What's So Interesting About C.S. Lewis? (Part 1)
Mosaic Lounge Summons: August 12, 2006 :: Narnian Scribe: R.E. de Leon
here is no doubting the popularity of CS Lewis, best known as the author of the Chronicles of Narnia, the Screwtape Letters, and Mere Christianity.
In fact, for three years now, a community of CS Lewis enthusiasts in the Philippines, The Philippine Order of Narnians (TPON), has been growing steadily, both in terms of members, and in terms of maturity as an organization. In cooperation with other organizations, it has either put up or participated in various conventions, lectures, symposia, costume contests, art contests, and the like. The premise behind TPON is simple: people are strongly influenced by his works. The idea is to provide Lewis readers with a venue to come together and discuss those works and to invite others to discover those works, too.
But that leaves a question: why do the organization' s members like Lewis so much? What's so interesting about CS Lewis?
The organization meets twice a month in get-togethers called "summons." At one of the recent summons, some of the members had a long chat about that very question. The following is a summary of the discussion: a sort of review of Lewis' works, from the points of view of six TPON members.
Once organized, the things the group came up with can be broken down into four general reasons for liking Lewis:
- his approach to writing,
- his unique use of "myth" and "reason"
- the themes he wrote about, and
- the clear, consistent worldview that underlies his works.
Lewis' Approach to Writing
The most obvious reason why so many people Lewis is that he was simply a great writer. The TPON members all agreed that Lewis' work makes for very pleasurable reading. Lewis was a thoughtful, methodical writer, which is why his manuscripts flow so effortlessly.
It's easy to lose oneself in the plot of Lewis' stories. He makes you feel as if you were "there," be it Narnia, Mars, or ancient Greece. In his non-fiction work, Lewis skillfully leads the reader from one point to another, clarifying each point until the reader sees the big picture.
Lewis was also gifted with the ability to reach out to a wide audience, and yet speak to the reader as a person.
An aspect of Lewis' writing that the TPON members particularly appreciated was its subtlety. His prose is very British-ly underwritten, avoiding the melodrama that would have arisen by trying to capture feelings or emotions better left implied.
The members also appreciated Lewis' skillful creation of worlds, in different ways. One said that the Lewis stories "could be interpreted in many ways" and the other said that the stories were "consistent.” In Lewis, those two characteristics are not contradictory.
Lewis' fiction is realistic. Aslan, not a tame lion, is more than capable of being terrible. He may be "good" as Mr. Beaver calls him, but he is undoubtedly a carnivore, capable of gobbling anybody up whenever he wants to. And while he's supposed to be Narnia's protector, he seems to spend an awful lot of time away from his realm. Lewis never glosses over the reality of life, even if the worlds he creates are imaginary.
Nevertheless, Lewis' worlds are consistent. Aslan can be approached because He is good. And he often seems distant because he wants give the Narnians a chance to more fully discover "their story." Lewis' characters are always filled with doubts and questions. But like all good mythologists, Lewis lifts the veil of the present to reveal "the big picture."
And so there are many different ways to approach Lewis' works. And more than a few of his readers note that you might interpret a certain Lewis passage in one way at a point, and then come back to it later in life to find something deeper--something you had not seen before.
"Reason" and "Myth"
Lewis Approach to Writing, though, is hardly unique. Other writers, notably MacDonald and Tolkien, approach their work similarly, with remarkable success.
Perhaps a more unique reason for liking Lewis the writer has to do with the tools (the language) Lewis used to portray his `big picture.'
In CS Lewis, the fans find a unique blend of two such languages; the language of reason and the language of myth. Lewis himself is once quoted to have said "Reason is the natural organ of truth and imagination is the organ of meaning."
Lewis' background as a practiced logician comes to the fore in his essays, and this was indeed one of Lewis unique strengths. But Lewis' stories also benefited from this rigorous logic. Martians and humans compare notes, ravens and fauns give war counsel, and owls and professors give advice for to adventurers, all using Lewis' deep yet common-sensical rhetoric.
What makes Lewis even more unique is that he blends this logic to a strong sense of imagination. What could have been monologues in his stories instead become page-turning plot points. Perhaps the most endearing aspect of his nonfiction work is how he peppers it with illustrations so that the concepts are easy to imagine.
Social observer Dick Staub expounds on this, saying that Lewis believed you "could not fully grasp the meaning of a word or idea unless it was associated with an accurate and captivating image."
For Filipino writers in particular, perhaps there's a lesson to be learned here. The dominant approach to today's literature is "social realism," often focusing on the poverty and helplessness that assaults the Filipino everyday. Is it possible that Filipinos are poor and helpless because they cannot imagine a life otherwise?
While social realists are quick to pooh-pooh "wishful thinking" and "escapism," perhaps a good question to ask is: is it time to stop asking "what is happening around us?" After all, we already know, and all too well.
Is it perhaps time to ask, instead, "What are the good things that can happen?" and "How do we make these things happen?"