{"id":2218,"date":"2013-10-31T12:10:12","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T17:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/?p=2218"},"modified":"2013-10-31T12:10:12","modified_gmt":"2013-10-31T17:10:12","slug":"halloween-playfulness-and-g-k-chesterton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/10\/halloween-playfulness-and-g-k-chesterton\/","title":{"rendered":"Halloween, Playfulness, and G.K. Chesterton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Why is Halloween the second most commercially-successful holiday in the US, and growing? In a follow-up to the Faith, Science & Halloween post<\/a>, this morning on The Catholic Channel at SiriusXM<\/a> I had a chance to chat with Gus Lloyd about the whole Halloween thing.<\/p>\n

My argument: People are playful.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m aware that people also like to party, and so holidays like Mardi Gras and Halloween are a big hit with the drunkeness-and-debauchery crowd.\u00a0 Ignore all that for a moment, it\u2019s a distraction to the conversation.\u00a0 Let\u2019s turn to people who just want to eat candy shaped like body parts, or cover the house in spider webs, or dress up like someone who almost, but not quite, survived a nasty car accident.<\/p>\n

Catholic protests aside, I don\u2019t think anyone wakes up in mid-October and says, \u201cGosh, I think I\u2019d like to spend a day making fun of Satan and all his empty promises \u2014 I wonder where I could get a mask for that?\u201d This morning I argued that the scary stuff of Halloween and horror movies and suspense novels are something like roller coasters for the soul: They are to moral fear what bungee jumping is to physical fear.\u00a0 No one gets on the roller coaster unless they\u2019re sure they\u2019ll get off again alive and well.\u00a0 No one goes through the haunted house expecting to be greeted by real demons partway through.\u00a0 Those who do such things aren\u2019t chasing death, they\u2019re chasing fun.<\/p>\n

Why would that be fun?\u00a0 Because things that are good for us are usually fun.\u00a0 It\u2019s how the system works.\u00a0 Eating = fun.\u00a0 Marital intercourse = fun.\u00a0 Building fortitude = fun.\u00a0 At least, that\u2019s how it should be \u2014 there\u2019s nothing sorrier than someone who is supposed to be eating, procreating, or venturing, and they just haven\u2019t got the heart for it.<\/p>\n

Fr. Longenecker\u2019s been extolling the virtues of Tolkein<\/a> for all your heroism and adventure-loving needs, and I second that recommendation.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t quite bring yourself to do the dishes, a chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring<\/em> is probably a better kick in the pants than reading the proverbs.\u00a0 If you want to understand the play that drives Halloween, first make sense of the play that gives us elves and orcs and hobbits.\u00a0 They are one in the same.<\/p>\n

But you want a free book from the Apostle of Playfulness!<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>In that case, try The Club of Queer Trades<\/em> by G.K. Chesterton<\/a>. The stories are part mystery, part morality tale \u2014 if I were to make the description both boring and accurate, I\u2019d tell you they are a set of meditations on what it would be like to live like you were fully alive.\u00a0 But if you want your answer to Halloween, just read the first chapter, \u201cThe Trememdous Adventures of Major Brown\u201d.<\/p>\n

TIP: Like Tolkein, Chesterton\u2019s prose is worth reading just to get a little poetry in your head.\u00a0 A sample from a randomly selected passage:<\/p>\n

. . . he happened to pass along one of those aimless-looking lanes which lie along the back garden walls of a row of mansions, and which in their empty and discoloured appearance give one an odd sensation of being behind the scenes of a theatere.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another literary technique is being used in there too, but I won\u2019t spoil it.\u00a0 Go read it yourself<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why is Halloween the second most commercially-successful holiday in the US, and growing? In a follow-up to the Faith, Science & Halloween post, this morning on The Catholic Channel at SiriusXM I had a chance to chat with Gus Lloyd about the whole Halloween thing. My argument: People are playful. I\u2019m aware that people also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[178,174,19,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-church","category-faith-y-stuff","category-random-bookishness","category-what-julies-reading"],"yoast_head":"\nHalloween, Playfulness, and G.K. Chesterton<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why is Halloween the second most commercially-successful holiday in the US, and growing? 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