An Ironic Folly
On the Divine Wisdom of Tilting at Windmills
by Anthony Esolen
You’ve always considered yourself blessed with a fine sense of humor. But now, dragooned into a museum of art, you stand before a room full of commodes, and all you do is furrow your brow. “You don’t appreciate the irony,” your learned companion explains.
“Postmodern irony” they call it nowadays, and say it’s a laugh at the pretense of modernity to explain the universe by a single totalizing system or idea: industry, science, sexual repression, Communism, whatever. Some Christians go along, believing that the small nasty demon who tweaks the nose of the big nasty demon can’t be so bad.
There is something to be said for skepticism (one of those totalizing ideas being the movement of mankind from religious superstition to secular enlightenment), but there’s nothing new about irony that refuses to take anything seriously, faithful only to its own fickleness, flitting from tradition to tradition. It’s called irreverence. Nor is it clear which of the demons is the more dangerous: Is it really worse to worship a false god than to fail to sit still long enough to worship any god at all?
In my profession, literary studies, great works are commonly read and taught with a sneer: Odysseus was a vicious imbecile, Augustine hated women, Huck was a racist. Certain authors whose genius thrives in the garden of comedy are lauded, but for the wrong reasons—as if their comedy were our puerility writ large. One such author is Miguel de Cervantes, the first part of whose masterpiece Don Quixote this year celebrates its 400th birthday. Beware the praise.
Now the odd thing about that field of commodes ( Flushing Meadows it was called; I am not making this up) is that it is not very funny, while the work of Cervantes is. The man who believes in nothing but irony misses a lot of grand things in this world—including irony. For, as Cervantes knew, and as Christians had better know, the reverent man is the greatest fool of all. What else should he be, when the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men?
But to see more clearly why we ought to read Cervantes and heed the folly he whispers into our ears, tarry with me while I introduce you to the great ironist and lesser man who came before him: Ludovico Ariosto.
The Mad Count
The brave Count Orlando had brought his ladylove from far Cathay to France, against rival lovers and enchanters, giants and infidels. He had lost her again in the chaos when the detested Saracens stormed Paris.
Anthony Esolen is Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Thales College and the author of over 30 books, including Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church (Tan, with a CD), Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture (Regnery), and The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord (Ignatius). He has also translated Dante’s Divine Comedy (Random House) and, with his wife Debra, publishes the web magazine Word and Song (anthonyesolen.substack.com). He is a senior editor of Touchstone.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
28.5—Sept/Oct 2015
Remembering Angka & the Idolatry of the Khmer Rouge 40 Years Later by Les Sillars
24.6—Nov/Dec 2011
Liberty, Conscience & Autonomy
How the Culture War of the Roaring Twenties Set the Stage for Today’s Catholic & Evangelical Alliance by Barry Hankins
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
