“. . . Aristotle [said], ‘that which is probable and impossible is better than that which is possible and improbable.’ I’ve been chewing on that one since college . . . If the artist can make it probable, we can accept the impossible—impossible in man’s terms, that is. Aristotle, not knowing the New Testament, could not add, ‘With man it is impossible; but with God all things are possible.'” Madeleine L’Engle Walking on Water
Let’s pause and think about that for . . . a few months. That’s actually what I’ve been doing with this quote from Aristotle that ML’E shared earlier in the book and bears repeating: “that which is probable and impossible is better than that which is possible and improbable.” I’m delighted to see that she has come back around to this statement because, like grasping oil in my hand, I couldn’t quite get ahold of it, the truth always trickled away before I could wrap my fingers (or mind) around it. 
What he said is deep, don’t you think? And apparently I’m not a very good philosopher because I turned the phrase around, contemplating it, but not getting where I felt it expected me to go. Like a Rubik’s Cube. Can’t do those either.
I shared it with my husband (who probably has solved a few Rubik’s Cubes in his engineering life) and he tossed it back saying, “that doesn’t make any sense.” But I haven’t entirely let it drop from my radar, so today’s reading came as a pleasant, “aha!” sort of moment.
First, I must say I feel less mentally inept to read that ML’E has been “chewing on that one since college.” Good. I’m not just mentally dull and philosophically lame.
Second, as a writer (particularly of fantasy), I most certainly make it my goal to set up my impossible, fiction story so that readers will feel like “this could really happen.” That is a high complement to pay most authors . . . or at least to this particular one.
I’m not going to analyze the implications of this any further. Hopefully, what Aristotle said and what ML’E has surmised from it will strike you in a way that you’ll carry it in the back of your mind, examine it in light of your own experiences as both a reader and a writer, and come to your own, personal conclusion as to what it means to you.
And for those of us that are both Christian’s and writers, I’ll add that we have a slight edge. When we can offer a layer of faith to the impossible situations—just like we’ve had to do in our own lives—it takes our work and our ability to problem solve out of our grasp and puts them in much bigger, more capable Hands. There’s another realm of possibility that opens up in terms of what we write becoming more than a story . . . but a tool to offer answers, effect change, and cause the reader to look beyond themselves to hope.
To believe in a God that can do the impossible.
Hope you’ll give the idea some thought and let me know if I’m making ‘much ado about nothing’ or if there is something worthy in this idea that deserves to be discovered.
Yep. I’m too tired to bend my mind around that one. But I do think Christianity provides the perfect world view for fantasy because we live so much of our life by faith in what can’t be seen: angels, demons, heaven and hell. 🙂 Plus all the other normal parts of fantasy like prophecy, kings who aren’t kings yet, sacrifice, fighting against darkness, dark and light, the power of blood and the soul…all very Christian. 🙂
Yes, excellent point!! In Christ we are able to enjoy both worlds. Though we rarely get a glimpse at the spiritual operations, just the reality of it being there fuels the imagination!
Haha! That’s so interesting. How true it is that we often don’t like people that are similar to ourselves. Glad those two have made peace 😉
Woah, that IS a brain-bender! It makes me think of fantastical fiction versus more realistic fiction. Realistic fiction may be possible in theory, but sometimes it doesn’t feel probable because it doesn’t necessarily match our perception of reality. But for some of us impossible fiction touches our real life experience in a way that makes it seem probable for us even though we know it could never happen.
I would consider it the highest compliment too, if someone told me my book “could happen”! (A friend told me the other day that as she drove to my house she daydreamed that she got there and I brought her in and introduced her to one of my characters, and she had fun imagining what she would do in that situation…I was so tickled.) That’s why I like urban fantasy and portal fantasy, actually – because for all we know it *could* be real!! There really could be secret creatures living all around us, like in your books, or some seemingly normal people we know really could be involved in a secret war in another world, like in my books. Maybe we’re just in the dark and it IS true! It’s so close, *right there* at the edge of reality, that it seems probable to us as we read. I love that feeling.
Exactly! Exactly! Thank you for summing it up so well! I’ve enjoyed all sorts of stories and, particular, fantasies…but my favorites are always the ones that hinge on something happening here in order to get there. If it is rooted in some way in our world then it makes me think**perhaps**it could happen in our world too. There’s something magical about the realm of probable impossibles 🙂
They say your characters are, in some way, and extension of you. I’m afraid that is true with my main character, Sadie. She is very reluctant to be dragged into this other world, very wary of the danger and implications. I’d be a big chicken too, even though I like to imagine the possibilities from the safety of my computer screen.
And what a cool compliment from your friend! She must’ve really gotten into your characters in your story. Awesome!
I totally agree about my characters being an extension of me. The longer I work on a book, the more it becomes clear to me just what part of my soul a character came from. I’ve learned a LOT about my subconscious teenage self by wrestling for 8 years with these characters I invented back then. Haha.
This friend is also my sister-in-law. The funny thing is, she used to HATE the character she imagined being introduced to. Then at one point we wrote a “fanfiction” together involving the two of us ending up in my book’s world. The story climaxed with a violent standoff between her and that character. By the end they reconciled and admitted to each other that they were very alike and that’s why they disliked each other. Eve since she’s liked this character instead of hating her. 😀 So she WAS deeply involved in my story and characters, heehee.
And who’s to say I didn’t *really* take her to that world and introduce them…? 😉