Creator has given us into endless combinations.
However, Tolkien warns us. Though this gift of creativity is stitched into our soul, it should be used for good and not “misused.” We have a choice. We can create for good or evil. This right to choose has not diminished after our fall.
We still carry that choice: Will we use this “law in which we’re made” for good or evil?
Will we embrace the light God has given us and refract all the beautiful color that lies within the light?
Or will we twist and pervert the light to our own ends until all is darkness?
God has given us all a choice as Sub-creators.
Which will you choose?
Will you wield this image bearing power for good or evil?
I created this blog to exercise the ideas that have haunted my mind. This blog will discuss and contemplate story, imagination, formation, Christian education, icons, symbols, pictures, and poetry. Journey with me as we delve into the deep cavernous thoughts of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, Malcolm Guite, James K.A. Smith, N.T. Wright, Charles Taylor, and The Holy Scriptures. If you are interested in or hate this content, join the conversation, as I will blog about these subjects and authors every Sunday morning.
