Book Club: Chapter 5 - Free Will and the Miracle

I feel like Dorothy Sayers is getting into more familiar and accessible material in this chapter.  At least for me.  I do better with the concrete.  It will be a challenge for me to describe it well, though.

In this chapter she discusses how a character must be true to themselves, and when they are not, it creates a falsity.  The confident, trusting woman who, because of a miscommunication with the guy in her life, has a sudden turn to doubt and tormenting questioning isn't being true to her nature, character.  These are the makings for many a romance movie.

She talks about how an author has an idea he wants to develop, and as he works to develop the characters it comes to a place where the idea cannot unfold the way he wants it to without one or more of the characters being untrue to their nature.  If he proceeds, the unity of the story is upset and the reader will sense it.

There is another way to effect change in the story and that is by divine intervention.  I think this happens somewhat frequently in story lines, and as author, he can choose whatever kind of intervention is necessary to keep the plot moving forward, or satisfy the desires of a character.  Sayers says that, as writer, she is able to perform any miracle she likes (slay inconvenient characters, bring about accidents, etc.), but the question is, how desirable is it?  She believes it is artistically better to bring about 'poetic justice' in accordance with the person's character. We can more readily believe it and be satisfied with it.  "Nor let God intervene unless the difficulty be worthy of his attention."

I expected to see the phrase Deus ex machina in describing this, but she uses thaumaturge. I think they are synonymous in the way she uses it, and it makes me question whether we have moved away from Greek-based words/phrases to Latin naturally or by design, or at all.  There are far fewer students of Greek today than Latin, and far fewer of both than in her day.

I feel that I haven't grasped nor explained the depth of her point in this chapter.  Anxious to read what my fellow readers have to say.  They can be found through Ordo Amoris.