A Natural Conduit of the Eternal

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Will to Art on 24 June 2014.

You are right about Hell, but I think you're underselling the startling power of beauty in the postmodern age.

Virgin and Child appearing to St. Francis of Assisi

I was struck by something my sister told me. A kid asked one of her mentors if there was anything left that could shock him in an art exhibit. He said one thing: genuine beauty.

I've never thought that Arthur's words inspire anything other than fandom. It makes sense to me that hardened skeptics could see visions of Hell through Arthur, but it's always made sense to me that people with soft but unsatisfied hearts could have visions of heaven or Mary through Arthur.

Also, these visions are nothing Arthur can communicate particularly well; my thought is that he sometimes unknowingly discharges them through touch. People who touch him sometimes see The Sweet World--or, if we follow your suggestion, Hell.

I've always seen Arthur as having miraculous powers but not because of anything he does.

It's really more that he is a natural conduit of the eternal, and because of that, he naturally gravitates toward the beautiful and doesn't fit in with earth-bound things. His mom's daily charity visits seemed completely natural to him. He didn't have to muster up some sort of virtue to appreciate their value. They just seemed like how things were done in The Sweet World, whereas the family cement business seemed like outer space.

Speaking of heaven and hell, I just read The Great Divorce...very helpful!