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Dill's post on C.S. Lewis is an opportunity to swap Lewis stories. Where did you first meet, and how did you get further acquainted?
I'll start.
I first met C.S. Lewis on a bamboo couch, nestled up against my mom as she read the Narnia books for our bedtime story. I was probably not quite seven when she started through them the first time. The bamboo couch (and matching chair) moved to a different home, but us four kids (two girls and two boys, just like the Pevensie children) assembled around them each evening, arguing over who got to sit by Mom. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, with its faun and talking beavers and melting winter and Stone Table and "always winter, but never Christmas," was probably the most vivid to me. That's what we began with, labeled as "1" in our set. Then it was Caspian, Eustace, Jill and Rilian, Bree, and Digory. Once The Last Battle was finished, it seems that we picked up the Lucy story and started again. Each time we approached the description of Eustace waking up to discover he was a dragon, I would stand and get some distance between me and the story, expressing my distress. The scene was just too intense for a seven-year-old.
My dad was sometimes there for it, lying on the floor and listening absent-mindedly. But then he'd get drawn in, and when the chapter would end on a suspenseful note, he'd join us in begging my mom for one more chapter. Sometimes she'd relent with, "Oh, alright." My dad's appeal, an over-the-top whine of "C'mon, maaa!" made her roll her eyes. He said he'd learned that nasally plea from a childhood friend of his who did that to his mother. Still, it seems like we won more nights than not with him on our side.
When I was able to read these stories on my own, I remember my mom adjuring me to not read ahead. She was not kidding around. However, I was allowed to have the volumes we weren't currently into (I probably negotiated that), and I took advantage. I remember taking The Magician's Nephew to the cement walkway behind our house and lying on my stomach reading all afternoon. I'd pinch a nerve or something if I tried that now--just getting down into that position would warrant several Ibuprofen. Anyway, I read the whole thing, and I seem to remember thinking that it was both longer and shorter than I'd predicted.
I have more to tell, but first I'd like to know how you came to know Lewis? What is your favorite Lewis quote? Below are some of mine, which I can more fully appreciate as an adult:
[Go here for my screenshots of the quotes, since Ricochet froze up for the second time in two days in the midst of post-writing. I was able to save my late-night efforts this way.]
Discussion (17)
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I believe I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in the fourth grade. I loved it. But I didn't have the other books. I remember getting another from a family friend (parent's age) who joked about getting me cultured. Eventually over a couple of years I acquired all seven and read them.
In Jr. High and High School, I read the rest of Lewis' fiction and apologetics. I didn't appreciate or finish That Hideous Strength for many years. I appreciate it now.
Back in 1990, I was substitute teaching in a public school in Fresno. The class was reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. They had just read about the Stone Table and the glorious victory after that. It was also just past Easter. I wanted to be careful in what I said, but I asked if the story reminded anyone of anything from this time of year. One kid connected the dots and said, "Aslan is like Jesus!" You said it, not me.
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I, too, was introduced to the Narnia books by my mother reading them to me and my sisters at night. I have reread them as an adult many times. I did like the science fiction trilogy, although the first time I read them (in 8th grade) some of it went over my head.
One of my favorite quotes from Lewis was on the ordination of women. Lewis commented on a passage in Pride and Prejudice where Caroline Bingley notes that balls would be much more rational if conversation instead of dancing were made the order of the day. Her brother replied, "Much more rational, my dear Caroline, I dare say, but it would not be near so much like a ball."
Lewis noted the arguments for ordination and said that it might be rational or practical, “but not nearly so much like a church.” Lewis opposed the ordination of women because he believed that a priest must symbolically and theologically represent Christ as a male figure. He expanded on this in his essay “Priestesses in the Church?” which he wrote in 1948.
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And from a collection of his poems:
"Erected by her sorrowing brothers
In memory of Martha Clay.
Here lies one who lived for others;
Now she has peace. And so have they."
From “Here Endeth a Beautiful Woman”, the lines:
“And God did more than lipstick can / To justify your mouth to man."
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I learned about C.S. Lewis by listening to Great Courses' CDs on religion and literature . . .
Update: Then I started reading his works . . .
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Here is a picture of the afore mentioned bamboo couch and three little listeners. (This was before child # 4 was old enough to sit up.)
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