You are here: Home > 2010 > July > Archives for 23rd

Archives for 23 July 2010

John C. Wright on fairy-tale logic

23 July 2010 by Leave a Comment

If the kiss of a princess is the only thing that can turn a frog into a prince, then that kiss and nothing else must be had. Being kissed by a Duchess or a Countess will not do, not even if Parliament so decrees. In a medical thriller or a science fiction story, perhaps, you can have someone discover an unexpected miracle cure, or have Scotty use the Transporter to turn the frog back to his true shape. Science fiction is all about problem solving through technology. Science fiction is about daydreaming. But Fairy stories are about logic.

—John C. Wright, ‘What to Do When Your Outline Breaks’

Filed Under: Quotha Tagged With: , , ,

G. K. C. on tolerance

23 July 2010 by Leave a Comment

But modern tolerance is deafer than intolerance. The old religious authorities, at least, defined a heresy before they condemned it, and read a book before they burned it. But we are always saying to a Mormon or a Moslem — ‘Never mind about your religion, come to my arms.’ To which he naturally replies — ‘But I do mind about my religion, and I advise you to mind your eye.’
. . . . .
Historians seem to have completely forgotten the two facts — first, that men act from ideas; and second, that it might, therefore, be as well to discover which ideas.

—G. K. Chesterton, ‘Mormonism’
Filed Under: Quotha Tagged With: , , , ,