It’s one thing to think great thoughts. It’s another thing to create something out of nothing. This is what poets, painters and composers have done. This is what we notice when we enjoy the plays of Shakespeare, the portraits by Rembrandt and the polyphony of Bach. And I’m forgetting. We have to add the works of architects (say, Wren) and engineers (say, Brunel).
It is also what has been done on a lesser scale. Sherlock Holmes is a familiar figure all over the world. There are clubs and societies and individuals who regard him as a figure hardly less historical than Julius Caesar or Napoleon. Less widespread in her following is Richmal Crompton. Her William delighted not only disaffected middle-class youth but adolescents near and far who in their day regarded him as a role-model.
To come from nothing to being a part of the cultural furniture of succeeding generations is not merely an achievement. It is a gift by the creator to those who have an aching void labelled ‘hero’. A task of this nature requires close observation, wide sympathies and a mastery of words sufficient for the work of creation.
And one interesting thing about the process is that the Sherlock or the William has his weaknesses and his failings. Sherlock had his addiction. William had yet to understand his place in an ordered society. But this does not detract from the work of the novelists who created them. Rather it demonstrates his or her capability.
And a similar characteristic is the fact that it is easier to create an endearing or skittish personality than it is to create a good one. It is a difficult assignment to make goodness attractive. All too easily it slides into smugness, complacency, primness, priggishness. And nobody likes a goody two-shoes. Even the greatest writers find this difficult.
Yet in the Gospels we have a person who is goodness incarnate without being off-putting. This is the starting-point that has us wondering, This is not a literary achievement of an unusual, even a singular kind. It is a living person. We have records of the impression he made. His parables continue to shape the way we speak. His immediate followers found his life, death and resurrection a transforming series of events. Let the investigator beware. This is a starting-point that may take the inquirer into a serious change of course in life.
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