In discussing fantasy, Tolkien feels it necessary to mention a particular exception: “Chestertonian Fantasy” which gets it’s fuel from looking at mundane things in a new and clever way. To the canny author, there is no end of material here… but it doesn’t really count.
Of course, fairy-stories are not the only means of recovery, or prophylactic against loss. Humility is enough. And there is (especially for the humble) Mooreeffoc, or Chestertonian Fantasy. Mooreeffoc is a fantastic word, but it could be seen written up in every town in this land. It is Coffee-room, viewed from the inside through a glass door, as it was seen by Dickens on a dark London day; and it was used by Chesterton to denote the queerness of things that have become trite, when they are seen suddenly from a new angle. That kind of “fantasy” most people would allow to be wholesome enough; and it can never lack for material. But it has, I think, only a limited power; for the reason that recovery of freshness of vision is its only virtue. The word Mooreeffoc may cause you suddenly to realize that England is an utterly alien land, lost either in some remote past age glimpsed by history, or in some strange dim future to be reached only by a time-machine; to see the amazing oddity and interest of its inhabitants and their customs and feeding-habits; but it cannot do more than that: act as a time-telescope focused on one spot. Creative fantasy, because it is mainly trying to do something else (make something new), may open your hoard and let all the locked things fly away like cage-birds. The gems all turn into flowers or flames, and you will be warned that all you had (or knew) was dangerous and potent, not really effectively chained, free and wild; no more yours than they were you.
-J.R.R. Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories, (Recovery, Escape, Consolation)
This is a bit of a muddy passage. I had to read it twice. What he’s talking about here though I find thrilling: turning the dry, boring, mundane life we live day in day out into something fascinating. Kathleen Norris explores this idea in her memoir Dakota and, well, all her other books too. It’s the only way to stay sane in a small town perhaps. I think it must be tied to contentment as well, something I could certainly put to good use.
This was Chesterton’s modus operandi and a large reason as to why his writing on almost any topic is stimulating.