"I cannot praise a cloistered virtue," is a John Milton quote that's gained some currency lately. It's from Areopagitica, Milton's pamphlet criticising the English government's policy of licensed publishing, and, more broadly speaking, it's about free speech. Milton's point was that, if a person is never exposed to a diversity of ideas, you can't really know if they have the capacity to discern good ideas from bad, begging the question of whether or not their supposed virtue is legitimate. But I thought of the quote yesterday when reading Harlan Ellison's 1966 story "Delusion for a Dragon Slayer". The concept for this story is that, when people die, if they haven't ever truly been tested in their lives, a new world is created just to give them the opportunity. The story follows Griffin, a dull, ordinary, modern man who's killed suddenly due to a freak chain of circumstances. Suddenly he finds himself transformed into a muscular, classical hero, captaining a galley on a mythic quest.
Ellison finds a voice for this story that is a perfect blend of his confrontational/conversational and prettily poetic. I particularly liked the scene where Griffin finds himself in that classic, truly rare, scenario of rescuing a damsel in distress. Ellison's description of just what the very sight of Griffin's ideal woman does to him simultaneous pokes gentle fun at and honours the most fundamental human needs for sex, love, and validation. It's a great story and it's included in the collection I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.
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