Thanks for the is recommendation! I’ll search this in my podcast app.
C.S. Lewis & His Pipes.
- Thread starter Sam Gamgee
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From a letter dated 13 Jan 1946 to Sister Penelope. I’ve heard in lectures that George Orwell read, reviewed, and hated THS, and that 1984 was possibly an answer to it. I much prefer THS to 1984.
From Letters to An American Lady, 19 Sept 1954:
"About the lack of religious education: of course you must be grieved, but remember how much religious education has exactly the opposite effect to that which was intended, how many hard atheists come from pious homes. May we not hope, with God's mercy, that a similarly opposite effect may be produced in her case? Parents are not Providence; their bad intentions may be frustrated as their good ones."
"About the lack of religious education: of course you must be grieved, but remember how much religious education has exactly the opposite effect to that which was intended, how many hard atheists come from pious homes. May we not hope, with God's mercy, that a similarly opposite effect may be produced in her case? Parents are not Providence; their bad intentions may be frustrated as their good ones."
Got out my copy of Lewis's LETTERS TO CHILDREN this AM and have been enjoying. There is a ridiculous amount of good stuff in this little book. Here is a sample from 3 April 1949:
"Remember that there are only three kinds of things anyone need ever do. 1) Things we ought to do. 2) Things we've got to do. 3) Things we like doing. I say this because some people seem to spend so much of their time doing things for none of the three reasons, things like reading books they don't like because other people read them. Things you ought to do are things like one's school work or being nice to people. Things one has got to do are things like dressing and undressing, or household shopping. Things one likes doing -- but of course I don't know what you like. Perhaps you'll write and tell me one day."
"Remember that there are only three kinds of things anyone need ever do. 1) Things we ought to do. 2) Things we've got to do. 3) Things we like doing. I say this because some people seem to spend so much of their time doing things for none of the three reasons, things like reading books they don't like because other people read them. Things you ought to do are things like one's school work or being nice to people. Things one has got to do are things like dressing and undressing, or household shopping. Things one likes doing -- but of course I don't know what you like. Perhaps you'll write and tell me one day."
Two for today since I couldn't decide which one to post, both from LETTERS TO CHILDREN:
from 14 Sept 1957:
"I am also bad at Maths and it is a continual nuisance to me -- I get muddled over my change in shops."
from 29 Sept 1958:
"All schools, both here and in America, ought to teach far fewer subjects, and teach them far better."
from 14 Sept 1957:
"I am also bad at Maths and it is a continual nuisance to me -- I get muddled over my change in shops."
from 29 Sept 1958:
"All schools, both here and in America, ought to teach far fewer subjects, and teach them far better."
From 14 Sept 1953 in LTC:
"You see, I don't think age matters so much as people think. Parts of me are still 12 and I think other parts were already 50 when I was 12..."
"You see, I don't think age matters so much as people think. Parts of me are still 12 and I think other parts were already 50 when I was 12..."
“What should they find incredible, since they believed no longer in a rational universe? What should they regard as too obscene, since they held that all morality was a mere subjective by-product of the physical and economic situations of men? The time was ripe. From the point of view which is accepted in Hell, the whole history of our Earth had led up to this moment. There was now at last a real chance for fallen Man to shake off that limitation of his powers which mercy had imposed upon him as a protection from the full results of his fall. If this succeeded, Hell would be at last incarnate. Bad men, while still in the body, still crawling on this little globe, would enter that state which, heretofore, they had entered only after death, would have the diuturnity and power of evil spirits. Nature, all over the globe of Tellus, would become their slave; and of that dominion no end, before the end of time itself, could be certainly foreseen.”
C.S. Lewis - That Hideous Strength
C.S. Lewis - That Hideous Strength
I wanted to reread THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH again before year’s end and decided to read the first two also for better context. I did OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET in two days via audiobook. I like the story a lot but even after several times can never get the mental imagery/landscape of Mars that Lewis presents. I can “see” his creatures but never his landscapes there.
Then you’ve got better imagination than I do. I still have no idea what a sorn looks like…. As for the landscapes, they are tougher still, the cover art over the years bears witness to the dilemma.
Some things you can read in “condition white” (sort of like driving with your brain on autopilot); however, with these books especially, I often find myself backing up a bit and rereading with intention, to grasp what is being conveyed.
I’m
I’m in PERELANDRA (again) and can’t see the landscapes very well there this time around either. I suppose another planet is just too foreign of a concept. Narnia is another _world_ but not in the same way Mars is, so I can fully _see_ Narnia. The first three chapters of PERELANDRA, while they are still in England, is so vivid in my mind that I’m almost there. But after that it’s very foggy for me. I don’t enjoy SILENT PLANET nearly as well as P though; the philosophical exchanges and the Edenic story presented are pretty fascinating (YMMV).
Silent Planet is good in its own right, with some keen insights into the spiritual world. Perelandra obviously builds on the story, and I do find the spiritual insights hit a little closer to home, as they relate more directly to humanity as opposed to the larger meta-narrative of the greater cosmic war…. Either way the landscapes take some imagination.
As far as visualizing a sorn, I think of them each time I drive through west Texas and see the big, white, spindly wind mills. One of my sons will always point out the window and say: “Look, Dad, it’s the sorns.”
I found this bit in Lewis's LETTERS TO CHILDREN today and thought it worth sharing. This is a great book that I enjoy picking up and just randomly choosing a few letters to read. It's also worth noting that when Lewis uses the term "romance," he's not talking about a "romance novel" in the modern sense, with a D-cup damsel and shirtless Thor-type figure on the cover. He is talking about an adventure story, and in this case he's referring to THE LORD OF THE RINGS. And as always with Lewis, I find a ridiculous amount of wisdom in his viewpoint, and also a type of comfort that it always brings - to me at least. YMMV.
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11 Sept 1958
Dear Lucy:
You've got it exactly right. A strict allegory is like a puzzle with a solution: a great romance is like a flower whose smell you can't quite place. I think the something is "the whole quality of life as we actually experience it." You can have a realistic story in which all the things and people are exactly like those we meet in real life, but the quality, the feel or texture or smell, of it is not. In a great romance it is just the opposite. I've never met Orcs or Ents or Elves -- but the feel of it, the sense of a huge past, of lowering danger, of heroic tasks achieved by the most apparently unheroic people, of distance, of strangeness, homeliness (all blended together) is so exactly what living feels like to me. Particularly the heart-breaking quality in the most beautiful places, like Lothlorien. And it is so like the history of the world: "Then, as now, there was a growing darkness and great deeds were done that were not wholly in vain." Neither optimism (this is the last war and after it all will be lovely forever) nor pessimism (this is the last war and all civilization will end), you notice. No. The darkness comes again and again and is never wholly triumphant nor wholly defeated.
Your sincerely,
C.S. Lewis
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11 Sept 1958
Dear Lucy:
You've got it exactly right. A strict allegory is like a puzzle with a solution: a great romance is like a flower whose smell you can't quite place. I think the something is "the whole quality of life as we actually experience it." You can have a realistic story in which all the things and people are exactly like those we meet in real life, but the quality, the feel or texture or smell, of it is not. In a great romance it is just the opposite. I've never met Orcs or Ents or Elves -- but the feel of it, the sense of a huge past, of lowering danger, of heroic tasks achieved by the most apparently unheroic people, of distance, of strangeness, homeliness (all blended together) is so exactly what living feels like to me. Particularly the heart-breaking quality in the most beautiful places, like Lothlorien. And it is so like the history of the world: "Then, as now, there was a growing darkness and great deeds were done that were not wholly in vain." Neither optimism (this is the last war and after it all will be lovely forever) nor pessimism (this is the last war and all civilization will end), you notice. No. The darkness comes again and again and is never wholly triumphant nor wholly defeated.
Your sincerely,
C.S. Lewis
How did I miss this thread??? My member photo features me sitting in...anyone recognize it? That is the parlor in Lewis' house outside of Oxford, The Kilns! Tried to mimic one of the snaps of Lewis. Here is another:
Sadly, none of the stuff in that room, which includes a desk and some pipes, tins, is original. The house was in terrible shape for years as it was let out to University students. Wasn't until, I think the naughts, before the American CS Lewis Foundation bought it and had volunteers go over many summers and restore it. You can stop in for a visit, any time; you can also reside there if you happen to doing research in Oxford. Suggestion: if you go to visit, when done in the house, head out through the gate at the end of the road in CS Lewis Close, pipe firmly in hand, and walk through the trees, past the pond, and imagine Lewis smoking there.
Sadly, none of the stuff in that room, which includes a desk and some pipes, tins, is original. The house was in terrible shape for years as it was let out to University students. Wasn't until, I think the naughts, before the American CS Lewis Foundation bought it and had volunteers go over many summers and restore it. You can stop in for a visit, any time; you can also reside there if you happen to doing research in Oxford. Suggestion: if you go to visit, when done in the house, head out through the gate at the end of the road in CS Lewis Close, pipe firmly in hand, and walk through the trees, past the pond, and imagine Lewis smoking there.
Here's one I found this AM that made me smile:
11 Aug 1959
Dear Joan,
Congratulations on your 98% in Latin. What a drole idea in Florida, to give credits not for what you know but for hours spent in a classroom! Rather like judging the condition of an animal not by its weight or shape but by the amount of food that had been offered it!
More of Lewis's thoughts on education in another letter from 1958:
All schools, both here and in America, ought to teach far fewer subjects and teach them far better.
11 Aug 1959
Dear Joan,
Congratulations on your 98% in Latin. What a drole idea in Florida, to give credits not for what you know but for hours spent in a classroom! Rather like judging the condition of an animal not by its weight or shape but by the amount of food that had been offered it!
More of Lewis's thoughts on education in another letter from 1958:
All schools, both here and in America, ought to teach far fewer subjects and teach them far better.
Wow, what an amazing experience that must've been. Were you allowed to go all through the house, up into the bedrooms, etc?