Posted on 03/27/2021 5:30:31 AM PDT by Kaslin
bkmk
Highly recommend The Screwtape Letters Narrated by John Cleese. Or just read it. It’s as relevant today as ever.
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That Hideous Strength
I had no idea! Adding to reading list. Astonish how some saw this all, and tried, oh they tried...Ayn Raynd, George Orwell...
One of my favorite books...I have the audiobook version narrated by John Cleese...:)
yes that too.
I took a second reading to get past the business about the talking head.
That book was my introduction to Lewis. It really opened my eyes to concepts foreign to me at the time but a part of my being today.
I think this one deals with what is happening this last year:
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”
~ C.S. Lewis
My wife and I listened to that audiobook while traveling several years ago & have attended a 1-man stage adaptation, also. There are always new moments of discovery with each telling. This article is the first time I have read of the “Toast” so I look forward to reading it.
I had read Chronicles of Narnia as a child, and Mere Christianity in my late 20’s, but I only discovered this gem about 10 years ago. I had a long drive ahead of me, and I downloaded the recordings for the trip. I had run across it by accident while looking for something else. They’re are now available on YouTube. I was amazed at how timeless it is. Cleese does a fine job of delivery, too.
I was doing my yard work. At one point my wife came out of the house and said, “What are you doing? You’ve been standing the same spot for 5 minutes.”
“I’m listening to Screwtape Letters.”
“Got it.”
It is something that I could not just read (listen to) I had to study each sentence. Truly a favorite.
Mere Christianity was my second. It’s my personal favorite book outside the Bible.
The Great Divorce is also a must read. It’s kinda like science fiction and he actually said he got one of the ideas out of a story in a science fiction magazine (a time traveler that could go back in time but not alter anything to the point that raindrops would fall through his body like bullets.
Bookmark
I will put The Great Divorce on the list. I might reread Mere Christianity first; it’s probably been 25 years. Lewis was a great writer and thinker.
And if you want to be able to solidly answer atheists that say, “why would your loving god allow so many innocent people in the world to suffer”, you need to read “The problem of pain.” :)
reward the losers & punish the best = ruin
reward the parasites & punish the producers = ruin
Excellen5 read, plus the PDF of “Screwtape Proposes a Toast”! Sooooo tempting to fwd to the SJW I work with, who told me only people being canceled are those who deserve it.
Thank you very much!
I feel this way about books written by the greats like C.S. Lewis (and Fulton Sheen and Frank Sheed, for that matter. You can insert your own favorite writer here). The heartbreaking beauty and the wisdom of these books are timeless, but it seems like you would have to pull a gun on someone to make them read them. And even if you got people to read them, it is increasingly doubtful they would accept, understand, or even care what they are saying. This goes especially for our poorly educated and morally malformed youth, but today's adults are increasingly intellectually lazy and morally compromised as well.
I do continue to recommend these books and others to those who can possibly benefit from them (to not do so when given the chance would be like refusing to medicine to a sick man even though he denies he's sick). But it is a shame these works are not made more accessible to the masses who in this time of universal deceit, need them more than ever.
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