Once upon a time, two men named Jack and Tollers took a walk in the woods. They talked about literature and their love of speculative fiction…they both enjoyed the stories of H.G. Wells, though they were a bit too humanistic for Jack’s taste. They were both professors, and both published. Tollers had written A Middle English Vocabulary, a companion to Sisam’s Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose. Jack had published a couple small books of poetry—which had not been particularly well received—as well as an allegorical spiritual tale called The Pilgrim’s Regress.
It wasn’t, of course, that there were no speculative stories being written at all—it was the 1930s after all—but that they both wanted work that dealt with deeper issues. They wanted speculative fiction that pressed in to philosophy and theology and, most importantly, that touched deep mythical chords.
“Tollers,” Jack said, “There is too little of what we really like in stories. I am afraid we shall have to try and write some ourselves.” Tollers agreed, and they flipped a coin to see who would write about space and who would write about time.
Jack—C.S. Lewis—got space, and Tollers—J.R.R. Tolkien—got time. Lewis set to work and wrote the first of a trilogy of books, Out of the Silent Planet. Tolkien started a story set in his sprawling personal mythology, an unfinished tale called “The Lost Road” (parts of which became notes about Tolkien’s Númenor).
From that little woodland conversation, C.S. Lewis went on to become a popular author who wrote nonfiction (largely Christian apologetics) as well as fiction (thinly-disguised Christian apologetics). Tolkien publicly stated more than once that it was Lewis who spurred him on—in conversations similar to this one—to finish The Lord of the Rings.
Lewis was well loved. He was celebrated at Oxford, where he taught. He would be on the cover of Time magazine in 1947. Lewis was, for a time, one of Tolkien’s closest friends (his booming voice became the inspiration for Treebeard). His work had a way of making it past the defenses of people who largely disagreed with him. He was delighted by the lack of objections to the theology shoveled into his space trilogy, and the Narnia books have been enjoyed by generations of people regardless of their faith and despite the Jesus lion. He was invited to speak often, in person and on the radio.
I grew up in conservative, even fundamentalist, Christian culture. Every presentation I encountered about “defending the faith” included Lewis’s “trilemma” (we’ll get to that when we talk about Narnia). This despite the fact that Lewis would not fall within the circles of the theological camps we were in at the time. He believed in evolution (gasp!) and was part of the Church of England. His presentation of how exactly the sacrifice of Jesus worked was not in line with what my church taught at the time. He was not, by any stretch of the imagination, an “evangelical” and yet was (and continues to be) touted as a great example of the faith. His books were in the library of every church I ever attended.
I love C.S. Lewis. I read the Narnia books the summer between my third and fourth year of grade school. I had just finished The Lord of the Rings, an epic event that had taken me a full school year of reading, and I asked my dad if we had “more like that one.” He handed me The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I was immediately drawn in to the swirling world of Greek myths, talking animals, Santa Claus, and strange desserts that I did not know existed in the real world (I thought “Turkish Delight” was a literary invention).
Time passed, and over the years I’ve grown and changed, of course; recently my 16-year-old picked up my favorite Lewis book, Till We Have Faces. It’s a beautiful novel about loss and faith and confronting the gods. My daughter told me it was good, but added, “He didn’t like women much, did he?”
Okay, yes, that’s a fair response. And there are certainly moments of deeply troubling racism in Lewis’s books, too. And for those who aren’t from a Christian background (and maybe some who are), the central Christian conceits can be off-putting (even Tolkien, who was a key player in Lewis’s conversion, often disliked Lewis’s sermonizing).
So why are we embarking on a massive re-read of Lewis’s books?
Well, love them or hate them, the Narnia books played a key role in bringing children’s literature back into the worlds of the fantastic. There was a strong emphasis on realism in Lewis’s days, and too much imagination was seen as unhealthy for kids (though Baum, Barrie, and Nesbit might still be on the nursery shelf). The popularity of Narnia opened the door to more fantasy literature for children, and The Chronicles of Narnia still get placed on “Best Of” lists for children today.
I’m looking forward to re-reading Lewis’ work as an adult. In many ways, Lewis shaped my own theological and literary development. He gave me the freedom in my own writing career to write both novels and Christian non-fiction. His views on a variety of topics sunk deeply into my life as a child. I’m interested to see how my experience differs today, as a progressive Christian adult, versus when I was a young fundamentalist.
I had originally thought to start with the space trilogy, but wiser minds suggested we start with the more familiar Narnia books. Which, it turns out, is great, because October 16th is the anniversary of the release of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe—yes, we’re starting there, and not with The Magician’s Nephew because Mari Ness is right about everything.
For each book we’ll have a couple posts exploring its unique characteristics, as well as one laying out some of Lewis’s theological constructs that may be less clear to those who don’t come from a Christian background. Along the way we’ll delve in deep to the racist elements, the problem of Susan, Lewis’s issues with women, and his obsession with mythology and medieval cosmology. We’ll talk about his legacy, his importance in the world of speculative fiction, and how he has shaped modern Christian thought. As we get into his lesser known works, we’ll talk about his critiques of colonialism, his exploration of the afterlife and the nature of human interaction with God.
If there are topics related to Lewis’s science fiction or fantasy that you’re interested in discussing, by all means, leave a comment so we can put them on the list! But first, on Wednesday the 16th we’ll start the reread off by entering that mirrored wardrobe in the spare room, to visit the land of Narnia, which is Definitely Not an Allegory. Let’s see what magic we can recapture there…
Matt Mikalatos is the author of the YA fantasy The Crescent Stone. You can follow him on Twitter or connect on Facebook.
Ooh this is very exciting!
I love the Chronicles of Narnia (I even took a class on the series). I have also read Til We Have Faces and Out of the Silent Planet, both when I was a young teenager. I did not particularly like or understand either, and have been meaning to reread both and see how different my experience is now.
A reread will be both fun and interesting.
As a Christian myself, I have often heard Lewis’ theology praised, and heard some great quotes by him, but I have never actually gotten around to reading his nonfiction works.
@1: If you read Out of the Silent Planet and disliked it too much to move on to Perelandra, then you’ve missed a treat.
Matt, your posts will be what I look for every week on TOR. Thank you for this plan!
Good luck with That Hideous Strength. I finally, after trying for 20 years, got through that one this year, and boy was it a dense read. My personal favorite of Lewis’, though, is Till We Have Faces. “Ministering Angels” is definitely an amusing (or possibly offensive) read under today’s sensibilities.
To get some good context on the events behind the stories, I’d recommend reading Jack by George Sayers and The Letters of C. S. Lewis edited by his brother Warren.
Will there be any exploration of Boxen or possibly Lewis’s influences (e.g, “The Man Who Lived Backwards” by Charles F. Hall being the other half of the inspiration for The Great Divorce, beside, obviously, Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell)?
I’m really looking forward to this – I’ve read Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra many times and bounced off That Hideous Strength every single time. I’m still not sure I really get them, but the worlds in my head are spectacular. Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair are some of the most memorable books of my childhood (my parents read through the whole series as bedtime stories, possibly more than once). I’ve had good intentions of reading a number of his other books but never quite got there – perhaps this will be the incentive I need. Thank you!
@1 Till We Have Faces might be my favorite Lewis novel, so it will be fun to dig into it together! Out of the Silent Planet is fine, but I really love Perelandra.
@2 Thank you! The next post will be next week, and then we’ll go bi-weekly. Keep me posted on what you’re enjoying and what you want more of!
@3 We’ll definitely get into some of the influences! As Tolkien said, Lewis was “easily influenced” and there are parts of most of his books that suggest strong connections to other works. Sometimes that’s illuminating in the parts that are most difficult in Lewis’s work. And yes, I am pretty nervous about That Hideous Strength. It’s my least favorite Lewis novel… or at least it was when I read it as a kid.
@@.-@ Fun! That’s the whole point of the series, that we can read and discuss together. Looking forward to your insights.
Just to assure #3 and #4 that I too found That Hideous Strength to be a slog.
Yet it left me with an understanding of the falseness of the in-group phenomenon and also the knowledge of how the participation in minor evils leads inexorably into being enslaved to greater evils. These were truths that had not registered from anything else I had read, nor have they ever registered as clearly to me in anything I’ve read since. But still . . . it’s a slog.
I have not yet read Till We Have Faces but I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. I have read the Space trilogy but it was over 10 years ago. I admit I’m more of a Tolkien fan than a Lewis fan (both in terms of their books, their attitudes to how religion should be handled in books, and in their specific theology, lol).
However I am definitely looking forward to an honest discussion that is both critical and appreciative. I actually do really appreciate his non-fiction writings. The Four Loves and A Grief Observed are some of my favorite ‘spiritual’ works.
One thing that does make me feel a little better about some of his clumsy views towards women as expressed in his books (which can at times tend towards tropey or generalized) is knowing that, apparently, while at Oxford, he did have good relationships with his female students and colleagues, and corresponded with various women throughout his life. So one wonders how he would have appeared in practice vs what we see in his writings.
I’ve been reading a ton of Lewis this year and just last month finished the Space Trilogy…so intriguing! I’m currently reading The Four Loves and An Experiment in Criticism. So many good books to get to. :)
Oooh I’m most excited by this!! Instantly becomes my most anticipated recurring series here. =)
I’m also very glad that I recently bought Till We Have Faces off a friend’s recommendation. Haven’t read it yet, but sitting on my “to be read” pile, so guess I’ll move that up to the top!
Space trilogy is fantastic, but I’ll also confess that when I’m re-reading, I will read the first two then stop. Yup. Perelandra has always been a favourite of mine.
Very glad you’re starting with LWW – the proper beginning. Interested to read your thoughts on these books and excited for the discussion!
My last Lewis nonfiction I read was Miracles – not quite what I was expecting, but Lewis is always worthwhile, in my opinion. It felt a bit dated, but I still am glad I read it.
Very much looking forward to this. Finding out about this is highlight of my day.
Another person excited about this! Can I say…I’m hoping that theology, race, and gender aren’t the only topics? They are massively important and I do want to discuss them. That said…I feel like the Lewis backlash sometimes gets so intense that there’s no room to talk about reasons that a 21st-century fantasy fan should still read Lewis. Coming back to him as an adult, I have been struck by the quality of his prose and characterization.
P.S. I loathed That Hideous Strength too. Only Lewis book I find hopelessly unreadable.
It looks like I’m in the minority, here. I recently reread Till We Have Faces for the first time in 30 years. I guess I can understand how people can admire it, but it still goes right into my blind spot without leaving a mark. That Hideous Strength, on the other hand is my favorite of Lewis’s books. It speaks directly to the social life I experienced in school and, even more, what I lived through in the service. It made me understand that it is possible to wait out the bad things we experience; the evil will always do themselves in.
Anyway, I’m really looking forward to your project.
@7 Lewis was well regarded by many women in his life, and I think that speaks to his character and intentions for sure.
@8 Which was your favorite in the trilogy?
@9 I am super excited that you are excited!
@10 Oh, I’m sure we’ll discuss a LOT of other things. Lewis’s thoughts on colonialism, for instance, are super fascinating and reflected strongly in the space trilogy. And we’ll be diving into medieval cosmology, literary forms and conventions, and which talking mouse is the best talking mouse in all of literature. Feel free to drop me a line if there are specific things you want us to touch on and if it’s in my wheelhouse we’ll go for it!
@11 I’m really interested to hear your thoughts as we go along! I haven’t read That Hideous Strength in more than twenty years, and I always felt like the Arthurian bits should resonate more with me, because I love Arthurian tales. I’m curious to see if I’ll like it more as an adult.
It’s hard to cover Lewis’s Christian apologetics without The Screwtape Letters.
Oooh, ooh! I hope you get to Dark Tower and Other Stories, to discuss the little gems like “Forms of Things Unknown.”
@13 Good point! I’ve been debating about that one, as I don’t think Lewis would put it in the category of speculative fiction. But it would be fun to talk about for sure.
@14 Oh wow. I hadn’t thought about that, but you’re right.
I grew up in a non-Christian household. When I first read the Narnia books, I actually missed most of the Christian theology (since I didn’t know what to look for). Aslan-as-Jesus was sufficiently obvious that even I noticed it, but it didn’t make much more of an impression on me than similar stories from Greek mythology. This meant that I didn’t find the Christian elements off-putting – I just wasn’t aware of them.
Of course, when I reread the books later, the Christian symbolism was immediately obvious.
Just got done reading Mere Christianity. I thought it was absolutely mind-blowing. My appreciation for my faith has grown in Leaps and Bounds as a result
@16 Robert, that’s precisely what we’re talking about next week… Lewis treats Aslan/Jesus as very much on equal footing with Greek (and other) myths. Lewis definitely preferred that people just enjoy the story.
@17 That’s great! Hopefully you’ll enjoy digging in to some of his fiction with us, too!
Indeed, Mere Christianity is one of my reread-every-few-years favorites.
I understand that while Perelandra was Lewis’s favorite book, he was proudest of Til We Have Faces. He was so afraid he would screw up the female POV that he was greatly relieved when the women he knew said that he got the voice exactly right.
I really loved Perelandra but think That Hideous Strength is my favorite…could not stop thinking about it once I finished and really loved seeing the transformations of Jane and Mark. I know there are still layers of that story I need to uncover so can’t wait to read it again.
This will be interesting to follow along. I have read bits of his over the years, Mere Christianity has been probably the most fruitful in both of the parts agreed with and the parts disagreed with; rather like the question of whether our greatest sins are in the things we have done or in the things we have left undone. As someone who believes that Christianity is found in behavior much more than the foibles of faith, i tend towards the latter.
I have been less impressed with his fiction in the past than his actual apologies so it will be good for me to look at the fiction again.
@@@@@ 15, Matt Mikalatos:
@@@@@13 Good point! I’ve been debating about that one, as I don’t think Lewis would put it in the category of speculative fiction.
I’m pretty sure Lewis didn’t confuse himself with the Recording Angel. Screwtape reads like an epistolary fable. Devil teaching devil to teach human.
I am also excited! I have always loved the Narnia books, though I appear to be in the minority of loving both The Magician’s Nephew and Prince Caspian. I was surprised to see several people mention racism and a dislike of women as things to discuss in his books, but I have only read the narnia series and The Screwtape Letters out of his catalog. With how common those opinions seems to be, the recaps of his other works should be interesting as well! Thanks for the coming work Matt!
What a great project.
Hear hear for “… Faces”, “Screwtape Letters” and also “The Discarded Image” – taken from his lectures on the medieval worldview. Once you read that, the space trilogy (and Narnia) makes a bit more sense.
Totally sympathise with those who have struggled with “Hideous Strength”. I think it was Dorothy Sayers who called it a “Charles Williams novel written by C. S. Lewis” – which it is!
I’m not quite sure what you mean when you say that Lewis was “beloved” at Oxford. The university refused to give him a Chair, even though he was an internationally renowned scholar. They refused because of his Christian publications.
He moved to the University of Cambridge in 1957, and spent the last 6 years of his career there.
I second Fernhunter’s opinion that The Screwtape Letters is important for discussing Lewis’s theology. It’s also a great story.
@25:
Oh, my…she is so correct!
Yes!
I hope we’ll be reading The Great Divorce; that, and the Telmarine in Aslan’s Land in The Last Battle, are two of my favourite literary pieces tackling the concepts of heaven and hell. The Great Divorce has also influenced a lot of my thoughts on aspects of Tolkien’s works.
I’m mostly looking forward to this. The Narnia books did absolutely nothing for me, despite the fact that I enjoyed a lot of fantasy back in the day, ranging from E.R. Eddison to Mervyn Peake to James Branch Cabell to Stephen R. Donaldson to Lord Dunsany to ol’ JRR himself. But I loved the Cosmic Trilogy, even if those nasty scientists were the Big Bad in That Hideous Strength. My favorite Lewis, though, is The Screwtape Letters. I love it and I’m an atheist. It nails the nature of bureaucracy.
@26 I mean only that he was well loved by the students, and his optional lectures and chapels were often packed full. He had plenty of friends among the other professors. He was a popular choice for doctoral candidates and so on. Certainly his religious work (and his popularity) caused something between embarrassment and scandal for some at Oxford depending on the time. I’m not sure we can say definitively that his Christianity kept him out of the various things he wanted those last ten years, as the politics were pretty convoluted at the time. And yes, he did go to Cambridge which is pretty shocking when you see his early fights with profs from there and how much he disliked the program and philosophy there on the front end of his career. But, then again, he did turn down the Chair twice before he took it. :) No question that he was badly treated toward the end of his nearly thirty years there, though.
I will be really looking forward to this. Lewis is a favorite. As an Air Force brat who spent a chunk of her childhood in England I think Lewis speaks to my inner “Brit” at times. The Weight of Glory is a current favorite. I’ll be interested in the discussion. I’ve been reading Lewis for over 40 years and I’ve never noticed a “problem with women.”
I was raised by atheists, and all I knew about religion was Christianity in broad strokes. Finding Til We Have Faces in my local library at a very young age absolutely blew my mind. That religion and belief could be something so different from anything I’d ever heard of. I remember so vividly reading a passage in which the equivalent of a priest with his drugged attending girls lights up incense and the narrator says it started smelling very holy in that place. I was stunned that she found incense to be a holy smell, and a bunch of high, overly painted girls a holy sight. It blew away all my assumptions about what religion could be.
So excited to read this series. Curious to see your take on Lewis and looking forward to getting to the space trilogy soon. Such fascinating takes on the medieval view of space.
@10: This is Tor, so expect identity politics to be a main theme (will Narnia be sufficiently antipatriarchal and antiheteronormative to be deemed acceptable, you might be wondering). That doesn’t mean that there won’t be interesting things being discussed, though.
Anyway, by coincidence I’m listening to the Narnia audiobooks right now. I don’t necessarily like them a lot (I don’t mind allegory, but it seems to me rather heavy-handed here, at the expense of the story), but apart from that I think the writing is good. I’m no longer in the target audience, of course, (wasn’t Enid Blyton who said that she didn’t care about the opinion of critics over the age of ten?), but that hasn’t stopped me from enjoying other fantasies for children. In any case, I’m listening to it not just for the story, but also for general fantasy culture, because they are so influential. There are a lot of modern fantasy books that are in some ways a response to Narnia or at least are influenced by it.
I remember as a teenager trying to read That Hideous Strength and not liking it. Perhaps I’d have a different perspective now?
I enjoyed that film about C.S. Lewis, Shadowlands, and his A Grief Observed was quite raw, human and moving.
I like both Till We Have Faces and That Hideous Strength!
I was cool towards Narnia as a child because I was told I ought to have Christian feelings about it. I was, and remain, a Christian, but I didn’t like being told what to feel. It wasn’t until I had children myself and my husband began reading it to them that I grew to appreciate the sheer fantasy inventiveness and the power of the imagery.
I am embarrassed to admit I completely missed the Christian allegory when I first read Narnia in my early teens. Possibly because I wasn’t raised a Christian. Though I did clearly grasp Aslan’s numinous nature.
@38 – LOL – I was raised (and remain) Christian/Catholic and I’m pretty sure I didn’t get it. But my first exposure to Lewis was actually of this amazing animated version of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe that I watched the hell out of when I was a kid, and is still how I picture all of the characters, so I doubt I was evaluating it all that critically. And I will say that Tilda Swinton is AMAZING and I love her, but she’s still doesn’t have the voice of the animated witch in that video, and as a kid, nothing was scarier than the wolf chase in that video.
@37 – “I was, and remain, a Christian, but I didn’t like being told what to feel.” – hah, this.
Required background reading on Lewis’ fictional works is Planet Narnia by Micheal Ward. The popular version of Ward’s dissertation is The Narnia Code. Both works seek to show the unifying structure behind the Narniad and his Space Triology.
#26 above, Kathleen is correct about CSL’s rejection by most of his academic peers. He wrote theology in spite of the assumption that he was an expert ONLY in literature, philosophy, etc. It was not kosher for him talk to the common man about God…..which he did with great effectiveness. That drove his fellow academicians up a wall. Your upcoming project here looks intriguing!!
Wow, friends, I am so pleased by how excited everyone is!
I fear that my comments replying to every single one might become a nuisance, but I’m reading and enjoying all of your thoughts!
I highly recommend reading Lewis’s non-fiction work, The Discarded Image, to understand how his perspective as a medieval literature professor affected the worlds he built in his fiction.
So, which versions of the Narnia books are we reading? The American editions or the UK editions? The pre-1994 American editions published by MacMillan (NOT the Harper Collins editions) actually have some fairly significant differences to the original British editions. There’s the name change of the White Witch’s head wolf guard from “Maugrim” to “Fenris Ulf” (British to American), and there are entire passages that were rewritten for Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
See the Wikipedia for details (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voyage_of_the_Dawn_Treader#Differences_between_British_and_American_editions) but the gist of it is that when doing revisions for the American editions Lewis made some significant changes to the “Island of Dreams” segment of Dawn Treader. If you haven’t read Narnia before (or have only read the British edition or the post-1994 Harper Collins published editions, which for some reason decided to revert to the earlier unrevised text), I recommend checking out the American version. I personally prefer it, although granted, it’s what I grew up with, this boxset.
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Okay, that’s all my Narnia pedantry finished. I’m looking forward to this re-read!
As others have said, I am looking forward to this. The Narnia books were formative for my young self, and though I can see the flaws, I can still read them with enjoyment.
As only a few have said, however, That Hideous Strength is without a doubt Lewis’s best book in my opinion. It is a savage satire on the modern world as a vast bureaucracy designed and inhabited by demons. It can only be more relevant than ever in the current political climate we are enduring.
Ah yes, that film Shadowlands! I mostly only listened to it, because it was on the TV while I was working in the bowels of my boat at the time. For a long time I could hear the actor playing Lewis wittering on and on in a sort of milque-toast way about nothing very much, and was not impressed… and then I came up for a breather, and C.S. Lewis was – HANNIBAL LECTER!
Malacandra (Out of the Silent Planet) – quite amusing, but I am afraid, rather derivative of Stanley Weinbaum’s ‘A Martian Odyssey’…
Perelandra – written well and lightly, but not a story to be taken seriously.
That Hideous Strength – beyond atrocious.
To me, I only found the first half of That Hideous Strength to be a bit hard to get through, but I think it starts to pick up around the halfway point which is when, probably not coincidentally, (Highlight for spoilers) the protagonist from the first two novels finally shows up. I think the last half of the book is extremely fun and on par with the first two books.
The Great Divorce is probably my favorite book of his, though I will admit to not having read through all of his works. (For instance, I had never heard of Till We Have Faces until now.)
I believe that Lewis said that his wife, Joy, helped so much with Till We Have Faces that she should have been credited as a coauthor. I love that book. It blew my mind when I first read it. And the Narnia books were incredibly meaningful to me when I reread them as a teenager. The space trilogy is great, although I hated That Hideous Strength the first time and then enjoyed it a decade later.
@44 Quite interesting to learn about the various editions of the Chronicles of Narnia, I grew up with that same MacMillan box set also and have never read other versions.
Really looking forward to following along with this reread, and maybe reading some of the books again myself!
I was raised Jewish, and in college became an atheist, but still read and greatly enjoyed the Space Trilogy, and the Screwtape Letters. After college I became a Christian, changing my beliefs for many many reasons, but the Screwtape Letters actually had a part in that. It was fun coming back to these books as a Christian and noticing themes I had missed before, and then reading the Narnia books. I agree that there are tons of Christian themes in Lewis’ books, some obvious, other less so, but I do not think I would call it thinly disguised apologetics. Lewis could certain write apologetics when he wanted to, but my guess is that his books did not have the themes they did as an attempt to convert his readers. Rather, as is true of most authors, his own worldview had a strong influence on how he plotted his stories and created his characters. I suspect that while he would have been delighted if reading his fiction stories inclined some more to a faith in Christ, he would have been also delighted by those who simply enjoyed them as fun stories. Looking forward to the re-read, but hoping it is not excessively picky in critiquing a good early twentieth century author by the expectations of our current post-modern, politically correct culture. Thanks for taking up this topic!
I haven’t read the Space Trilogy since the late 60s or early 70s (somewhere around then) so will enjoy revisiting them with friends. The Narnia books I have read many times, although never as a child, and I just read Till We Have Faces in the last decade. Also reread The Screwtape Letters fairly recently, with enjoyment as always. Can’t remember when I read Mere Christianity but probably 15 years ago. Looking forward to all the discussion.
@50 Larry K — Let me know if you feel like it gets too picky along the way! And you’re right about Lewis being more concerned about the story than anything else… he writes about this at length. He believed you couldn’t truly experience a myth unless you were immersed in the story, not looking for the underlying truth(s) revealed in it.
@44 I’m reading an American (MacMillan) edition… the same one I read when I was a kid. That’s a good reminder that we should at least mention the differences in Dawn Treader when we get there!
I am fascinated by all you “Hideous Strength” fans! I haven’t read it in a really long time, so I’m curious what my experience will be reading it this time!
The strangest thing happens to me. Very often, when discussing LWW and the rest, I mention the Christian elements, and find the people I’m talking surprised and amazed, even when they’ve read it. Even the Aslan as Jesus element that @16robertstadler noted is often missed until I point it out. Not everyone, but easily 1 in 5 will look at me rather amazed as they realize that yes, they absolutely did miss that!
I remember when coming and being called to the church and waiting to be baptized the pastor told me I wasn’t ready yet and that I needed to prove to myself that God was God and real.
Not being discouraged I went and read Lewis’ ‘Mere Christianity’. Not being a very emotional person the tv preachers couldn’t and didn’t answer that question with their “Because God said so” or “The Bible says so” for me. However, Mr. Lewis’ rational reasoning did. When Mr. Lewis explained it it all made perfect sense.
Even though, I don’t believe in Christmas and the trinity (for biblical reasons) and evolution Mr. Lewis was a great help in getting me on the right track.
There’s two American Christian colleges that have a dispute over which owns the True Wardrobe. That’s the real-life wardrobe which inspired the portal to Narnia. No, neither of them are roped off to stop people climbing in. There’s also Meghan McCain’s eulogy for her father, John McCain. It ends with “the dream is ended, now it is the morning”. It took me a while to realise that’s not a Bible quote, but a quote from the end of The Last Battle.
@45 userdavid: a vast bureaucracy designed and inhabited by demons
Yes, it’s exactly that imagery that has embedded itself in my consciousness.
I’ll add a word here for Lewis’s poetry. When you get the primary works read, give thought to reading his poetry. 98% of it has been collected together into a single volume called The Collected Poems of C. S. Lewis: a Critical Edition. Put together by Don W. King. Among Lewis’s poems are several narrative tales–that’s right there are other fantasies written by C. S. Lewis but written in poetic form! They’re a great read. If you can’t find King’s book then Collected Poems and Narrative Poems edited by Walter Hooper have most of the above poems.
It’s interesting that some commenters mentioned that they or others didn’t notice the Christianity in the Narnia books. Personally, I was retroactively annoyed with having invested so much of my time reading the series when I got the point where Lucy and all of the other main non-Susan characters from England died in a train wreck and we were supposed to be happy for them – the Christian message was just too heavy-handed for me.
I’m really excited about this because C.S. Lewis was formative for me but I also have a lot of ambivalence about some of his ideas. I just registered for this site; is there a way for me to subscribe specifically to new posts in this series?
My favorite work of Lewis is “The Abolition of Man”, which is an elegantly written little philosophical treatise. “Perelandra” is my favorite of his fiction (followed closely by “The Great Divorce”. I was once so into Lewis that I believe I read every thing he had ever written, from his “Reflection on the Psalms” to his “Letters to an American Lady,” as well as his lovely “The Discarded Image” (he helped me really SEE the medieval world), and one more favorite: “Studies in Words.” And “The Great Divorce” is full of images and thoughts that are still with me. I am no longer a Christian, but I have the greatest respect for the thought and imagination of Lewis, who did so much to help my mind come alive in the midst of my evangelically charged youth.
@59: Welcome! You should be able to subscribe to this series using the RSS feed here (feeds for other series can also be found by clicking the series link (in this case, the tag “The Great C.S. Lewis Reread” which appears just above the article title); the RSS button appears just to the right of the series’ title. You can also subscribe to any individual author’s articles by clicking on their name at the top of the post, then hitting the “RSS feed” option that appears just under their name on their author page. Hope that helps! (Update: if you have any problems, you can email webmaster(at)tor.com for assistance.)
@61, I’m sorry, I can’t seem to get it to work. I don’t want to clog up the comment thread; is there an email address I can use to sort this out?
Thanks for doing this!
The Narnia series still has a special place in my heart as one of my favorite series & I loved “Till We Have Faces.” I did find the Perelandra series unreadable in high school, so I will probably have to give it a second try.
@38princessroxanna & 39Lisamarie, count me in for missing the Aslan is Jesus when I read the series for the first time as well. I still have the bound paperback set that my mum bought me for Christmas when I was a boy. And I did see the animated movie first as well!
Wasn’t raised terribly Christian due to a slight disagreement between my father & a priest over the proxy-godparents for my brother’s baptism leading us to stop being regular church attendees.
Nor have I ever felt ‘disappointed’ as I grew up & notified the religious allusions in the Narnia series; I read they all to my three children, so there’s that.
As to the discussion/debate that will be inevitable regarding the more ‘problematic’ aspects of Lewis’ works, I am very confident that that Mr. Mikalatos & the Tor moderators will do their level best to ensure the debate is enriching, lively, civil, & enjoyable. Even if I have to listen to the opinion of those who open their soft boiled eggs from the wrong end. ;-)
Kato
@@@@@ 62, kaci:
I’m sorry, I can’t seem to get it to work. I don’t want to clog up the comment thread; is there an email address I can use to sort this out?
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I only started this book , time to finish![.](//s04.flagcounter.com/mini/Jkzv/bg_FFFFFF/txt_DEDEDE/border_FFFFFF/flags_0/" width="1"/>)
Add me to the excitement. I’ll be glad to follow this series.
I was given the whole Narnia set as a Christmas present when I was about 8, and it took me a year or two to read them all. Although raised as a Christian, I don’t think I caught on to the allegory until the Dawn Treader, and, as I grew older, I found the allegory more and more intrusive and annoying. I noticed the “woman problem” at the time, but didn’t know to be embarrassed by the Calormenes until I had finally heard of Islam and the parallels became obvious.
I read and “enjoyed” The SCrewtape Letters in high school, but have not read the three SF books. Looking forward to adding to my knowledge! Thanks for the opportunity!
I am looking forward to this. I grew up on the Narnia books – kind of obligatory when your Dad’s an Anglican (Episcopalian) minister! I also discovered the Interplanetary Trilogy in my teens and “Faces” in my early 20s. Perelandra is a good book to read while sunbathing on the beach, accompanied by watermelon. I really need to lay my hands on a copy of Discarded Image, especially as I studied Renaissance literature at university… 25 years ago.
The issue of Lewis’s presentation of women is something that bugs me more now than it did back then, although we probably need to remember that Lewis admitted he didn’t have much experience of women outside Mrs Moore and a few cousins (mother died while he was young, boys’ school, army, academia, etc.), and that he considered himself a dinosaur… in the 1950s. What’s more, any discussion of the Susan Problem needs to consider the wardrobe scene in Hideous Strength, where the women pick out beautiful clothes for each other.