Clive Staples Lewis

[Rían]

Any updates from CSL readers?

Here's a poem from CSL that I like. I originally heard it in a song, then found out that he wrote it. I am NOT a poem person in general, but I really like this one:


As the Ruin Falls

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through:
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.

Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:
I talk of love - a scholar's parrot may talk Greek-
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.

Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack.
I see the chasm. And everything you are was making
My heart into a bridge by which I might get back
From exile, and grow man. And now the bridge is breaking.

For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains
You give me are more precious than all other gains.

[GrayMouser]

My first post at the Moot, though I've been posting at another Tolkien forum for a few years now.

My first contact with fantasy was "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" at the age of eight, and I've been a Lewis fan ever since, even though that encounter led to a traumatic event (well, traumatic for an eight-year-old, anyway.)

As for his other works I've read the Space Trilogy, Screwtape Letters, Problem of Pain- the latter two many years ago- and just last year, Till We Have Faces which I thought was great but don't feel able to comment on till I have a chance to re-read.

Of the Space Trilogy, Perelandra is my least favorite (though still very good!)- too many purple passages; my favorite descriptive stretch is actually the journey underground- though the contest between Ransom and the Unman is fascinating.

I love the part in OOTSP where Ransom is trying to interpret for Weston:

Weston: "Life is greater than any system of morality; her claims are absolute."

"He says", began Ransom "that living creatures are stronger than the question whether an act is bent or good- no, that can't be right- he says it is better to be alive and bent than dead- no- he says, he says, - I cannot say what he says, Oyarsa, in your language."

As for the floating islands, if the question is why was Perelandra a watery world, that was a common conception of the time, Venus being enshrouded in clouds- just as Mars was seen to be a dying planet where an ancient civilisation had dug the canals to preserve themselves. Venus was seen as a younger more vigorous planet- kind of a Jurassic world, and Earth was the middle sibling. (Misconceptions, as it turned out, alas for Romance)


Lewis adapted these cliches of a thousand science fiction stories to his own ends, though I think he derived the ideas of the canals as actually being great valleys of refuge from Olaf Stapledon, whom he acknowledges in the introduction.

BTW, I think I recall reading somewhere lately that Tolkien hated the Screwtape Letters- I believe it was actually a quote from one of Tolkien's letters. Am I mixed up here- does anyone have any info?

Anyway, I've seen some great postings on this site- I've been lurking for a week or so- and I'm honoured to join you all.

[crickhollow]

Welcome, GrayMouser, from a fellow Tolkien and Lewis lover. I don't know about tolkien hating The Screwtape letters--I would hope that he like it, because it is dedicated to him. Lewis himself wasn't fond of SL. His two favorites are Til We Have Faces, and Perelandra. I think that he saw SL as not his best work, and was therefore a bit confounded at the cultish popularity it achieved, especially in America.

[Rían]

Welcome, GrayMouser, from a fellow Tolkien and Lewis lover! (Didn't someone just say that ) I hope you like it here.

from letter # 252 of JRRT
Also I was wryly amused to be told (D. Telegraph) that 'Lewis himself was never very fond of The Screwtape Letters' - his best-seller (250,000). He dedicated it to me. I wondered why. Now I know - says they.

Yes, the translation part in OOTSP is hilarious! And really is an excellent device to show the deception behind what Weston and Devine are saying.

And it took me about 20 years to really understand and appreciate Till We Have Faces - a wonderful book, and very profound, IMO. It looks like you're a bit quicker than I am, as you already like it

[GrayMouser]

Originally posted by RÃ*an
Welcome, GrayMouser, from a fellow Tolkien and Lewis lover! (Didn't someone just say that ) I hope you like it here.



And it took me about 20 years to really understand and appreciate Till We Have Faces - a wonderful book, and very profound, IMO. It looks like you're a bit quicker than I am, as you already like it

A belated thank you to both for the welcome- ( I'm a really SLOOOW poster.)

And, Rian, please note- I just said I liked TWHF- I never claimed to understand it

Also, I came upon it about twenty years after the other Lewis books I've read, so maybe time makes a difference.

[inked]

Lewis' nearly lost translation of the Aeneid is due out in May.

Full article here: http://www.narniafans.com/archives/11515#more-11515

Sampling: "C.S. Lewis’s Lost Aeneid: Arms and the Exile

It was a translation that he would read frequently to the Inklings, which was a group that met regularly which included Tolkien. The work was believed to have been lost to a bonfire back in 1964, a year after Lewis’s death. Lewis’s secretary, Walter Hooper, was going through some of his material and found the lost manuscript. The complete translation will be published on May 3, 2011."

I'm gonna read it!

[Midge]

Wow, Inked. I can't imagine how long you searched to dig up this old thread.

[inked]

Oh, somewhere around 0.19 seconds on the search engine intraMoot and less than 30 seconds locating the thread.

Way cool that there's going to be a new CSL book - even a translation.

[Tessar]

Oooh, I'm quite interested to read that as well.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Ho, ho! I love the Aeneid! This should be fun.