G.K. Chesterton: I Drawed A Horsey

“Art is limitation; the essence of every picture is the frame. If you draw a giraffe, you must draw him with a long neck. If in your bold creative way you hold yourself free to draw a giraffe with a short neck, you will really find that you are not free to draw a giraffe.”

~G.K. Chesterton

I’ve been pondering this quote (source) for a few days now, trying to figure out what exactly Chesterton meant. That’s meant, of course, poking around on the internet to find other idiot interpretations (as compared to my own, to be presented shortly). Most of what I’m seeing chides Chesterton for being orthodox, for misunderstanding the free aspects of creativity, because you can’t, like, limit creativity, man.

I don’t think Chesterton meant what people think he meant.

And I don’t necessarily want to imprint my own thinking on Chesterton’s, lest I end up looking foolish like this.

But I can share a few anecdotes, mostly connected to things I’ve read that could have used some limits.

First, “Little, Big” by John Crowley.

Before I read the book – or at least tried to read it – I was led to believe it was an “epic” of “modern fantasy.” But, as I wrote in my review back in 2014, “I’m 138 pages in, and I’m still waiting for the plot to arrive.”

Crowley needed limitations, and he needed them badly. Maybe there was a tale to be told here, but it got lost in all of the freedom that Crowley expressed. It’s a giraffe that doesn’t look like a giraffe.

Here’s another: Gormenghast. More specifically, “Titus Groan,” by Mervyn Peake.

I liked it better, in 2016, than I did “Little, Big” in 2014, but still: “It's very Dickensian with interesting and extremely dull characters. And there are enough twists in the story to keep things going for the more adventurous reader. But this isn't a great quest, if that's what you like in fantasy. It's as if Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld wrote a great quest novel about all the stuff that happens before the quest starts.”

Again, a giraffe that doesn’t look like a giraffe.

This is important to me because in Doleful Creatures, the book I’m perennially writing, I see the same pitfalls. I haven’t limited myself in any way. I’m creating a giraffe with a short neck, where a long-necked giraffe should be.

Or in other words, I drawed a horsey.

But you know, talking about limitations is so . . . limiting:

I'm not advocating a strict set of limits for everyone and everything. That's foolish. But I think working within constraints and limitations leads to a more focused product, if I can use such a harsh word in the world of "art."