What do you mean by realist? To tell you the truth, I'm actually inclined to say "Yes," but before I do I'd like to get your definition of what a realist is.
I think of a realist as someone who sees the world as it really is. This discussion came up during Torrientation. It seems that most of the people who call themselves "realists" are actually pessimists who go by a different name because they don't want to discredit their negatively bias opinions. I believe the book itself describes him as an optimist, but it qualifies that by saying that he is not optimistic in an absurd sense. This made me think that perhaps he is not an optimist in that he tries to project anything positive he can into a given circumstance, but instead that he is a realist in the true sense of the word; he really sees things as delightful as they are.
A follow up question that came up in our discussion was whether or not I.S. is someone to be imitated on the literal level. They all agreed that we had great lessons to learn from him figuratively, but I think I may have been the only one who actually walked away intending to break into my own house. What are your thoughts?
In the purest sense of the word, I would agree with you and say that Smith is in fact a realist. Like you said, Smith sees that there is an objective beauty in things. I have a hard time saying he's an optimist (of course, I'm slightly biased because I'm a bit of a pessimist at times). Personally, optimism seems to be rather passive perspective at times (so can pessimism but that's another tangent), and I wouldn't, by any means, say that Smith is a passive character. Smith isn't content with having his life become dull or mundane, so he does some pretty outrageous things in order to make his life worth living. I'm not too sure about taking everything Smith does literally; although, I would like to. On the other hand, it would be a pity for us to write-off the lessons we can learn from Smith as figurative only for us to fall back into a comfortable complacency. A significant part what we can take from Smith should actually spur us to literal action. But imitating what Smith does literally? I'm not too sure about that one right now. Smith does what he does very articulately, and he doesn't act without having a design or plan in mind. Smith doesn't do what he does randomly or for the sake of chaos (part of this may be because he is in fact an articulated character). If we are to imitate Smith, we should do so with the same about of precise care and thought that he acts in.
Innocent Smith reminds me of Dante (strange association I know). When Dante completes his journey through Purgatory, Virgil basically tells him that the new command for him is to do whatever he wants; this is because, once purged, Dante finally wants the right thing. Something just feels so right and natural about being able to do whatever you want, not because there is no authority, but because there is no rebellion.
That's an interesting point about I.S. and Dante, and it certainly makes sense. As a side note: I really wish I had stumbled across this earlier, but Chesterton said of the irrational optimist (as opposed to both the rational optimist and the pessimist), "He is ready to smash the whole universe for the sake of itself." For some reason or another, that just jumped off the page to me and cried out "Innocent Smith!"
5 comments:
What do you mean by realist? To tell you the truth, I'm actually inclined to say "Yes," but before I do I'd like to get your definition of what a realist is.
I think of a realist as someone who sees the world as it really is. This discussion came up during Torrientation. It seems that most of the people who call themselves "realists" are actually pessimists who go by a different name because they don't want to discredit their negatively bias opinions. I believe the book itself describes him as an optimist, but it qualifies that by saying that he is not optimistic in an absurd sense. This made me think that perhaps he is not an optimist in that he tries to project anything positive he can into a given circumstance, but instead that he is a realist in the true sense of the word; he really sees things as delightful as they are.
A follow up question that came up in our discussion was whether or not I.S. is someone to be imitated on the literal level. They all agreed that we had great lessons to learn from him figuratively, but I think I may have been the only one who actually walked away intending to break into my own house.
What are your thoughts?
In the purest sense of the word, I would agree with you and say that Smith is in fact a realist. Like you said, Smith sees that there is an objective beauty in things. I have a hard time saying he's an optimist (of course, I'm slightly biased because I'm a bit of a pessimist at times). Personally, optimism seems to be rather passive perspective at times (so can pessimism but that's another tangent), and I wouldn't, by any means, say that Smith is a passive character. Smith isn't content with having his life become dull or mundane, so he does some pretty outrageous things in order to make his life worth living.
I'm not too sure about taking everything Smith does literally; although, I would like to. On the other hand, it would be a pity for us to write-off the lessons we can learn from Smith as figurative only for us to fall back into a comfortable complacency. A significant part what we can take from Smith should actually spur us to literal action. But imitating what Smith does literally? I'm not too sure about that one right now. Smith does what he does very articulately, and he doesn't act without having a design or plan in mind. Smith doesn't do what he does randomly or for the sake of chaos (part of this may be because he is in fact an articulated character). If we are to imitate Smith, we should do so with the same about of precise care and thought that he acts in.
Ya, that makes sense.
Innocent Smith reminds me of Dante (strange association I know). When Dante completes his journey through Purgatory, Virgil basically tells him that the new command for him is to do whatever he wants; this is because, once purged, Dante finally wants the right thing. Something just feels so right and natural about being able to do whatever you want, not because there is no authority, but because there is no rebellion.
That just makes me want to go climb a tree!
That's an interesting point about I.S. and Dante, and it certainly makes sense.
As a side note: I really wish I had stumbled across this earlier, but Chesterton said of the irrational optimist (as opposed to both the rational optimist and the pessimist), "He is ready to smash the whole universe for the sake of itself." For some reason or another, that just jumped off the page to me and cried out "Innocent Smith!"
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