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
Oh, Travis. I love Jack as well. Did you know he often spent hours a day answering letters such as yours? We were born a few decades too late to correspond with him, but I do have a book called "Letters from Jack" that have immortalized some of his responses. He was, of course, kind and gracious. Anyway, Travis, you have inspired me to dust off my Lewis shelf and dig in again. :) Thank you.
ReplyDeleteKathryn Bond
Kathryn! Thanks for the response! I had heard that he was really good about writing his fans. I have a collection of his letters to kids who wrote him and they are really sweet. He was a great gift!! Hope you enjoy knocking the dust off the Lewis books! Where are you starting?!
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