'the calling of the artist is to be in the world and for the world but not of the world
the artist is plunged into a world of symbol, paradox, mystery, and indirection. it is communication not only with words but also images. the significance of the symbols is rarely self-evident or obvious. meaning is in the eye of the beholder, so what is being communicated is visceral, not necessarily logical. this is the land of parable, metaphor, and ambiguity. it is happy harrowing and heady.
it is a land that can also eat you alive.
art is God's good gift but the artist is still in enemy territory.
good fiction can strip truth from its stained-glass and sunday school associations an thsu steal past those watchful dragons. he was referring to those invisible cultural watchers who stand ready to pounce on any truth that poses a threat to their monopoly. he had in mind those mighty dragons of materialism, hedonism, narcissism, pragmatism, and even mysticism. in writing his novels lewis was camouflaging those offensive but vitally necessary truths that woudl otherwise cause his readers to close the covers ort ake potshots at it on network tv. fiction for him was a means to surreptitiously slide crucial truth into the minds of the audience. for lewis a christian artist has an agenda: smuggling in those life-changing life-promoting hope-enhancing but culture-offending realities that define the essence of Jesus follower.
the artist is a servant of the glory who is wounded by transcendence and afflicts this wound on others.
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