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Have you ever wondered why we enjoy art?
Why do we pick up dead trees (otherwise known as books), bounded between two pieces of leather, decorated with stark symbols that somehow cause vibrant images to blossom within our minds? Why do we illuminate our eyeballs with the blue light of a screen and watch fantastical things take place, witness the struggles of human beings? Why do we shove buds into our ears and listen to the spell-woven intricacies of notes and melodies and beats and lyrics that create an entire atmosphere in which we can lose ourselves?
The answer perhaps lies with my old friend, Jack, better known as C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia. C.S. Lewis, both a novelist and Christian layman, had a fascination with the concept of longing, and was convinced that as humans, we are all susceptible to this emotion, that we all carry a desire for something beyond this world, what he called in his book, The Weight of Glory, a “far-off country” (29). A place where we as humans have all of our desires satisfied, a Tír Na Nog, an Elysium, an Eden.
In other words, Paradise.
As C.S Lewis points out time and time again in his writings, we are desire-filled creatures, and at times we find that the fulfillment of our desires come up short, because at the end of the day, we are never truly satisfied, even though we fill our lives with as many pleasures as we can. One of these pleasures is known as art.
Art is an incredible thing, taking on many mediums. Poetry, prose, music, painting, sculpture, and beyond. Dance. Knitting. Cooking. Almost anything performed or created is a form of art, and it is in this art that we find ourselves looking for a fulfillment of desire. Art is an expression of longing, and the manifestation of fragments that point to the fulfillment of our desire.
C.S. Lewis puts it like this:
The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited. (30-31)
In other words, books, music, any kind of art are not the objects of fulfillment themselves. They are vessels of longing, reflecting what every human that has lived or ever will live wants: Joy and Satisfaction. We enjoy art because in what ever way, shape, or form, it reminds us of what we strive for every day, and that is for our “far-off country.” Middle-Earth, Hogwarts, the kitchen filled with the aroma of Grandma’s gingerbread cookies, the feel of wind in your hair as you kissed your spouse for the very first time, the glitter of a sunset on the endless, yawning sea.
Art reflects our desire for the complete fulfillment of our souls.
Whenever you enjoy a painting, a novel, a fine piece of music, I hope you will remember your longing and know that you are meant for more than this world. And in doing so, I hope you will pursue the good and pure fulfillment of your desire.
Work Cited
Lewis, C.S. The Weight of Glory. HarperCollins, 1949.
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