Be Fezziwig
It’s the middle of August, so let’s talk about A Christmas Carol. It’s an early fantasy novel, and it has time travel, so I say it’s on topic all year.
My favorite video version of A Christmas Carol is the 1999 movie starring Patrick Stewart and featuring the always amazing Joel Grey as the Ghost of Christmas Past. My favorite audio version is Neil Gaiman’s reading of the original text.
The Gaiman reading really is the original text. He read from a copy of the book that Dickens himself used when he did performances in New York City. The book is a part of The New York Public Library’s collection. Gaiman starts about 10 minutes in.
There’s a key scene in A Christmas Carol:
The Spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices, who were pouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig: and when he had done so, said,
“Why! Is it not! He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money: three or four perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves this praise?”
“It isn’t that,” said Scrooge, heated by the remark, and speaking unconsciously like his former, not his latter, self. “It isn’t that, Spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count them up: what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.”
It’s the moment where Scrooge finally “gets” what Fezziwig did for his apprentices and begins understanding what Christmas means. The Spirit gives him a little dig about how little the Fezziwig’s famous celebrations cost and Scrooge, the man whose very name has become synonymous with penny-pinchers, snaps back that it’s not about money.
But the phrase Scrooge uses sticks with me:
He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil.
One of my favorite things about the Patrick Stewart version is how faithful it is to the text, and Stewart’s delivery of this line really nails it.
I love Dickens. I love his use of the language. Not every one does, and it’s fashionable to say he was verbose because he was paid by the word, even though that’s a myth.
There are situations where wordiness is a liability (take it from me, I work in marketing,) but I love Dicken’s style. Sometimes I wish I had the guts to use ten words when seven or eight would do.
Scrooge’s point is that Fezziwig’s attitude made working for him a pleasure. This is because Fezziwig is a happy guy. He makes the people around him happy.
A Christmas Carol is usually associated with Christmas. For some, it’s a nostalgic story that hearkens back to a time before Christmas was the pinnacle of consumerism. It focuses on generosity, empathy, and compassion, with a hell of an anti-capitalist message.
Dickens intended it to be a parable about how badly the poor, especially children, were treated in 19th Century England.
I see is a lesson about happiness mixed in, though. Fezziwig had the power to make Scrooge happy or unhappy, but Scrooge had that ability too.
At the end of the story, Scrooge wakes up. He discovers that only one night has passed and not the three that Marley’s ghost had led him to believe. So, he proceeds to have a wonderful Christmas.
What changed? Who made him happy?
He had a choice. He could have decided that he was doomed since he had led a miserly life that left him with no friends. He could have felt sorry for himself and declared he was being punished for being a good businessman. (I hear some rich people still do that today.)
But he chose to be happy, and went and tried to make others happy, too. He was Fezziwig.
Naturally, this doesn’t mean that everyone can simply decide to be happy and that there are never reasons to be sad or angry. But it’s worth checking in on yourself from time to time. I know I could be better at this.
Programming Note: Things are afoot for this newsletter! I’ll be taking yet another break until after Labor Day as I prepare for a big announcement.
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Eric Goebelbecker
Trick of the Tale LLC
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