Brilliant and Profound Unfallen Clown Decodes Fearful Symmetry

Well Tempered Critic Clowns His Own Eminence

A Master of Myth and Metaphor and the Double Vision of Language, Nature, Time, and God is regarded and remembered as a towering figure.

By most.

In a book there is a chapter about Frye. It is a compendium of Eulogic commemoratives. One particular letter has been helpful pointed to me.

It describes an encounter with Frye at a book launch party. Formally seated next to Frye the author briefly describes their initial lack of conversation, Frye’s shy social nature and the parade of visitors paying their dutiful respects to ‘Professor Frye’.

“You get ‘Professor Frye-ed’ a lot.”

“Yes,” he replied with soft weariness, “constantly.”

“Want to make it stop?”

“Oh yes.”

I held a bright red clown nose in the palm of my hand.

“You think?”

“Mmmm.”

He put it on.

“Does it look silly?

“Yes,” I said quietly, “of course.”

He began diner.

The ‘Hi Norie’s’ began and the Professor Frye’s ended.

“Um . . . may I . . . keep it?”

“Sure…”

They had a fine conversation on the clown tradition in different cultures and ‘Norie’ remained in the nose all evening.

N.B.: Text Abstracted from the wonderful letter of Gale Garnett, Toronto, Canada. The book is P. Gzowski, 1991. The Fourth Morningside Papers. McClelland & Stewart.

I found this little interlude reveals his clown nature. He understood the necessity of the clown to undermine the imagined order and to his credit he had the ability to do it to himself.

Northrop Frye in the Fables of Identity is remembered as a:

Distinguished and ground breaking Literary Critic

Thoughtful Theologian

A Minister Unto the people

A Clown

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In our day the conventional element in literature is elaborately disguised by a law of copyright pretending that every work of art is an invention distinctive enough to be patented.
- Northrop Frye

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