[LadyDoc]

this is an excerpt, so go to the link for the entire story...

[freedumb2003]

The Parlours of the time must have been fascinating.

They also had Great Thinkers of every stripe, even athiests (I can't remember which ones hung out there with CS and JRR). Such a heady time. Such ability to think, reason (see "Mere Christianity" for fabulous logic).

How sad, we nowadays can't even construct a proper sentence, much less do actual intellectual swordplay.

[SunkenCiv]

Somewhere over the past few days I saw something about this (possibly in a magazine) and thought it looked like a good idea. Here's a good idea while we're all waiting:

---

Shadowlands starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger

---

[FredZarguna]

What is interesting (and depressing) to me is that as the twenty-first century opens, both Tolkien and Lewis are increasingly inaccessible to enormous numbers of supposedly "civilized" people. The very capacity to think deeply, feel deeply, is being lost to our children. Despite the "progress" of modernity the world will be truly barren when our ability to appreciate these men is gone--and it is vanishing quickly.

BTW, If you're interested in the ontological and epistemological dimensions of a serious (series) treatment of one of Lewis's most interesting conjectures, check this out: C.S. Lewis's Dangerous Idea: In Defense of the Argument from Reason . It's worthwhile.

[Mamzelle]

One of my favorite non-LOTR books by Tolkien is his edited book of letters, letters selected by Christopher Tolkien, I believe. It's just fascinating to read them--though they left a lot out that concerned his wife, Edith, which would have been even more interesting . Tolkien seems to have been rather cranky, and did not much appreciate Lewis or Lewis's works. Lewis just adored Tolkien and every word he wrote. I think it may have had to do with the family pressures that JRRT was under, whereas Lewis didn't marry until late in life and after his marriage to Joy didn't seem to have much to do with JRRT anymore. JRRT in his letters is a Great Soul--but a grumpy soul, too.