Read Cs Lewis "on Stories" Plain Text
My own journey in studying C.S. Lewis has led me to the consideration of the fictional universes he created—these are the "real worlds" that sit down behind his stories, like the worlds of Narnia in his fantasy novels or the Field of Arbol in his science fiction. Unfortunately, what is truthful in Narnia isn't 
always true in the globe that most of us reading this alive: the growl of the lion in a Narnian forest is a moment of great hope; in an American woods, information technology is a reason to rapidly evolve the necessary appendages for flight. Fantasy writers carefully construct these fictional universes, and a sophisticated world like Heart Earth or Discworld or Arbol or Cthulhu, with its ain maps and languages and sentient races and revenue enhancement offices, is worth studying.
Because C.S. Lewis was a literary critic too as a fantasy author, he idea critically and academically near writing, so information technology is only natural to turn to his own thoughts about creating these fictive worlds. On Other Worlds: Essays and Stories contains Lewis' short fantasy stories and a number of essays that reflect upon the chore of writing in general and fantasy-writing in particular. The result is a highly readable and remarkably early primer on developing and enjoying fictional universes.
On Other Worlds is the earliest collection of Lewis' literary criticism exterior of his total-length books. Ane of my absolute favourites is his "On Three Ways of Writing for Children"—many children's 
authors have gone back to this essay once again and again to remind u.s. of our essential tasks. Another piece, "On Stories," describes the process of creating an "atmosphere" in a book, a literary environs that creates a mood or feeling—what he calls Story. Besides being the theoretical roadmap for amalgam speculative worlds, it is a defense force of reading for Pleasure (and thus writing in gild to give Pleasure), and the beginning of an apology for the value of fantasy (what he calls Fairy-tales or Scientification).
Lewis carries on this defence force in "Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What's to be Said." He argues that there are two roles of the author in writing: the author as Author or Storyteller, and the author as Man, i.e. the experience of the author in his or her own globe. In Lewis' view, an author volition accept the thought of a story to tell—for Lewis information technology was a mental epitome, as he describes in "Information technology All Began With a Picture"—just this story will be in chat with some purpose to tell it, some reason for telling the story, and some way to tell information technology. In Lewis' own process for Narnia he dreamed the picture of a Faun with an 
umbrella in a snowy wood conveying some packages. Then the pictures begin to form the story, and then the story needs a genre, a Form. Lewis was never married to one genre, but tried science fiction, epistolary fiction, romance, time-travel narratives, short stories, epic and brusk-class poetry, dream sequences, emblematic travelogues, and classic novels. Ultimately he chose fairy stories for children (what we might phone call children's fantasy) and his alternative universe was born. Pieces like these give united states the rare and pleasurable peak into C.S. Lewis' writing processes, which are augmented by his essays 'On Scientific discipline Fiction" and "On Juvenile Tastes."
These are not universally piece of cake essays, however. "On Criticism" is both a weighty piece and a strong challenge to reviewers and literary critics, challenging them to rethink the style they conceptualize the procedure of writing when all they have is the finished text. His unpublished and unfinished "Reply to Professor Haldane" is a layered critical response to an author who influenced Lewis' own piece of work, merely who had completely misunderstood what he was doing in the Space Trilogy. Finally, because some of the fantasy and scientific discipline fiction reflection occurs before the establishment of the genre, Lewis' classification is tentative and transitional, and some of his ideas. None of the pieces require a high technical level, merely the best of them crave full-bodied idea.
The persistent reader is rewarded in a number of means. Besides early on reflections on fantasy and the slices of Lewis' writing life, nosotros get some of his classical didactic humour, such as his response to those who idea that Narnia was written with the primary purpose of theology or evangelism and expertly marketed to children (the weaker minds, the reviewer might think). Lewis' response is unmistakable:
"This is all pure moonshine. I couldn't write in that way at all" (36).
We also go, in the transcribed audiotape conversation called "Unreal Estates"—in dissimilarity to existent estate, the "world" of earth in mean solar day to day life—nosotros have an engaging conversation well-nigh science fiction betwixt Lewis and two other writers: Brian Aldiss, a leading xxth century SciFi author, and Sir Kingsley Amis, a historic writer who dabbled in the genre. The issue is a generous chat between colleagues that demonstrates their concern for an evolving Grade and shows us how very well read they really were—they mention dozens of authors in as many pages, and each knew them all well. Their off-the-cuff reading list is a challenge to us slower readers, and some of their expectations were quite. Of Walter Miller'south Canticle for Leibowitz, however, Lewis said,
"I thought it was pretty skilful. I only read information technology in one case; heed you, a book'south no skillful to me until I've read information technology 2 or 3 times…"
Laced with Lewis' Screwtapian humour, this interview and the accompanying essays betray key moments of his literary theories.
While I had gone to On Other Worlds to wait at Lewis' literary criticism, the short stories were a treat. "Ministering Angels" is a coy story 
about a number of astronauts on a iii yr flow of exclusion in a space station. The government'due south social policy was that these men should be provided sexual partners to reduce stress on the ship and increase productivity. While one might look a line upwardly of beautiful women who would like to be whored out to infinite engineers for the sake of the common skillful and a free trip to outer space, simply two women step forward: an androgynous bureaucrat for whom sex is some other organizational process, and a retired bulgy Cockney prostitute with bad teeth. The result is a brilliantly cutting satire of a particular idea that was actually current in his mean solar day.
In the same scientific discipline fiction genre at that place is a thrilling moon-landing suspense ("Forms of Things Unknown") and a stream of consciousness piece ("The Shoddy Lands") that, while not a terribly good piece, does illuminate some of Lewis' own ideas. The book concludes with the unfinished manuscript of "Afterward Ten Years," a retelling of the Helen of Troy fable that is suggestive of an of import myth retelling similar Till We Have Faces, but is sadly incomplete.
Though the typeset is archaic, I love the soft comprehend Harvest Book series of which this volume is a part. Originally edited and published in 1966 by Walter Hooper, just three years afterward Lewis' death, this important volume has been 
eclipsed by two others: all of the essays are reprinted (with others) in On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature, and all of the stories are reprinted in The Nighttime Belfry and Other Stories. For the aficionado of fantasy, science fiction, and faerie writing, however, Of Other Worlds is a great bookshelf addition.
My simply complaint is that J.R.R. Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories" is non included. It is possible that the rights to this classic Tolkien lecture were unavailable or too plush, just it is "On Fairy Stories" that forms the theoretical foundation of all of Lewis' thoughts nearly speculative fiction. Indeed, he references Tolkien at least 6 times.
Overall, my goal of reading Of Other Worlds was met in that I observed some ways that Lewis thought well-nigh constructing fictional universes. As a whole, though, the book exceeded my expectations, and gave me a unique peek into C.S. Lewis' writings.
schollthendous1937.blogspot.com
Source: https://apilgriminnarnia.com/2012/07/10/c-s-lewis-on-other-worlds-essays-and-stories-a-review/
0 Response to "Read Cs Lewis "on Stories" Plain Text"
Post a Comment