January 8th We Will Be Discussing A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Elizabeth will be our discussion leader for Madeleine L'Engle's science fantasy novel A Wrinkle In Time.  The is a book that falls into our discussion category of books influenced by C.S. Lewis.

Your mission is to read L'Engle's book not only for the sheer pleasure of reading the book itself, but also to see how she has perhaps been influenced by C.S. Lewis.

Her awareness of C.S. Lewis is clear from this answer she gave in an interview.  SEE HERE

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Has your fiction for children ever been compared with that of C. S. Lewis?
Yes, it has. I think that the main difference is that C. S. Lewis has more answers and I have more questions. I wasn't the right age to read him when he was being published. But my children grew up with him. I spent time this past summer at Oxford and Cambridge for a C. S. Lewis conference.

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Come to the meeting and share your experience of the book and the relationship you find in assessing any influence of Lewis on L'Engle.  

Merry Christmas from the C.S. Lewis Society of Harrisonburg

Image from the C.S.Lewis Foundation SEE HERE

The 2015 Schedule For The C.S. Lewis Society of Harrisonburg

The C.S. Lewis Society of Harrisonburg 
2015 Meeting Schedule

Three Kinds of Meetings:
1) Book Discussion: Discussion Leader prepares questions, everyone reads book and comes to the meeting and discusses the book using the questions as a guide.
2) Theme/Topic Meeting: A theme/topic is used as a focus and each member develops their own "take" on the theme/topic and comes prepared to talk for 5 to 10 minutes on the theme/topic and then participate in the resulting discussion.
3) Free Style:  Everyone comes to the meeting with something to talk about and we let things go the way they go while enjoying one another's company.

Meeting Dates For 2015 (Second Thursday of Each Month)
January 8: Elizabeth will be our discussion leader on A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle.

February 12: Theme:  C.S. Lewis on Sin (any Lewis source: come and share 5-10 minutes)

March 12: Ray will be or discussion leader on Richard Platt's As One Devil To Another a fiendish correspondence in the tradition of C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters.

April 9: Peggy will be our discussion leader for When I Was a Child I Read Books: Essays by Marilynne Robinson.

May 14: Theme: Your favorite essay from God In The Dock (pick one and give us 5-10 minutes on why it is your favorite)

June 11: Theme:  What drew you to C.S. Lewis? (share for 5-10 minutes)

July 9: Theme:  What is your favorite book from the Chronicles of Narnia (share for 5-10 minutes)

August 13: Theme: C.S. Lewis on Free Will (any Lewis source: share 5-10 minutes)

September 10: Stephen will be our discussion leader for Surprised by Joy

October 8: Theme: C.S. Lewis on Education (any Lewis source: share 5-10 minutes)

November 12: Theme: the essay On the Reading of Old Books the introduction C.S. Lewis wrote to Sr. Penelope's translation of Athanasius: On the Incarnation available on the internet in its entirety at http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/history/ath-inc.htm  The introduction is five pages long.  Come and share on either the introduction or Sr. Penelope's translation (5-10 min. or so)

December TBD: Christmas Planning Party: Stephen has volunteered to host again.  How wonderful is that?  I don't see how he can outdo himself, but I'm up to see him try.

C.S. Lewis' Influence "Alive To Wonder" by John Piper

SEE HERE

The December Meeting

Our December meeting will be on Monday, December 15th at Stephen's house.  The festivities will begin at 6:30 p.m.  Bring your own beverages adult or otherwise and your ideas for the what we should do at the C.S. Lewis Society's meetings for 2015.  If you didn't get the email or lost it or want to make suggestions or ask questions, then please email me at rschneid@bridgewater.edu

Questions For Our November 13th Meeting At Cristabel's

Our book is Till We Have Faces which is a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche by C.S. Lewis.  The meeting is at Cristabel's and if you received the email from me then you know where that is and how to get there.  If not you can email me at rschneid@bridgewater.edu  Elizabeth is our discussion leader and the questions are below.

Till We Have Faces is a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche.  Some say it is an exploration of the Four Loves which Lewis wrote about elsewhere.  It was published in 1956.

1.      As in Till We Have Faces the Book of Job uses a trial format to call God to account for the events in Job’s life.  How are the motives of Orual and Job the same or different.  Each of them have changed their attitudes by the end of the book.  How are their final attitudes the same or different?

2.      Polytheistic religions appear to take the mysteries of nature and split them into manageable units (gods of the harvest etc).  What happens when you have monotheism, everything wrapped up into one god?  Does that change the meaning and power of the mystery?

3.      The Fox sees Ungit as being the same as Aphrodite, goddess of love.  Is this an appropriate comparison?  Compare Aphrodite, as she is in the myth of Cupid and Psyche, with Orual.

4.      Can you find the characters of “Till We Have Faces” in “The Great Divorce”?

5.      When Orual saw the vision of the palace she had a chance to change. What  parts of herself would she have had to “give up” in order to believe and make the palace real?  How might the story have been different if she had accepted her vision?

6.      In Chapter 14 we see the confrontation between Orual and Psyche. What are the different expressions of “love” that we see in this chapter and why does Psyche finally agree to carry out Orual’s demand?

7.      Orual tells us about her years as queen and how she shut out Orual and became Queen.  Is this quite true?  She could have made other choices as queen, she ends up being beloved by her people.  Is this perhaps  a part of her true self peeking out?  Do we ever completely mask our true selves?

8.      What events or thoughts start changing Orual’s view of her story?

9.      In “The Four Loves” Lewis names Affection (storge), Friendship(philia), Eros, and Charity(agape).  How were these distorted and manipulated by the characters in Till We Have Faces?

10.  How did Psyche express these same loves? In King Lear, Cordelia says to her father . ‘I love your majesty / According to my bond; no more nor less”  How does this express what Psyche says in Chapter 14.

11.  Why is it that holiness dwells in the dark places?

12.  Why do you think it is her father who first appears in her visions?

13.  What did Fox mean in the vision when he said that Orual bore all the anguish of Psyche’s trials?

14.  In the vision Fox says “This is the last of the tasks that Ungit has set her.  She must ..." Then there is a real Ungit?   “All, even Psyche, are born into the house of Ungit.”(page 301 in my book).  What name would you use for Ungit?

15.  In Psyche’s journey to get the beauty in the casket, how would you paraphrase the loves she overcomes?

November 13th We Discuss 'Till We Have Faces

Elizabeth will be our discussion leader as we explore C.S. Lewis's retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche.  Lewis thought this was his finest work of fiction. 

November 13th C.S. Lewis Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold Elizabeth our Discussion Leader. December 11th or some other date TBD Our Party to plan the New Year Stephen Has Volunteered to Host.

On Another Matter: Barnes and Noble May Move or Close
Barnes & Noble (Harrisonburg store) may have to close on Dec. 31, 2014.
They are not able to make a lease agreement with the rental agency listed below.

The Kroenke Group is requiring a long term lease and B&N is requesting a
short term one.

Feel free to write or call and share your support for keeping an amazing
bookstore in our community.

The Kroenke Group  attention:  Ken Stiles
(573) 449-8323
211 N. Stadium Blvd.  Suite 201
Colombia, MO   65203
 

On October 11th EMU's Theater Department Presents "The Great Divorce"

C. S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce presented by Anthony Lawton
University Commons’ Mainstage Theater, 8 p.m. Oct. 11
Sponsored by EMU’s theater department and Alumni Relations. Cost: $5.00, students free. For information, call EMU Theater at 540-432-4360. Registration necessary. (Thanks to Jane Fetterman for bringing this event to my attention!)

October 9th Our Book Is G.K. Chesterton's The Everlasting Man

One of the most significant books in C.S. Lewis's return to Christianity was G.K. Chesterton's The Everlasting Man.  He describes his experience of Chesterton in Surprised by Joy.  Leading our October meeting will be Iain.

The Everlasting Man is a book that addresses the secularism of Chesterton's time as well represented by H.G. Well's The Outline of History and Auguste Comte's Religion of Humanity which influenced the development of scientism, and secular humanism in the early twentieth century.

Those particular influences were exactly those C.S. Lewis needed to be cured of and The Everlasting Man  provided just the tonic he needed.  Notice the C.S. Lewis quote at the top of the illustration at the left.  Chesterton has been termed the Apostle of Common Sense and he performed exactly that role for Lewis.

Our schedule for the rest of the year is:

October 9th G.K. Chesterton The Everlasting Man Iain will be our discussion leader for this wonderful book so important in C.S. Lewis's conversion.
November 13th C.S. Lewis Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold Elizabeth our Discussion Leader. December 11th or some other date TBD Our Party to plan the New Year Stephen Has Volunteered to Host.

September 11th Our Book Will Be Persuasion by Jane Austen

Jane Austen's Persuasion is our book for September. Our discussion leader will be Stephen. C.S. Lewis identified the time of the Waverly novels by Sir Walter Scott and the Jane Austen novels of manners as the point of a great divide between what we now think of as the modern world and a world that was very different, one which was not swarming with spin and deception perhaps. You can get a sense of Lewis's perceptions by reading his wonderful inaugural address at Cambridge, "de descriptione temporum." HERE

Join us for an evening of discussion as Stephen leads us into Jane Austen's world.

SCHEDULE: (for the remainder of the year)

September 11th Jane Austen Persuasion Stephen will be our Discussion Leader
October 9th G.K. Chesterton The Everlasting Man Iain will be our discussion leader for this wonderful book so important in C.S. Lewis's conversion.
November 13th C.S. Lewis Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold Elizabeth our Discussion Leader. December 11th or some other date TBD Our Party to plan the New Year Stephen Has Volunteered to Host.

August 14th Is "On Stories and Other Essays On Literature" with Hannah Leading

Our discussion questions are listed below:

C. S. Lewis- On Stories and Other Essays On Literature

1  On Stories - On page five C. S. Lewis gives an example of a book to film adaptation that he said ruined the story for him. What are some book to film adaptations that you dislike, perhaps ruined the film for you? Are there some portrayals that you liked better than those parts in the book?

2 The Novels of Charles Williams- On page 22 C. S. Lewis says of Williams, “He is writing that sort of book in which we begin by saying ‘Let us suppose that this everyday world were, at some point invaded by the marvelous. Let us , in fact suppose a violation of frontier.’ I’ve never read Williams, what other books do you think fit this criteria, do some of Lewis’ works fit this description.

3 On Three ways of Writing for Children- on page 41 C. S. Lewis writes this of asking the question ,what moral should I give this story? It is better not to ask the question at all. Let the pictures tell you there own moral. For the moral inherent in them will rise from whatever spiritual roots you have succeeded in striking during the whole course of your life. Do you think this is why there is such beauty and flow in Lewis’ works and Tolkien’s and some others because it is not forced but comes welling up from the heart?

4 Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What’s to Be Said - On page 47 C. S. Lewis writes this of what he calls stealing past watchful dragons. I saw how stories of this kind could steal past a certain inhibition…  Have you ever dealt with frozen feelings. How did stories help you steal past watchful dragons? Life, as in bad things happening can freeze feelings and the stories and characters in the stories help us to see and feel,  have you experienced this?

5 It All Began With A Picture… If you are writing do you get pictures? Is it the weaving together that is hard?

6 On Science Fiction - I feel like the best Science fiction is a fairy tale, a story that embodies the marvelous and the supernatural C. S. Lewis’ space trilogy does this very well. I like The Time Machine but it does not. Star Wars does embodies the marvelous the supernatural also. Does Science Fiction without this element of goodness, the supernatural, or like in Lewis’ Space Trilogy God, seem cold and fatalistic to you?

7 The Hobbit - On page 82 C. S. Lewis writes  For it must be understood that this is a children’s book only in the sense that the first of many readings can be undertaken in the nursery.  How many times have you read The Hobbit? Does the most meaningful parts change for you over time?

8 The Lord of the Rings- on page 87 C. S. Lewis writes of persons who say The Lord of the Rings is to black and white. What do you think of Lewis’ rebuttal of this? This relates to the first question, What did you think of the film adaptations? The Hobbit films?

9 What was your favorite essay or part of an essay and why?

SCHEDULE:

August 14th C.S. Lewis  On Stories and Other Essays On Literature with Hannah as our Discussion Leader
September 11th Jane Austen Persuasion Stephen will be our Discussion Leader
October 9th G.K. Chesterton The Everlasting Man Iain will be our discussion leader for this wonderful book so important in C.S. Lewis's conversion. 

November 13th C.S. Lewis Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold Elizabeth our Discussion Leader. December 11th or some other date TBD Our Party to plan the New Year Stephen Has Volunteered to Host.

Interesting C.S. Lewis Site

LEWIS LINK

August Is "On Stories and Other Essays On Literature"

On Stories and Other Essays on Literature is a short book composed of a Preface and twenty essays.  In my 1982 copy it is 153 pages long and filled with fascination for those interested in how C.S. Lewis approached writing and engaged the literary world of his time.  The book is available for about $10 on both Nook and Kindle and in paperback for a bit more.

Hannah will be our discussion leader on August 14th as we enter the literary world of C.S. Lewis.

 

SCHEDULE:

August 14th C.S. Lewis  On Stories and Other Essays On Literature with Hannah as our Discussion Leader
September 11th Jane Austen Persuasion Stephen will be our Discussion Leader
October 9th G.K. Chesterton The Everlasting Man Iain will be our discussion leader for this wonderful book so important in C.S. Lewis's conversion. November 13th C.S. Lewis Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold Elizabeth our Discussion Leader. December 11th or some other date TBD Our Party to plan the New Year Stephen Has Volunteered to Host.