C.S. Lewis

So, it's been a while since I last got here and I was thinking we should sort of start suggesting stuff to each other in a more formal manner than a text and a smiley face, though that works well too. Anyway, the latest book lying on my floor table is C.S. Lewis' The Pilgrim's Regress. Wikipedia tells me that it reworks " John Bunyan's 17th century novel, Pilgrim's Progress, recast with the politics, philosophy and aesthetic principles of the early-20th century" (note to self: find and read). The narrator dreams up a protagonist - a very detailed dream, I must say, he must have been in a coma! - and he goes through various stages, searching/desiring an Island. He gets various views from Father History, Mr Enlightenment, Freud, Kant, and all sorts of opinionated people, desperately trying to stay on track, but is easily led astray, adopting a mish-mash of opinions here and there until he finally accepts the existence of an ultimate being.

A note here - remember that C.S. Lewis was indeed a born-again Christian, dabbling briefly in atheism before J.R.R. Tolkien and other influences returned him to the fold and he became a Christian apologist. This will probably put you off (to put it lightly), but honestly, it adds to his work, not detracts. He's not a radical burn-in-hell fire-breathing evanglican, and he considered his position quite thoroughly before converting. I still love the character of Aslan, even if he is just Jesus as a walking lion! He doesn't kill off any other religions, either; remember Bacchus dancing around in the woods? All the pagan spirits of the wood and rivers aren't exactly Biblical canon either, so he's not sticking rigidly to the 'X-word'.

Anyway, there's a particularly great image of Reason saving the protaganist, John, from the Spirit of the Age, where she's described as a "Titaness, a sun-bright virgin clad in complete steel, with a sword naked in her hand". Talk about a sexual metaphor; this one is so obvious it hurts! Lewis is an acclaimed literary theorist for a reason (the way he characterizes Freud and wish-fulfillment is absolutely hilarious), and although this is a very early work of his, it's still well-worth reading. I highly recommend reading The Preface to the third edition alongside the book itself, as it clarifies a few things here and there, and gives an interesting insight into his intentions behind the novel at the time.

(I hope this works, I only wrote this on the spur of the moment to relieve myself from writing about the problematization of women in Victorian fiction. Which is really interesting, don't get me wrong, but it's just a bit overwhelming and theoretical if you try to do three books and an article at once. I need to grow more eyes, methinks.)