I had read Notes from the Tilt a Whirl before in its various manifestations. But when it arrived in its final printed form, I was happy to sit down and go through it again, left to right. What a good book this is.
The conceit for the book is that the solar system is a ride at a carnival, with circular motions inside circular motion. Not only do we have the carnival-like motions, we have a carnival-like environment, gaudy colors and situations included. The book works through the four quadrants of one trip around the circumference, through the seasons of winter, spring, summer, autumn. Those who don’t get either thrilled or sick (or both) in the ride are those who, in the name of realism, resolutely ignore everything that is going on all around them, and they ignore it all day long.
As they are on display in this book, Nate’s gifts revolve around a very basic truth. He has the same ability that Chesterton had, that of making ordinary things seem extraordinary, and then with a start you realize that it is not a verbal trick — ordinary things are extraordinary. Why don’t we see that more often? I mean look at a walnut, for Pete’s sake.
A metaphor is a twisted and circuitous route that goes straight to the truth. Some metaphors are so convoluted that they get there right away. This book is just crammed with them. My father is working through the book too, and his one substantive criticism was one he cited from a C.S. Lewis criticism of Rudyard Kipling — too much brilliance, too fast, need to breathe . . . lie down for a bit. Woof. It is a reasonable criticism, but you can always pace yourself. Read it in smaller chunks. But read it.