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edenfallingDecember 12: C. S. Lewis (for selenak) [Tumblr crosspost]
I don't know all that much about C. S. Lewis as a person, nor am I especially interested in finding out more. I am interested in him mainly as a writer of fiction -- most specifically the Chronicles of Narnia, though I have also read a few of his other works: namely two and a half books of the Space Trilogy (before I threw That Hideous Strength across the room in a combination of frustration and disgust), Till We Have Faces (which I don't remember much about and may have been too young to properly grasp, but think I kind of liked?), and The Screwtape Letters (which I argued with out loud and at great length while reading, and am glad nobody was around to observe me acting crazy).
The problem with Lewis is that he was a Christian apologist, and has gotten a reputation in some circles -- one of which forms a significant portion of Narnia fandom, alas -- as a brilliant theologian.
He really wasn't.
I mean, the bit of theology I think he may be best known for -- the lunatic, liar, or Lord theory -- can be knocked apart by the simple observation that the Gospels were written over forty years after Jesus's death by people who didn't actually know him and were frantically reacting to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. They are not reliable historical documents. They are mythological propaganda.
(Whether any person believes in that mythology is of no more import to me than whether any person believes in any other religious mythology. As far as I'm concerned, all gods have precisely the same level of reality, and are largely irrelevant to my life.)
Anyway, Lewis infuriates me because I actually agree with him on a lot of points. The importance of mindfulness. That goodness is a great and terrible force. (So is mercy.) The importance of love and honor and truth. That humanity's great flaws are unthinking habit and rationalization.
And then he'll come out with stuff I just choke on, or make a statement that I consider a half-truth but which he uses as a whole truth to prop up a position I find abhorrent. It's immensely frustrating.
This is why I despise The Last Battle, for reference. Lewis spends six books expounding a theology of life and joy, and then tries to sell readers on the idea that the senseless destruction of all that beauty is somehow a good and necessary thing. No. No it wasn't. Yes, all things die in the end, but Narnia's death wasn't slipping gently into the night at the end of a long life, when death came as a welcome friend. Narnia's death was a cold-blooded assassination. I also despise the way Lewis tries to frame the problem of the good non-Christian, by saying that anyone who acts rightly was really worshipping Aslan (aka Jesus, aka the Christian god) all along. All other religions are therefore either devil-worship or shams. That egoistic, imperialistic denial of all other paths of faith and spiritual experience infuriates me beyond words.
...
The thing is, the parts of his writing I like, I like deeply and whole-heartedly. Lewis is far from perfect. He couldn't manage consistent world-building if his life depended on it. He has a bee in his bonnet about archaic proper grammar. He's terrible at writing adult women, whether as secondary characters or as protagonists.
But he's amazing at writing girls and letting them be the heroes of their own adventures. His lack of interest in consistency helps lend a certain 'aliveness' to his imagination -- whatever works in the moment, he's willing to throw in. And he has a knack for describing the numinous, which is damnably difficult to do -- the last few chapters of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, for example, or nearly the entirety of Perelandra, are some of the best examples of how to convey the experience of grace that I've ever read. And even the terrible stuff is useful in its own way, by teaching me that it's possible to love and hate a person and their works at the same time, without either reaction overwriting or invalidating the other.
In summary, Lewis was a very formative writer for me, and I suspect I will continue wrestling with his influence on my imagination and ethics for many years to come.
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December Talking Meme: All Days
selenak) [Tumblr crosspost]I don't know all that much about C. S. Lewis as a person, nor am I especially interested in finding out more. I am interested in him mainly as a writer of fiction -- most specifically the Chronicles of Narnia, though I have also read a few of his other works: namely two and a half books of the Space Trilogy (before I threw That Hideous Strength across the room in a combination of frustration and disgust), Till We Have Faces (which I don't remember much about and may have been too young to properly grasp, but think I kind of liked?), and The Screwtape Letters (which I argued with out loud and at great length while reading, and am glad nobody was around to observe me acting crazy).
The problem with Lewis is that he was a Christian apologist, and has gotten a reputation in some circles -- one of which forms a significant portion of Narnia fandom, alas -- as a brilliant theologian.
He really wasn't.
I mean, the bit of theology I think he may be best known for -- the lunatic, liar, or Lord theory -- can be knocked apart by the simple observation that the Gospels were written over forty years after Jesus's death by people who didn't actually know him and were frantically reacting to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. They are not reliable historical documents. They are mythological propaganda.
(Whether any person believes in that mythology is of no more import to me than whether any person believes in any other religious mythology. As far as I'm concerned, all gods have precisely the same level of reality, and are largely irrelevant to my life.)
Anyway, Lewis infuriates me because I actually agree with him on a lot of points. The importance of mindfulness. That goodness is a great and terrible force. (So is mercy.) The importance of love and honor and truth. That humanity's great flaws are unthinking habit and rationalization.
And then he'll come out with stuff I just choke on, or make a statement that I consider a half-truth but which he uses as a whole truth to prop up a position I find abhorrent. It's immensely frustrating.
This is why I despise The Last Battle, for reference. Lewis spends six books expounding a theology of life and joy, and then tries to sell readers on the idea that the senseless destruction of all that beauty is somehow a good and necessary thing. No. No it wasn't. Yes, all things die in the end, but Narnia's death wasn't slipping gently into the night at the end of a long life, when death came as a welcome friend. Narnia's death was a cold-blooded assassination. I also despise the way Lewis tries to frame the problem of the good non-Christian, by saying that anyone who acts rightly was really worshipping Aslan (aka Jesus, aka the Christian god) all along. All other religions are therefore either devil-worship or shams. That egoistic, imperialistic denial of all other paths of faith and spiritual experience infuriates me beyond words.
...
The thing is, the parts of his writing I like, I like deeply and whole-heartedly. Lewis is far from perfect. He couldn't manage consistent world-building if his life depended on it. He has a bee in his bonnet about archaic proper grammar. He's terrible at writing adult women, whether as secondary characters or as protagonists.
But he's amazing at writing girls and letting them be the heroes of their own adventures. His lack of interest in consistency helps lend a certain 'aliveness' to his imagination -- whatever works in the moment, he's willing to throw in. And he has a knack for describing the numinous, which is damnably difficult to do -- the last few chapters of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, for example, or nearly the entirety of Perelandra, are some of the best examples of how to convey the experience of grace that I've ever read. And even the terrible stuff is useful in its own way, by teaching me that it's possible to love and hate a person and their works at the same time, without either reaction overwriting or invalidating the other.
In summary, Lewis was a very formative writer for me, and I suspect I will continue wrestling with his influence on my imagination and ethics for many years to come.
-----
December Talking Meme: All Days
(no subject)
Date: 2014-12-17 06:26 am (UTC)