Sublime

Gilbert Keith Chesterton—that Catholic equivalent of Hotei, the “laughing Buddha”—who, though neither a great poet nor a great theologian, had the sort of bewitched imagination from which great poetry and theology can be made. He shone as an essayist and fantast, and of all his many essays the most profound and provoking was “On Nonsense,” the

You are, unfortunately, a fiction writer. You are attempting a cycle of very short belletristic pieces, pieces which as it happens are not contes philosophiques and not vignettes or scenarios or allegories or fables, exactly, though neither are they really qualifiable as ‘short stories’ (not even as those upscale microbrewed Flash Fictions that hav

this guy had a parrot that wouldn’t stop cursing. From the minute he opened his eyes till he went to sleep he cursed the most vulgar, disgusting swear words you can think of. And the guy was this terribly cultured, educated, polite gentleman –’ The audience follows the split screen of joke and joker, drawn to them both. ‘In the end he had no choice

before he knew what was happening, he was a donkey. Needless to say, that made the cabbage taste much better.

archly,

“The problem with growing up,” Quentin said, “is that once you’re grown up, people who aren’t grown up aren’t fun anymore.”