Superversive fiction

[marycatelli]

"In such a state, there is only one way to make a difference. You cannot subvert ruins; but you can build right over top of them. If to subvert is to destroy a thing from below, might we not coin an opposite word? We could destroy a state of ruin from above, and, as I like to say, supervert it. Where people have abandoned their standards, we could suggest new ones (or reintroduce whatever was good and useful in the old). Where institutions have been abolished, we could institute others to do their work. Above all, we could instil the ideas of creation and structure and discipline into human minds and hearts, and especially the hearts of the young."

Full essay here.

Comments

[marycatelli]

"Untainted, unangsty"? It's not for nothing that Frodo sometimes wishes that the Shire would get invaded by dragons. Tolkien himself described the typical hobbit as like Samwise Gamgee, without the poetry and his fascination with elves.