The squarespace app has not been working properly, which dampens my enthusiasm for journalizing, so to speak. Then too if I had a choice, which of course I do, I would rather read, which I have been doing too. I bought my eldest grandson, Julian, two novels I enjoyed when I was about his age, or older, probably, the first two novels in Piers Anthony's Xanth magic world series; then it occurred to me that I ought to read them too to make certain they were suitable for a 15 year old, since, the novels have a humorous, muted subtext of romantic and sexual interest, just right for a 15 year old, I suspect. The main character, Bink, has some opportunities in his various encounters with young women on his quest to discover what his magic talent is, but Bink is a very honorable young man and will not take advantage of any of the nubile young ladies whom he meets.
Most interesting is the fact that he meets a beautiful, gorgeous young woman who offers herself after the hero rescues her from a dragon, but his honor will not allow him to take advantage of her since he has an (unworthy) girl friend of sorts in the village he comes from, and besides, the gorgeous young woman is dumb as a bag of hammers, as we used to say.
The first novel in the series is entitled A Spell for Chameleon. If anyone intends on reading this novel , skip the rest of this paragraph. The central conceit of the novel is that Bink meets the young woman three times in his adventures, yet he does not recognize her the second and third times, for her appearance changes radically during the lunar cycle, so to speak. At the beginning she is most gorgeous but stupid, really; the second time he meets her, she is somewhat attractive, but rather ordinary; the third time he meets her, she says her name is Fanchon, I believe, and she is hideously ugly, really. Hideously. But smarter and more intelligent than any six men. Bink of course figures out that the three women are actually the same woman going through the monthly cycle externally, you might say. It is a wonderful conceit for this magic land's main female character, and by the end of the novel, Bink and the woman, whose real name is Chameleon, have fallen in love and married, beauty, ugliness, and all. Oh yes, they live in a cottage cheese cottage. The author loves puns, obviously, as do I.
In Xanth, everyone either has a magic talent or is a magic creature. The reason for Bink's quest is that at the beginning he does not appear to have a magic talent, though a little way into his quest to deal with his problem, the Good Magician Humphrey tells Bink he does have very strong magic though its nature is also hidden from the magician. I have always loved fantasy literature, and was led into English as a major by a series of fortuitous occurrences. In fact the way things have happened in my life parallels the way Bink's magic talent works. I of course had no idea that would be the pattern in my life when I read this delightful novel way back when, but upon finishing it this time, I can see the pattern quite clearly and the novel has an unexpected hidden depth that delights me, and that has a rich, I think, theological parallel.
Briefly, the pattern worked/works in my life this this way. Miss Ruthie Dietsel, my high school English teacher, assigned her senior English class a book report project: either read two modern plays and write a report on them, or, choose one play by Shakespeare and write a report on that play. Well, I grew up an only child, also part of the pattern, I see, and learned to read at an early age, and loved reading. Alice Jane Startzman didn't raise a dummy. Read two or read one? I chose one by Shakespeare, of course. And, I found the Tempest! Oh my goodness! The language was a bit of a struggle, but I loved the language, memorized some passages, loved the story and never got over it. Fantasy literature in the Renaissance? I didn't know it then, but there is a richness to Renaissance fantasy literature that made me a lifelong fan later on. It's true to say that play changed my life, awakened something serious in me that I would not understand or follow up on for some time.
I did not go to college to major in literature. I was going to be an engineer; that is where the money and opportunities were in 1958. (I was a very naive and immature young man. Fun loving, they said, in our year book. Though my nickname was Gino in high school, they put "Bottom" in the year book, primarily because I had discovered the Midsummer Night's Dream in the ninth grade and, ha, got to play the part of Nick Bottom the weaver in our ninth grade production. That play left its mark too, but not in the life-changing way of the Tempest.
To hurry this idea along a bit, I changed my major to English during the second semester of my freshman year in college, thanks to my writing ability, and my inability to take those 300 word freshman comp essays too seriously. On the how-to-do something descriptive essay, I remember writing on "how to kill a vampire." The teacher that first semester told me he always saved my papers till he got worn out on the regular ones, since mine were never traditional. Getting into his class was part of the pattern, for apparently I hit a grand slam home run on the final. All I remember about it is that the list of topics contained one that let me exercise my love of fantasy literature. In essence I wrote a fractured fairy tale on the spot that apparently got passed around the English dept. because I absolutely (what luck?) nailed the topic. The teacher, Dr. Cornelius Ter Maat, in conjunction with my second semester writing teacher, a lovely young woman from the University of Virginia (I remember her lovely legs, as she sat on the teacher's desk in class, not behind it, but not her name) called me in to her office at the time, and laid it on the line, so to speak. I had literary abilities (which, of course, I never took very seriously; all high school English teachers were women in those days) "they" said. Why was I majoring in biology? I didn't really know. All my friends were majoring in math and science. I didn't add that reason to my answer, but I came out of her office an English major. Well, I loved to read. My sophomore year in undergrad college, Heidelberg in Tiffin, Ohio, I settled down and went to work on literature. I took every course they offered, both Shakespeare courses. And so on.
Now, the pattern in the Xanth novel works like a secondary cause. Spoiler: Bink can't be hurt by magic. His talent protects him so that there is always a secondary cause working in his life that he does not know about or understand until the end of the novel, more or less. Honestly, when I look back I can see a similar pattern working in my own life. As a Catholic Christian I would have to call it in my case the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, working within and behind my life all along, the life-changing presence manifesting itself solidly before graduation. The Dean and Chair of the English Department wanted to know what I intended to do now! Ha! Still not too bright (somewhat like Bink), I said I didn't really know. I had gone to school in Mexico City during the summer of my junior year, was working at J. C. Penney still, and could have gone into their manager training program. How I got the job at JCP in my freshman year and that I got the job when I did were part of the hidden coincidences, I think. I had worked there four years, and that was sufficient for their program. "I don't really know, Sir," I said.
He said, "Here, take this application for graduate school at Ohio University, fill it out, apply for a scholarship, I'll write a letter of recommendation. And send it in now!" One teacher and suddenly my life had real direction. Secondary causes and a hidden pattern. Fortunately I discovered the pattern in my life before the end of my story, when I really started looking back. Accidental encounters, and the direction changes slightly again. If I wanted to take the time, I could use this idea as a theme and show in detail how the hidden pattern/spirit worked, in a sense, in every moment of my life. There is no way to prove it, except that I am not even close to being the person I was when I was playing pranks on English teachers in high school, and refusing to be serious or intelligent. Then, I was truly at the Bottom. (If I ever get through Prufrock) there is a speech by Bottom that needs to be explained in light of this pattern, and it has to do with what is truly at the heart of the pattern, I think, and that is joy, the movement toward seeing the fantasy literature as a reflection, and perhaps the best reflection of what all the hidden operations of the Spirit are moving toward, certainly in my life, perhaps in every life, even as Tolkien explained it so long ago in his essay on Fairy Tales in the Tolkien Reader.
However, it is late, and the real irony here is that this autobiography is not even close to what I intended to write about when I started, two or three hours ago.
One undergraduate school, Heidelberg in Tiffin, Ohio, where I could stay at home with my parents and avoid the cost of housing.
One teacher there, finally, Dr. Frederick Lemke; then only one graduate school, Ohio University, which accepted me and gave me a tuition scholarship, and then a delicious Fellowship my second year to stay in school there, and promise to complete their program. I promised, for by that time I had made another life-changing discovery, the classes of Dr. Eric Thompson. I went to graduate school an agnostic at best; I emerged as a serious and committed Christian. And by the way, the subject for the Master's pro seminar program my first year was a two semester course on Shakespeare with an also excellent teacher, Dr. Robert McDonnell. 7 plays the first semester; a Master's length and quality paper in conjunction with the teacher the second semester. I, of course, chose The Tempest, applying Northrup Frye's structural analysis to the play, attempting to understand how Shakespeare fused the four literary structures (comedy, tragedy, satire, and romance) into a marvelously unified action, and the, ha, most magnificent play ever written.
Apparent coincidence, underlying principle, saves Bink's life time after time, and directs his action, frequently nudges him in the "right" life-altering direction. Apparent coincidence, underlying principle (the presence of the Holy Spirit, or so it seems to me from the point of view of age 75), has moved me to places, people, and creatures (like Simon and Pookie), as well as texts, that allowed me to make life-altering choices, never suspecting that there was a supernatural presence behind my life and at work in it, until I was mature enough to understand it (75?).