Other Lewis works

TimmyofOz said:
The Space Trilogy is very good, but the best book is the last, That Hideous Strength, so you have to get through the first not so good books the get to the best. Though That Hideous Strength was written almost60 years ago it has a very contempory message. If you can get it on audio book like I have it, it is much more enjoyable.
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Welcome back, Timmy!

I completely disagree that Perelandra and Out of the Silent Planet are just "not so good" preliminaries to get to That Hideous Strength. Each of the three books has amazing spiritual and philosophical themes, and Perelandra more than any I think, offers an astounding look at creation and its possibilities.

For a long time THS was my favorite of the three, but now I would be hard-pressed to choose.
 
Funnily, I didn't much care for THS. Maybe it was the change in narration style or because it was on Earth, but I preferred the other two stories.
 
I love them all. Over the years I've come to appreciate the subtlety and insight of Strength, but both Silent Planet and Perelandra have a lot to offer. One of my favorite passages in all literature is Ransom's translation of Weston's monologue to Oyarsa in Silent Planet. In terms of clever use of literary devices, it has to take the prize!
 
PrinceOfTheWest said:
I love them all. Over the years I've come to appreciate the subtlety and insight of Strength, but both Silent Planet and Perelandra have a lot to offer. One of my favorite passages in all literature is Ransom's translation of Weston's monologue to Oyarsa in Silent Planet. In terms of clever use of literary devices, it has to take the prize!
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Oh, yes, I agree. Lewis had a genius for that deconstructing of specious or high-sounding language such a Weston was using ...
 
Coincidentally I started reading "Out of the Silent Planet" just two weeks ago. Dr. Wayne Martindale's book "Beyond the Shadowlands" convinced me to read the space trilogy as well as "Till We Have Faces" which I will read later on. I read "The Great Divorce" for the second time last month and found in it so much more than I had remembered the first time I read it about 5 or 6 years ago. I think it has to do with coming to gradually understand Lewis' thinking better. So far I 'm really enjoying "Out of the Silent Planet."

By the way, this book by Dr. Martindale of Wheaton College is pretty amazing. I have underlined almost more of it than I haven't, and have gotten insights into some of these best-loved books that I probably wouldn't have gotten anywhere else. He gave me an insight into that final scene in "The Silver Chair" which alone has been worth reading the whole book.
 
I'm always around inkspot, I just don't post much.
There is nothing wrong with the first 2 books of the Space Trilogy, and you really need to read the them if you are to read THS. But THS is such a different book than the first two. Written from a different perspective and different story line. While the first two books have to do with the fallen state of man, THS covers many topics. It covers marriage, corruption of society, convertion, demons and angels, and a interesting story line. Since THS is so different than the first 2 books, people will react to them differently. Don't mean to offend everyone.
 
You can't offend anyone here, Tim, most of us are about as thick-skinned as the orginal Inklings. I'm just saying that I love all three books and find them all to be Lewis essentials. But what isn't?

GSM, thanks for the tip on the "Beyond the Shadowlands" book - I will look for it.

I am with you in feeling like the second (or for me 3rd or 4th) time you read one of Lewis' books for adults it seems even better than the first time. I read "Til We Have Faces" again last year and was amazed by how clearly it spoke to me about my own spiritual walk ... something I don't much remember from years ago.

Actually years ago, I remember identifying with Orual in her spidery way of just holding back and sucking up everyone's strength, everyone's life, without entering into their lives.

This time I totall identified with Psyche, convinced her invisible lover was a God and her lonely forest home a mansion. That's how I feel most days when people can't see the riches I am surrounded in, in Christ.

It's a happy progression, I must say, from Orual to Psyche. I didn't understand Psyche when I read the book long ago; now I feel like I am living her adventure.
 
Inkspot, thanks for that last post. Some years ago I went through the New Testament looking specifically at the 37 or so miracles by Jesus Christ that are recorded in detail of the probably hundreds or thousands that he actually did during His mortal ministry. I became especially interested in the 5 or so miracles where He heals the blind. And especially the one in John chapter 9.

Your statement on being able to see riches surrounding you that others can't see... I really do believe what you're describing is like being healed from being blind. I think it's a process we each have to go through, what the blind man in John 9 experienced, and you hit it right on the head. Well said, and thanks for the reminder. Your posts are invariably full of gentle wisdom.
 
I have been reading a number of George Macdonald books. Not just The Princess and the Goblin, but Phantastes also. Don't you feel Till We have Faces has a George Macdonald feel to it.
 
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Timmy, yes, I think Til We Have Faces and (obviously!) The Great Divorce both have that kind of MacDonald feel to them ... although I will say I did not care that much for MacDonald's writing and think that CSL out-shines him a mile.

GSM, thank you for your thoughtful post. I will look into these miracles of restored sight ... and, if everyone will indulge me, I will post something from my journal on the same subject. It's a bit long, and no one has to read it unless you're just interested in this idea of "seeing clearly" what others cannot see at all ...

Today as I was chatting with jesus about the way he continues to reveal things to me the deeper I come into his love, it seemed he began to lead me to think about being able to see what others can’t see -- yesterday or the day before it was that analogy of the beautiful tree-lined walk in spring and the cool fresh breeze blowing ... once I thought it represented my life hidden with Christ and if I could only focus in on him throughout the day, I would get access to it again; but he showed me that where he is, that’s my spring meadow, so I don’t have to access it, I am always in it because I am always with him, now I see this clearly.

One of the sad things that happened at the fall of man, he seemed to be telling me, is that adam and even didn’t want to be seen anymore; they didn’t want him to see them in their fallen and unattractive state. In consequence of their not wanting him, or anyone else, to see them as they really are ... they also developed a problem in seeing things as they really are!

They could still see beauty and goodness, like a sun rise or the splendor of the night sky, but the connection to creator that once informed that goodness was lost, so they could no longer see the world around them in the fullness they had once seen it. And their children of course, never could see it the way god had intended for them to see ... and all desired to hide parts of themselves from him and from others -- as they desired not to be seen, nor could they rightly see. They could see in a mirror, dimly.

But when you come deep enough into the love of Christ, you allow him to see you as you are; you give up pretense. You want him to see you in your fallenness, and you desire to be healed, you let yourself be seen. By him first, but then by others -- your true nature as his beloved shines through, and you no longer need pretense between yourself and him, or yourself and others. You let yourself be seen --

And your ability to see is restored as well. You can see things as they are, like psyche in “til we have faces,” like me with my “hidden” life in Christ. Now I see the world as it is, as he intended, because I can also let myself be seen. Now I know just as I also am known. ☺
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inkspot said:
Timmy, yes, I think Til We Have Faces and (obviously!) The Great Divorce both have that kind of MacDonald feel to them ... although I will say I did not care that much for MacDonald's writing and think that CSL out-shines him a mile.

GSM, thank you for your thoughtful post. I will look into these miracles of restored sight ... and, if everyone will indulge me, I will post something from my journal on the same subject. It's a bit long, and no one has to read it unless you're just interested in this idea of "seeing clearly" what others cannot see at all ...
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In both Till We Have Faces and The Great Divorce, there is a MacDonald-like beauty in the way their worlds are created with such vividness (c.f. "Photogen and Nycteris" or "The Light Princess" by MacDonald). However it seems to me that because Till We Have Faces and The Great Divorce are both written from the 1st person perspective, they are much more reflective and psychological than MacDonald's fantasy. However, I need to reread Lilith and Phantastes to test this hypothesis.

By the way my son went away for a college visit and brought me a cool book back, A Year with Aslan: Daily Reflections from the Chronicles of Narnia. It's a wonderful set of 365 excerpts from CoN with an application question with each reading. Can't wait to start it!
 
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