Book #1, Perelandra, C.S. Lewis

The weekend before last I finished book number one.  One down 24 to go.  I tell the kids to average 3-4 books a month and they will be ahead of schedule.  Since school started on August 16th I'm just about on pace (I'm posting over a week after finishing, I'm half way through Book #2, more on that later).


You will have to bear with me for I fear reading Perelandra stirred up some stuff.  As I started writing, my thoughts began to flow as a letter to CS Lewis.  So I'll just give you a brief synopsis of the story and let you read my gushing love letter to my old friend and mentor. 


If you haven't read the book I'm not sure what to tell you to be honest.  I don't give any major plot turns away but I fear that discussing some of  the dialogue might lesson the effect for you.  So future Perelandra readers beware.


Perelandra in a Nutshell:  On Venus there are two human like creatures living in prefall, Adam and Eve paradise.  Satan is trying to tempt them into an Adam and Eve like fall.  Dr. Ransom, a human from Earth, is sent to Venus to thwart Satan and his evil plans. 


Before my letter a confession: I stole from you Half Priced Books! Well not literally, but listen, I had been scouring every HPB for a copy of Perelandra for 6 months. Four weeks ago I walk in, and there it was, glowing like a white swan in a hog barn. A 1986 copy with the first original artwork on the cover. Price: 2 bucks. I stole from you Half Priced Books! I found pure gold on your shelves, took it to the counter and pretended it was sand. 2 dollars! Betty Sue hipster at the counter, with the flowered tattoos on her hands, yeah, she never saw it coming. I'm sorry HPB's, but I stole from you!


Anyway, here is my man crush letter:

Clive Staples Lewis.

I have missed you. I didn't realize how much I missed you. I sat down to read Perelandra and in a lightning quick 200 pages I was reminded of everything your writing has meant to me.  How in college you tore me down, exposing my "questioning phase" as the two thirds, emotional immaturity it was.  How you then built me up with the philosophical foundation to handle the remaining third of honest questions.  I knew that someone much smarter than myself, my friends, my pastors had taken an honest look at Him and followed Him.  I rested in your work. I needed all that you gave me then.

Reading Perelandra now 10 years after our first meeting, I was struck by your deep gift of creativity being used in the Spirit.  While it's always hard for me to focus on scenery descriptions, I understand it, the book takes place on Venus.  That's understandable. 

But the dialogue.  My goodness Lewis, the dialogue. While Ransom was trying to protect the unfallen Queen through conversation and debate with Satan...I was up till midnight, knuckles white. Meanwhile my heart was delighting in deep spiritual truths.  It was like a seminary theology book on acid.  No...not acid, too much 60's drug culture.  A theology book rewritten by Hendrix? Nah, still at Woodstock.  Theological napalm?  Theology wrestling with Avatar characters?  Something along those lines...

I want people to read this to get a taste of what we lost.  What it looks like to experience the Lord in an unfallen world.  I want people to see how the "things unseen" are so much deeper than what we see in front of our face.  How our reality is simply the crust of something much more true and beautiful.

Can I share my favorite quote with you? 

"I have never done it before--stepping out of life into the Alongside and looking at oneself living as if one were not alive.  Do they all do that in your world Piebald?" 

As a chronic "Alongsider" it was beautiful to read of a creature fully engaged in the present, fully engaged in constant dialogue with the Father.  How wonderfully foreign it was for her to consider viewing herself as others might see her.  To focus on the future, dwell on the past, or spend time in front of a mirror.

I loved your depiction of Satan.  I loved the nuance of his using intellect like one of many weapons that could be picked up or discarded like a sword.  I got a good chuckle when he reverted to childlike tactics to annoy Ransom once the Queen slept.   And oh how cunning he was.  How he masterfully twisted truth. His promise, that if she did what he was suggesting, the Lord Himself would come to Venus just like he did on Earth ("Don't you want Him to come here?"). Satan was as brilliant as he should have been.


Did you know your books are right at my reading level?  I tell my kids to pick a "just right book" using the "five finger rule."  If you read one page of a book and it has 0-1 words you don't understand it's too easy.  2-3 words; just right. 4-5 words and it's too hard.  I'm a little embarrassed to say that there were at least 2-3 words per page that I didn't know.  I tell myself that they were just English words that I wasn't familiar with.  Truth is my vocab ain't so great.


Can I call you Jack?  I hear your friends called you Jack.  Jack, I hope some day to meet at your favorite Pub, I'll bring the best gin and pipe I can find and I'll beg to sit with the rest of the Inklings.  I can only imagine what you've dreamed up while eternity has been on your side. 


Can't wait to ask what you've been reading.


Thanks so much good brother,

-td

Intro

Blogging seems a bit like adding a drop of tap water to the middle of the Pacific and expecting people to stand around applauding.  I don't read any blogs unless you count Bill Simmons. But here I am somewhat hoping friends and family might do for me what I rarely do for them and read my blog. 

I love to read and talk about what I'm reading.  My favorite question to ask a friend is, "What are you reading?"  This summer I got the nagging sense that I wanted to start writing more.  Not necessarily that I had something earth shattering to say but simply that I enjoyed the process, the creativity, the challenge.  I love the way writing and summarizing forces me to wipe the cobwebs from my mind.  So, if anything, this is a bit of a selfish endeavor and I'm trying my best to convince myself it would be fun to do this even without a loyal following.  I'm almost there... I think.

I am a sixth grade reading teacher and that alone seems to suggest that my sanity might not be fully intact.  I'm a trained science teacher and when I found out a year ago that I'd be responsible for an hour and a half of reading everyday, I was less than thrilled.  Petrified might be a better word.  However, last year I had the chance to read aloud my favorite book as a kid, Where the Red Fern Grows to my urban, primarily African American sixth graders.  At the end of the year, I asked them:  "What was your favorite read-aloud (we read 6 out loud together)?"  Every student chose WTRFG.  Of course they did.  It's awesome, and 6th graders know awesome when they see awesome.  Boy, girl, black, white, Hispanic, all 26 kids loved it.  I started thinking, "You mean I can just pick stuff that I like, build it up a little bit and they will dive in with me?"  Within reason...yes.

6th graders have their upside.

My students have a year long assignment to read 25 books and I've commited to read 25 books as well.  They must be certain books of course.  This quarter we must read each of the following: biography, non-fiction, realistic fiction, award winner, poetry, and student (teacher) choice.  I've also commited to the spirit of the assignment as well.  They have to read books at their level (based on reading tests that they take).  Nothing too hard or too easy.  So I'm in as well.  No kid picture books will be found in my 25 books (although I do allow an occasional slightly lower "fun" book.  I've got my eye on the Hunger Games for the 3 book, "topical text" requirement for 4th quarter.)

 If I could pick a handful of my friends, favorite authors, a few guilty pleasure celebrities and athletes, have them write about what they were reading, I think I would read that.  And so here I am.  I'll be sharing thoughts, quotes, and ideas that strike my fancy from the books I'm reading.  I'll try to give spoiler alerts, but if I'm discussing a book you are going to read, it's probably best to simply ignore all posts on that book.  An accidental spoiler will slip out.

Anyway, that's the main thrust.  I'm sure it will evolve over time but this is my vision for the next 9 months.  And if you've come this far, maybe you're willing to come a little further. You remember the name of the town don't you?1  Please feel free to read, not read, post comments, ask questions, throw stones, whatever is standard operating procedure here in blog world.
Thanks for reading, mom, dad and lovely wife...

peace,

td





1. Is there a better way to honor Simmons than a Shawshank quote and an unnessary foot note? I think not.  By the way does anyone know how to do a real foot note on these blogs?  Is it possible??