Category Archives: C.S. Lewis Project

The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis

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The Silver Chair
First Edition Dustjacket
source Wikipedia

“It was a dully autumn day and Jill Pole was crying behind the gym.”

Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole seek shelter from bullies in their Experiment House school and, after stumbling through a door, find themselves in Aslan’s country, not realizing that Aslan has called them there for a very special purpose.

Ten years ago after the death of his mother, Prince Caspian’s son, Rillian, disappeared into the North without a trace.  With Puddlegum, the pessimistic Marshwiggle as their guide and companion, Eustace and Jill set out to discover his fate.  However, Jill missed some of the four signs that Aslan had given her and the adventurers wonder if their quest has not been made more difficult because of her oversights.  Will they be able to save the heir of Narnia from the evil Emerald Witch, and even more importantly, what will they have learned by the end of their adventure?

Lewis makes me laugh with some of the symbolism he inserts into these tales for children.  In one scene, the Witch attempts to enchant the children, striving to convince them that their world is only a dream and that her world is, in fact, the real thing.  Bravely, Puddleglum, in desperation, stamps on the fire, hoping the resulting pain will break the spell.  He declares even if they have imagined all the wonderful things of their world, he prefers them to the cold, dark, menacing world of the Witch, and he pledges to live as a Narnian even if Narnia does not exist.  Puddleglum’s curious statement echoes Blaise Pascal’s famous wager that argues that even if God does not exist, to live by His precepts will ensure a better earthly life; what one would gain would be infinitely more valuable than what one would lose.

 

Puddleglum the Marshwiggle

This book is my least favourite of the Chronicles so far, but Lewis still manages to tell an engaging tale that keeps the reader interested and invested in the characters.  Next up is The Horse and His Boy!

C.S. Lewis Project 2014

Other Narnia Books

 

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

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First Edition Dustjacket
source Wikipedia

“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb and he almost deserved it.”

Another year has passed.  Peter and Susan Pevensie are able to travel with their parents to America, while Edmund and Lucy are sent to live with their cousin, Eustace Scrubb.  Eustace is a spoiled pest, a child who has been raised by “very up-to-date and advanced” parents and who attends a “modern school.”  When the three children pass through a picture of a sailing ship and back into the land of Narnia, they are tossed into another wild adventure.

The Dawn Treader is the pride of the Narnian fleet and is carrying Prince Caspian on a journey to find the seven lost lords of Narnia, friends of his father who sailed east and went missing long ago.  As they explore both uncharted land and water, the children find themselves in situations of danger and moments of decision that will change their lives forever.

This book is the third book published of the Narnia chronicles and with each book, Lewis weaves more gems of wisdom into the story and does it with a genuineness that is particularly appealing.  Lucy once again has an encounter with Aslan: Lucy is instructed to look for a particular spell in a book of Magic but decides, against her conscience, to read a spell that will stroke her vanity and make her more beautiful than her sister.  Immediately she spies Aslan on the page, growling and showing his teeth, which stops her selfish action.  Instead she chooses to read a spell that allows her to eavesdrop on two girls from her school, and what she hears about herself is not pleasant, especially since she had viewed one of the girls as her friend.  Aslan gently admonishes her about listening to their conversation and says that her relationship with her friend will now never be the same.  When Lucy wishes to know what would have happened if she hadn’t eavesdropped, Aslan tells her, as he told her in Prince Caspian, “Child, did I not explain to you once before that no one is ever told what would have happened?”  Actions have consequences and we need to weigh the repercussions before we act, instead of being guided by impulse.

Wikimedia Commons

Eustace Scrubb is certainly a wonderful character and Lewis’ development of him is extraordinary.  Going from a petulant, spoiled, impertient child, he is transformed by a frightening experience, yet Lewis does not make him perfect in his transformation.  As we see by his reactions, he still holds some of the same prejudices, assumptions, and, at times, behaviour as he originally did.  Eustace’s encounter with Aslan fundementally changed his soul, yet he is like an Everyman, struggling with life’s circumstances while trying to live a life of integrity, and still making mistakes along the way.

Lewis makes a point in this book of examining the views of an exclusively scientific mentality and what results from this kind of worldview.  Eustace is initially presented as boy who goes to a model, or progressive school, and is only exposed to factual experience.  Because of his sterile formation, he is unable to enjoy or even recognize, the magic and joy in Narnia.  He has straightforward knowledge, but when situations do not fit into his technical understanding, he is handicapped by his lack of wonder and curiosity, and is unable to accept, understand or cope with them.  What is particularly telling, is that he doesn’t recognize what lies right in front of his face:  in spite of being on the Dawn Treader and being able to see that it is a ship, he tries to tell Caspian what a real ship is like; when they land on Droon, it is reasonably obvious (and he has been told) that they are in another world, yet Eustace insists they should find the British consul; and even after Eustace’s transformation, when they land in the country of the Dufflepuds, he makes an impulsive judgement about the area and its people based on his first sight of technology: “Machinery!  I do believe we’ve come to a civilized country at last!”  By living solely by “the facts”, Eustace can recognize what makes us physically human, yet misses the wonder, enjoyment, and recognition, of what makes us spiritually human.

Detail of Dawn Treader port stern porthole
photo courtesy of David Jackmanson
Creative Commons License

Living during the Second World War and being exposed to the Nazi’s views of racial superiority and social-Darwinism,  Lewis’ was unavoidably confronted with certain aspects of science and was forced to ponder their eventual outcomes:

 

“Again, the oligarchy must more and more base its claim to plan us on its claim of knowledge …….  This means they must increasingly rely on the advice of scientists …… Now I dread specialists in power because they are specialists speaking outside their special subjects.  Let scientists tell us about science.  But government involves questions about the good of man, and justice, and what things are worth having at what price; and on these a scientific training gives a man’s opinion no added value …… On just the same ground I dread government in the name of science.  That is how tyrannies come in.  In every age the men who want us under their thumb, if they have any sense, will put forward the particular pretension, which the hopes and fears of that age render most potent.  They ‘cash in’.  It has been magic, it has been Christianity.  Now it will certainly be science.”

Lewis was not concerned about science itself, but the importance placed on it and for what means it could be used.

Once again, Lewis weaves a wonderful adventure for children, but leaves questions and ideas that relate to an adult world.

C.S. Lewis Project 2014

Other Narnia Books

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

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First Edition Dustjacket
Source Wikipedia

One year later, Peter, Susan, Edmond and Lucy return to Narnia (via a train station —- I’m curiously reminded of Harry Potter) only to find their castle at Cair Paravel in ruin, the talking animals in hiding and a despotic foreign ruler, a Telmarine, has assumed control of the kingdom.  The sacrifice of Aslan and the children’s reign has been forgotten, reduced to a mere myth in the minds of the Narnians.

Assisted by Trumpkin, a drawf, the children learn that they have been recalled by the blowing of Susan’s horn by Prince Caspian, and that they must aid him in battle against his uncle, Miraz, the man who slew his father, the rightful king.  Aslan appears to Lucy and, while she ignores his first summons under pressure from her siblings, she soon learns from a gentle remonstrance from Aslan, that she must always try to do what is right and not follow the crowd.  She also realizes that she will never know what would have happened if she had obeyed the first time, that choices have consequences; lessons learned to increase her wisdom.  The children finally reach Caspian’s hideout and, with the help of the animals, dwarves, Aslan and Bacchus and his merry men, they manage to defeat the forces of the evil Miraz and place Prince Caspian on the throne of Narnia.

My, my, what is Bacchus doing in a children’s book with Christian undertones?!  Some critics were astonished and perplexed at Lewis’ insertion of the Greek god of wine and merrymaking into this novel.  His inclusion of pagan deities, into a hodge-podge of talking animals and quasi-medieval culture was perhaps mystifying, but Lewis grew up devouring Norse and Greek mythology and had no issues with the pagan gods.  His essay, Myth Became Fact, can give the reader further clues as to his love of myth and the symbols related to it. Probably with this essay in mind, one Lewis scholar, Louis Markos, argues that he sees the Bacchus scenes as Lewis’ way of bringing all pagan myths together, that “when viewed from the life, death and resurrection of Christ, the pagan myths are not only tamed but come true ……… Christ … is all the myths come true …..”  The myths can assist us in a deeper understanding of spiritual realities.

 

Bacchus by Caravaggio
source Wikipedia

While Prince Caspian was published after World War II, in 1951, the consciousness of the country was still unsettled, and many people, Lewis included, were concerned with the direction England would take after the war. With setting the reign of the Pevensie children so far into Narnia’s past, Lewis brings a curious parallel to his own post-war England.  In Narnia, the people have forgotten Kings Peter and Edmund, Queens Susan and Lucy, the lion, Aslan, and the medieval pomp and joyous times of their reign.  So, in post-war Europe, if the traditional medieval Christian past disappeared from peoples’ thoughts and actions, so too would its values and morality.  It was important that, like in the case of Lucy first seeing Aslan, the correct choices were made.

“War creates no absolutely new situation; it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it.  Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice.”  

All in all, another delightful story from Lewis, filled with adventure, suspense, and life themes that are not only pertinent in Narnia, but echo throughout all the ages and into our own.

C.S. Lewis Project 2014

 Other Narnia Books

 

The Pilgrim’s Regress by C.S. Lewis

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“I dreamed of a boy who was born in the land of Puritania and his name was John.”

In The Pilgrim’s Regress, John is a boy who lives in Puritania and is given a rather legalistic view of the Landlord of his country by the overseer or Steward.  When he sees a shimmering Island in a vision through a crack in a wall, he experiences such an intense longing that he leaves Puritania, setting out on a journey to discover its location.  With this incredible longing (Sehensucht) throbbing inside him, he tries to assuage it by a number of worldly means.  The basic gist of the story is that John starts out, running from something he doesn’t truly understand and running to something he doesn’t truly understand.  Through his numerous adventures, many with his friend Vertue, he discovers that he has run right back to where he had begun, Puritania, but thanks to the enlightenment he has received on his travels from Mr. Halfway & son, the Clevers, Mr. Mammon, the Giant, Reason, Mother Kirk, Three Pale Men, Mr. Savage, Mr. Broad, Wisdom, Contemplation, the Hermit, and Silkisteinsauga, he finds the answers to his questions and is able to pass over the brook and into the light.

One of the many strengths of this book lies in the fact that John didn’t simply learn from the “good” people he met along his journey.  Each of his encounters taught him something about life and his beliefs, which helped him to grow into the person he became at the end of the story.

This was one of the hardest reviews I have written so far.  You begin with what appears to be a simple allegory of C.S. Lewis’ own journey to faith, yet the reader is soon made aware that embedded in this simple story is a plethora of incredibly complex material and ideas.  Lewis incorporated numerous ideologies such as Romanticism, Neo-Romanticism, Communism, Freudianism, Facism, etc. along with imagery, metaphors, and a host of allusions and quotes that is mind-boggling.  The fact that he wrote this book while on vacation at his friend Arthur Greeves’ house in a mere two weeks, and was able to incorporate the wide-ranging scope of material that he did, is astounding!

In talking about his book years later, Lewis appeared almost embarrassed by it:  “On re-reading this book ten years after I wrote it, I find its chief faults to be those two which I myself least easily forgive in the books of other men: needless obscurity, and an uncharitable temper.”  He blames his youthful idealism on failing to give the reader the guidance to understand his personal journey.  I, for one, can forgive him this minor fault.  To mine The Pilgrim’s Regress of its treasures is a difficult task, but one that is well worth the effort.

30 DAY CHALLENGE – Day 13

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Day 13 – Favourite author

 

This was an easy one for me.  C.S. Lewis.  I’ve read most of his books, I’ve watched documentaries about him and his life, I’ve read snippets of his biographies and letters, and I’ve taken a university course based on some of his works.  So perhaps he is my favourite author because I know, by far, more about him than any other author.

Lewis was the grandson of a Anglican priest but he abandoned his Christian faith as a teenager.   He hated school and when he was sixteen, his father finally agreed to hire a private tutor.  This tutor, whom Lewis called, The Great Knock, was “a hard, satirical atheist who taught me how to think.”  He was a great influence on Lewis’ journey into atheism but, surprisingly Lewis credits his tutor for teaching him how to reason, which therefore allowed him to be argued into Christianity.  Lewis called himself “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England.”

I dislike Christian books that attempt to manipulate the reader into a belief in God.  I perhaps have even more of an aversion to secular books which attack Christianity without an understanding of it.  What I love about Lewis is both his rational, direct opinions, yet his warmth and generosity towards the people with whom he disagrees.  With him, I never feel like I’m having some idea or precept forced down my throat.  He merely presents his beliefs in a very logical, matter-of-fact, reasonable way, but they are presented as his beliefs and the reader is only asked to consider them, almost as if you are joining him in conversation.

One of my favourite quotes of Lewis:

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.  It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.  The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

I have a great amount of respect for C.S. Lewis.  A year doesn’t go by without a read of at least one of his books.