Toadfish Monastery

Quote from: AggieIt's at least more entertaining than Perelandra, which I found quite dull and preachy.

My sentiments exactly. I think Out of the Silent Planet is also worth reading, if only for the brilliant scene where Ransom translates Weston's words to Oyarsa, showing them up for what Lewis wants you to see them as.

I do think the wave of sex at the end of THS is a bit odd and out of place, even if the excuse is the arrival of Venus.

From a pure reading point of view I think the first of the trilogy is the best, the second is a reenactment of Adam and Eve expanded from a chapter to a whole book and the third (longer than the first two combined) suffers from said axiom that the actions of the evil guys are required not to make sense. Also painting female emancipation as borderline evil. Tolkien was a bit more subtle in that regard.

I would concur; the first book was the most delightful, certainly.  Clive seems to have dropped the subtlety used in Narnia when writing for adults.  His own personal conversion is certainly visible in the themes presented in the three books, which change significantly.

Evil not making sense seems rather consistent with the series, so it's only an anomaly by external comparison.

I think it changes from reckless but rational in the first to irrational for irrationality's sake in the third. In the second Evil just shows lack of creativity.

   In OOTSP, Weston and Devine have clear motives.  Weston's is in a way noble, and I still sympathise with it even though Lewis makes it seem empty in the translation scene.

IMO in THS the baddies are no longer rational or irrational, they are the puppets of evil forces which they thought they could control. 

Btw, Tolkien didn't like THS either ('too Byzantine'). But he also considered the Narnia books to be a bit of hackwork.
That's of course open to discussion. Lewis himself stated that he deliberately left as much to the imagination as possible because that would be the best way for children to get to the message. By having to 'think in' all the details their minds would be open to let the essence sink in.
For that reason alone I am sure that he would have hated what Disney does to the series while he might have accepted the BBC version that runs more along the introduction to Henry V ('Let your imaginary forces work...!'; '...that when we speak of horses, that you see them...'; etc.).

Finished THS, and it rather goes to crap at the end, and much anti-feminist Ultra-Masculine God ranting to close it out. 

One passage captures C.S.'s perspectives on other religious traditions nicely, as supported by his other works on Christianity:

"I'm afraid there's no niche in the world for people that won't be either Pagan of Christian. Just imagine a man who was too dainty to eat with his fingers and yet wouldn't use forks!"

to which I reply:

Ah, but you see, chopsticks require effort, fine motor skills and subtlety, not the Manichean "either with me or against me" simplicity of the fork.

Exactly.  Nearly anyone who picks up a fork can get themselves fed, even if they do not understand much more than one handle, three prongs.  

Chopsticks require practice and technique, and promote a more contemplative method of eating, IMHO.  I am a huje fan of food analogies, and C.S. reveals more than he intended with this one*.


_{*he's generally dismissive of Eastern religion / philosophy in many of his works, and tries weakly to cast it in an evil light in THS.}

Quote from: Aggie. . .

One passage captures C.S.'s perspectives on other religious traditions nicely, as supported by his other works on Christianity:

"I'm afraid there's no niche in the world for people that won't be either Pagan of Christian. Just imagine a man who was too dainty to eat with his fingers and yet wouldn't use forks!"

. . .

But-but-but, what about Churchianity's beloved Heaven, Hell & Spoons lesson?
Why does CS Lewis hate spoons?!?


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ps: I chose that link because it alone credits this popular Christian sermonette as being an adaption from "a Japanese and Chinese folk tale".   

Beware you all can go to heck...

Spoon!

During the Middle Ages Christian Europeans did not use forks for eating because the fork (esp. the one with 3 points) is what the devil uses. A two-pronged one could be used to move the meat to your plate but fork to mouth was borderline heretic.
I wonder whether most forks these days have 4 prongs because of that old belief.

I suspect the fourth tine was the inspiration of someone truly depraved...

Otto Waalkes
Die Gabel des Teufels
Ich habe dies Lied umgedichtet in eine...sehr...nette...Erzählung,die eigendlich jeder verstehen dürfte, unzwar

Die Gabel des Teufels

Die Gabel des Teufels hat 3 Zacken,
damit will er dich schon packen.
Mit dem einen Zinken bohrt er dir in den Linken,
und mit dem anderen Zacken in den rechten Backen.
Und mit der Mitte von der Stange fackelt er auch nicht lange.

Den bohrt er dir teuflisch tief in den Afta(After),
das glaubst du nicht?
Das schaffta(schafft er)