Now that Atlas Shrugged is finished, I'm back to The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, volume 1. I'm about halfway through the letters covering 1905-1931. Most of the letters are to his Father or best friend Aurthur, with a few to his brother Warnie, and several classmates at Oxford. I've also check Jack, by Sayers, out from the church library to read concurrently. Yesterday I went to the Inklings Bookshop to buy Volume 3, but it isn't released until late November. I pre-ordered my copy, so Happy Birthday to me.
At this stage in Lewis' letters, he is an athiest, but beginning to reconnect to the mystical, or spiritual. He has recently read Chesterton and several years prior read McDonald, both of whom are huge influences to the writings of all the Inklings. Chesterton's Abolition of Man will later be credited by Lewis as his reason for conversion. He has also been introduced by letter to Owen Barfield, a fellow scholar at Oxford, and later a founding Member of the Inklings.
Lewis was an avid reader of the classics; reading many of them in their original Greek and Latin. He also could read fluently French, and less fluently German and Italian (at least at this point in his letters). As he peppers his letters with mention of his latest reads, it's amazing to me how clearly you can see themes develop which will later become the basis for some of his most famous books. For example, he discusses a poem that he is writing about the Greek Gods fighting "the gods of the air" which keep them out of contact with the Greater Good in space. (447) That will be a major theme of his Space Trilogy. Also some quotes from reading I've done and though, "wow, that sounds like Lewis/Tolkien/etc, have been quoted by Lewis. In Job is a line that reads, "Or who laid its cornerstone while all the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?" (Job 38:6-7) Lewis quoted it as an example of poetry accomplishing more than prose.
Steve thinks I should chuck it all and become a Lewis Scholar.
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