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Of mice and men and Magdalen: C. S. Lewis’s Oxford

thecritic.co.uk

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Re: Of mice and men and Magdalen: C. S. Lewis’s Oxford

#21

Post by mytailorisrich »

zabzonk wrote: post #16
082349872349872 wrote: post #2

> The sheer level of spartan discomfort, for instance, that university denizens were expected to endure Sometimes* I wonder how much of the spartan discomfort in 1984 was authorial discretion characterising outer party life, and how much was just the background normal spartan discomfort of mid-XX britain. * like when I read that Orwell had been burning furniture to stay warm

A friend of mine in the mid 70s was reduced to burning furniture in his Edinburgh flat. Mind you, given the temperature in Edinburgh back then, and the quality of the furniture, you could hardly blame him.I always found the wardrobes intensely depressing.

My hall of residence at a North of England Uni used to turn off heating at night in the late 90s, bearing in ming the rooms' nice, old sash windows. Getting up for early lectures in winter was fun...

I don't think they do this anymore. Certainly there were apparently many complaints from students when an Oxford college proposed to do that recently to help tackle the 'climate crisis'...

Re: Of mice and men and Magdalen: C. S. Lewis’s Oxford

#23

Post by nathan_compton »

svieira wrote: post #19
zabzonk wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems wrong - Tolkien was deeply Catholic.

Why would that stop Lewis from being impressed by him?

If anything, Lewis always seemed to me to be a guy who was, at base, an atheist, and spent a ton of time trying to convince himself not to be one by doing a lot of (frankly, pretty flaccid) apologetics. As I understand it, he was friends with Chesterton and Tolkien and I wouldn't be surprised if he envied their more robust faith.

I myself am continually perplexed by CS Lewis's popularity with Americans. From where I am sitting his fiction is just a bunch of very clumsily put together allegories and his apologetics are also not particularly great. It seems to me that Lewis is an example of the very American rule that to get really popular you have to present something that is just smart enough to make your reader feel smart, but dumb enough that they can understand it.

Re: Of mice and men and Magdalen: C. S. Lewis’s Oxford

#24

Post by shrubble »

nathan_compton wrote: post #23
svieira wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would that stop Lewis from being impressed by him?

If anything, Lewis always seemed to me to be a guy who was, at base, an atheist, and spent a ton of time trying to convince himself not to be one by doing a lot of (frankly, pretty flaccid) apologetics. As I understand it, he was friends with Chesterton and Tolkien and I wouldn't be surprised if he envied their more robust faith. I myself am continually perplexed by CS Lewis's popularity with Americans. From where I…

If CSL was popular outside of the USA, such as in Britain and other countries, would that disprove your sneering dismissals?

Re: Of mice and men and Magdalen: C. S. Lewis’s Oxford

#25

Post by defrost »

shrubble wrote: post #24
nathan_compton wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anything, Lewis always seemed to me to be a guy who was, at base, an atheist, and spent a ton of time trying to convince himself not to be one by doing a lot of (frankly, pretty flaccid) apologetics. As I understand it, he was friends with Chesterton and Tolkien and I wouldn't be surprised if he envied their more robust faith. I myself am continually perplexed by CS Lewis's popularity with Americans. From where I…

If CSL was popular outside of the USA, such as in Britain and other countries, would that disprove your sneering dismissals?

He is generally popular with Christians about the globe as a Christian apologist.

He's also considered a relatively softball children's Christian apologist making largely allegorical appeals for divinity rather than (say, for example) hardcore analytical Thomism.

Re: Of mice and men and Magdalen: C. S. Lewis’s Oxford

#26

Post by nathan_compton »

shrubble wrote: post #24
nathan_compton wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anything, Lewis always seemed to me to be a guy who was, at base, an atheist, and spent a ton of time trying to convince himself not to be one by doing a lot of (frankly, pretty flaccid) apologetics. As I understand it, he was friends with Chesterton and Tolkien and I wouldn't be surprised if he envied their more robust faith. I myself am continually perplexed by CS Lewis's popularity with Americans. From where I…

If CSL was popular outside of the USA, such as in Britain and other countries, would that disprove your sneering dismissals?

In this specific way America and Britain are culturally in almost perfect resonance, so no, it would not improve my opinion of him.

Literally the only positive thing I've ever thought about CS Lewis is that he might have been homosexual or at least capable of entertaining complex thoughts about homosexuality.

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