Mark Neal: The Neglected C.S. Lewis: Studies In Words

Transcription

1 Mark Neal: The Neglected C.S. Lewis: Studies In Words Brief overview of talk series: 1. Purpose: to bring some oflewis s lesser known books to light 2. Contain many of his best ideas 3. Last talk: The Personal Heresy, An Experiment in Criticism 4. This talk: Studies in Words, Arthurian Torso Lewis publishes this work in Originally lectures for students at Cambridge I. Purpose of Book A. Facilitate more accurate reading of old books 1. Book looks at ten words and their histories and how they have changed meaning over time 2. This understanding throws light on ideas and sentiments of different times in which the word was used 3. For Lewis, the reading of old books was of paramount importance a. old books give us a standard by which to judge more modern works b. help correct characteristic mistakes and blindness of our own period; if we read new books only, we increase the blindness and weaken our guard against it Read quote: The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books. B. Responsibility to Language 1. Cannot separate philology(structural and historical understanding of language) from a study of literature, otherwise we resolve on a lifetime of persistent and carefully guarded delusion: understanding a word s meaning in the time it was written helps us to read that work accurately, without bringing our modern understandings of that word to bear a. If we bring our worldview, we get our poem or narrative, not the author s b. The wise reader: looks at semantic history of words 2. This is why we need guides: our own intelligence and sensibility are not enough a. Lewis himself did this: The Discarded Image, SMARL, Spencer s Images of Life, Studies in Words, Allegory of Love, Selected Literary Essays: help facilitate accurate reading of old books 3. Lewis wants us to have responsibility toward language a. Language = communication, therefore more nuance in words means better communication b. Being aware of what we are doing when we use language c. Responsibility includes not contributing to the decline and death of language: verbicide 1

2 4. Causes of verbicide: murder of a word a. Inflation: awfully for very, awesome to express approval for anything b. Verbiage: use of word as promise to pay that is not going to be kept: significant, without being told what a thing is significant of c. Selling quality: words used a party banner: substituting whig and tory for liberal and conservative d. Words become less descriptive and more evaluative: we are more eager to express approval and disapproval than to describe: in EIC, Lewis sees this as the problem with most literary criticism e. Lewis admonishes: resolve never to commit verbicide C. How can this be most relevant today? Outlined responsibility to language and how the wise reader will study semantic history of words 1. Who will engage texts this way? This is a lost skill. 2. In a culture that denigrates this kind of responsibility, where language is not cared for in this way, how can this book be at all relevant? How can we learn from it? We may give lip service to caring about language, but remain caught up in technological advances that render it more and more obsolete and seemingly irrelevant and even laughable given the current cultural climate? Keep these question in the back of your mind, and we ll return to it later. Segue: Looked at Lewis s reasons for writing the book and a basic responsibility to language, now he outlines a number of principles that lead to meaning change in words. II. Very brief look at seven principles of meaning change A. First: Ramification 1. Words take on new meanings; likened to a tree throwing out new branches 2. Use of a word in many senses 3. Most people don t know about the tree and don t care: Lewis mentions a number of times throughout that people don t care: he sensed even then a dwindling of responsibility toward language he was advocating B. Second: Insulating power of the context 1. Enable speaker to give many meanings to one word without danger of confusion 2. We don t get confused because we don t often encounter these words in the same context C. Third: Dangerous Sense 1. Every word has a dominant sense; lies uppermost in our mind 2. Danger of reading this sense into a word when an old author meant something different, thus we misread D. Fourth: Word s/speaker s meaning 1. There s a distinction between what a word means and what a speaker means by a word a. Lewis example: supper: biscuit and mug of cocoa vs. cold bird and bottle of wine 2

3 b. Problem is that the speaker s meaning, if it becomes common, can, over time, become the word s meaning. This is one of the effects of ramification, that first principle of meaning change I talked about E. Fifth: Tactical definitions 1. Attempts to appropriate for one side and deny to the other, a potent word 2. Reasons a. Dislike b. Need to take down an enemy c. Exclusion: practicing inner ring mentality 3. Tactical definitions don t give information about the actual meaning of a word: appropriation, different meaning forced on them F. Sixth: The methodological idiom 1. How one word can refer to different things; failure to recognize this idiom can produce muddled interpretations of words G. Seventh: Moralisation of status words 1. Word s that referred to a person s rank tend to become words that assign a certain character and behavior a. Gentleman is an example: social class vs. ethical sense-behavior Segue: We ve taken a look at seven principles of meaning change, but I want to isolate one of them and look at it more closely because I think it s one we can relate to more readily and that concerns us more closely. And Lewis himself expounded on it in several of his works. III. Principle of meaning change: tactical definitions: those that appropriate a word because of dislike, need to take down enemy, exclusion A. Mentioned earlier two causes of verbicide: inflation or deification and selling quality: both are part of tactical definitions B. One of words Lewis examines is life: in its biological sense: what is common to all organisms. Picture of evolution: a great myth, life (bio) begins as nothing with all odds against, then gradually becomes man. Though he didn t believe it, Lewis found the picture moving: it invites us to reify, personify and deify life (bio) to the point where this abstraction is valued in almost the same way as a physical manifestation of reality 1. Why? We do this because: we fear death, our own and loved ones 2. So a term like this can have dangerous ramifications down the line: it can be used to rationalize evil acts in the name of preserving life: Lewis writes about this very thing in That Hideous Strength C. How does a word come to be in a deified or inflated position? How do they become tactical? 1. American scholar Richard Weaver, Ethics of Rhetoric: societies embrace high ideals or concepts, in rhetoric, ultimate terms, or god terms. Justice or love might be ultimate ideals. In the past, progress, or American have functioned as god terms. Today, technology is one. 3

4 2. The problem with some god terms, they become tactical terms: inflated beyond what they deserve and we think of them as highest good: risk of groupthink a. Problem with groupthink: illusion of invulnerability, loss of independent thinking. Talk about digital technology. Allow devices into our lives, talk about them with others, very few dissenting voices, blind acceptance. We go with the flow. b. Technology, once it s accepted in this way can be used to rationalize all sorts of morally and ethically questionable activities and advances 3. Rhetoric, rightly used, attempts to move others towards the highest ideal, can be used for ill. Plato s sophists were expert rhetoricians: their language was artistically contrived but had very little meaning. 4. German Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper: language accomplishes two things, one of which is to convey reality. Sophists did not care about reality, but about linguistic artistry. Pieper: Anytime language disregards reality, communication ceases and the receivers are dehumanized. This leads us back to Weaver: 5. Charismatic terms: another type of ultimate term, but are irrational and can have authority forced on them. Example: WWII, war effort was used to rationalize a lot of things. infidel was such a word in the middle ages, master race for Nazi s and Hitler? Function: to manipulate people, create groupthink and propaganda. D. That Hideous Strength: 1. Talked about how words that have been appropriated as tactical or have become charismatic terms can have dangerous ramifications 2. This very concept of life (bio) is at the heart of this trilogy, but especially this book 3.. Out of the Silent Planet: why do Weston and Devine travel to Malacandra? To find a place that the human race can move on to once it has destroyed the earth: preservation of life 4. Another word, seemingly innocuous: Sanitation: seized as a party banner and given a tactical definition: it has become a charismatic term, as defined by Weaver: all of life can be defined in relation to it: sanitary executives (police force) 5. Filostrato: sanitation is the eradication of all organic life: humans evolve simply as mind E. Abolition of Man: which we don t have time to go into, is a companion work that precedes THS and examines the ideas embodied in that book. It looks at, in part, how ideologies impact language, which leads to indoctrination, propaganda and ultimately dehumanization. Segue: Everything I ve just described deals with the selling quality of a word, and words used this way lead to verbicide, the death of language and the loss of communication. If you remember, tactical definitions don t give any information about the meaning of a word, and so such language has essentially died and ceased to be language. 4

5 IV. The death of language A. One of most important and effective uses of language is emotional 1. We don t communicate only to reason or inform, but to love, quarrel, rebuke, console, etc. 2. Lewis says emotion is best aroused through addressing the imagination: poets B. Distinction between language that arouses vs. expresses emotion 1. Arouse: produces effect on hearer 2. Express: discharges our emotion C. However, categories exist which are purely emotional: vocab of endearment, complaint and abuse 1. There is no appeal to the imagination, so no function but to express or stimulate emotion a. Lewis: language at its least linguistic: frontier between language and inarticulate sounds b. Lewis example: damn: begins with the whole Christian eschatology behind it, ends as a word empty of content: began with imaginative content and connection c. A word like damn becomes weaker when it loses its content, its imaginative connection to this eschatology, so ceases to have power even as an imprecation d. Again, to be effective, language must not be solely emotional, but must connect to imagination. e. Once it becomes solely emotional, it ceases to be language and performs no function: in the case of the word damn, it serves no function but to tell us the speaker has lost his temper 2. Up to this point, Lewis doesn t see this devolution of language as a problem a. The problem, the real corruption comes when the purpose in speaking is purely emotional, but this fact is concealed from others by words that seem to be, but are not, charged with emotional content b. Examples: bolshevist, facist, Jew, capitalist, bourgeois, etc. Words used as terms of contempt. They have been given tactical definitions 3. So, as Lewis outlines how language dies, we see how words lose power as language to communicate meaning, but they can gain power for purposes of propaganda and control Segue: Why should we care? Why is this book important for us? Again, I d like to focus on this theme of understanding tactical definitions and how they relate to meaning change. I think this might answer the question I asked you to keep in the back of your mind at the beginning: How is this book most relevant? V. What about Studies in Words is particularly relevant for us? A. French philosopher and sociologist Jacques Ellul believed that language was at root of what it meant to be human 1. Writing in the 60 s, Ellul blamed the prevalence of the image for the humiliation of the word, the emptying from language of meaning and nuance 5

6 2. James. van der Laan, a professor at Illinois State University, calls this plastic language, words divested of moral overtones and made to apply to any situation: Weaver s charismatic terms: all of life can be defined in relation to them a. Eliminates complexity and makes language more efficient: Lewis: language should be nuanced b. Efficiency = loss of nuance, loss of meaning: we are more prone to fall victim to propaganda and schemes of control without even being aware of it 3. Ellul definition of propaganda: the synthesizing of contentment and distraction a. Our digital technologies perform this function admirably well: we are enmeshed deeply in levels of propaganda we can t even begin to understand: invisible and silent methodologies, menu-driven interfaces, advertising/marketing tactics: all designed to synthesize contentment and distraction b. Amazon: wants/needs, don t see as propaganda, but as ease/accessibility c. It all begins with language: with using the selling quality of words like technology to be the cure-all for every ill: technological solutionism: Evgeny Morozov calls the will to improve just about everything, the creation of solutions where there are no problems B. Example to cement what I m talking about (show slides) 1. Swastika: most of us have an instant and visceral response to this symbol: rallying point of Hitler s nazism (see p. 7) 2. Tell who Kipling is, then tell book story: Show image and tell story of finding swastika on cover (see p. 8-9) 3. Ancient eastern religious symbol that s been around for thousands of years. For Kipling, this was nothing more than a Hindu good luck symbol: born and lived in India for many years 4. I nearly condemned him as an author based on the worldview I brought to this symbol. I didn t understand the history of the meaning of this symbol 5. Book published in 1920, year Nazi s adopted this for their symbol. Kipling removed it from later editions. C. Point 1. Nazi meaning of symbol has erased every other meaning, dangerous sense We no longer understand it to be symbolic of anything except a systemic evil 2. This is what Lewis is telling us can happen with words and language: we can bring a modern understanding to a word (or in this case, a symbol) and misunderstand, sometimes with disastrous results 3. But also, we can see how words (and symbols) can be snatched and supplied with tactical definitions to support ends of certain groups and ideologies. We have to be able to see through how words are being co-opted for purposes of propaganda, manipulation and control 4. We have to take the time to look at the history of language so we don t misread or misunderstand and so condemn or ostracize and so we don t ourselves participate in the death of language. We re less likely to do this kind of painstaking work, but it won t stop me from saying we should do it if we are to read and understand well. Final quote: It is well we should become aware of what we are doing when we speak, of the ancient, fragile, and (well used) immensely potent instruments that words are. 6

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10 Wade Center Lecture on the Arthurian Torso Dr. Jerry Root December 5, 2017 Introduction 1. The Arthurian Torso is generally not even known among Lewis readers who have primarily encountered his works in Christian Apologetics, or his Narnian, or Science Fiction books. And yet, it is an important book, perhaps not so much in literary criticism per se, but in literary exposition. 2. The occasion of the book: Fellow Inkling, Charles Williams had written a series of poems revisiting the Arthurian legends, these he published in two books Taliessin through Logres and Region of the Summer Stars. To these two books Williams had written a third, unpublished piece, something like a prose introduction. a. Williams read what he was writing to Lewis and JRR Tolkien. b. When Williams died unexpectedly in May of 1945, Lewis felt an obligation to his friend, so he gave a series of lectures at Oxford University in the autumn of 1945 to honor Williams and also to make clear the scintillating thought of Williams for the general public. Just as Dante needed a Virgil to guide him through the Inferno so Williams work requires a Virgil if one is to grasp the otherwise obtuse concepts embedded in the work (and the work is worthy of the effort, Williams may be the most theologically interesting and original thinker of all the Inklings). Furthermore, Lewis was so deeply influenced by his friend that those who study Lewis would do well to see, in this work, the wide ranging number of those influences. c. These Oxford lectures were then published as The Arthurian Torso in A Vocabulary for Understanding Charles Williams 1. There are terms used frequently by Williams that once understood provide the key to understanding the corpus of his literary output. 2. Terms: a. Exchange: for Williams the concept of exchange is key to grasp his idea of redemption; in it the reader finds expressed the nature of the High Courtesy of Heaven : that is, I offer my life for you. b. The City: for Williams the City is the place of exchange. One works, and another pays for the work. Coinage of the city is the means of exchange and in it the high 1

11 courtesy is embodied. The worker gives of his labor, the employer rewards with his coin. The coin enables the worker then to use it in exchange for goods. The entire city gives evidence to the high courtesy and [in Britain] the stamp of the King (or sovereign) is pressed on the coin and written across the process. Participation in the exchange gives evidence that it is a redemptive process. c. The Co-inherence: speaks of those who participate in the high courtesy. The participation occurs at times knowingly, and sometimes unknowingly; nevertheless, the work of the Kingdom of the Emperor is being done. Everyone is either moving towards everlasting glory or an everlasting horror. On the shoulders of each of us is laid the Weight of Glory [explain and note that we are either helping people along to everlasting Glory or everlasting horror]. d. This also is Thou; neither is this Thou. These to phrases are used by Williams (and Lewis) to communicate two nonnegotiable sides to a robust Christian orthodoxy. P ) This also is Thou. a. The Kataphatic (the downward movement towards the presence of God in what He has made). b. The expression of Divine Immanence. c. The Affirmation of Images. The Romantic Way. d. The risk of the Kataphatic is Idolatry. In the legend of Arthur, Lancelot is then the chief figure of the Way of Affirmations P. 87. His fall is when he turns the thing that awakens desire into the object of desire. 2) Neither is this Thou. a. The Apophatic (the upward and away movement towards God). b. The expression of Divine Transcendence. c. The Negation of Images. The Ascetic Way d. The risk of the Apophatic: Pharisaism. 2

12 The Figure of Arthur 1. Lewis begins by including the prose piece, The Figure of Arthur, written by Williams and, as mentioned above, was read to Lewis and Tolkien and discussed with them. 2. In The Figure of Arthur, Williams recounts the development of the Arthurian Legend and how their various elements came into the story over the centuries. 3. Lewis has written in numerous places that one of the characteristics of medieval stories was the idea of embellishment. Old material was used and a new author would embellish old adding to the story some unique angle of vision. So grew the legend (or myth) of King Arthur and his court. This kind of embellishment is what Tolkien called the caldron of story (explain). 4. These are the sections of Williams The Figure of Arthur: a. The Beginnings: An historical recounting of how the legend grew. b. Chapter Two: The Grail Williams explains that Christianity becomes the unifying fact of the legend. P ) The first preoccupation was with the nature of God and the Redeemer. P ) The second focus was on the Blessed Sacrament. P. 13. a) The Sacrament was used as an argument against the Gnostics. P. 14. b) Williams interest in the Sacrament at this point was his observation that the Christian Faith became the unifying thread tying the elements of the story together and the Grail was a way for Williams to introduce his doctrine of exchange into the story. P. 14 & 23. c) In this chapter Williams also sketches out an interesting historical development of Eucharist doctrine. Pp c. Chapter Three: The Coming of the King. He Williams recounts Arthur s eventual identification as King and the development of his reign. 1) In the Court, the men are all celebrated for their valour, the women for their wit. Love encourages all to virtue, the women especially to chastity, the men especially to valour. But nobility in all things thrives in them all. P

13 a) Williams says that Arthur sought to embody God s law. P. 41. b) In Layamon s Brut the matter of the Round Table is added to the story (all are equal at the table and bound by law to the realm and to one another). P. 41. c) Love encouraged chivalry and chastity. But in a fallen world even these could not guarantee a perfect society. P ) There are those in Court who will offend against chastity and loyalty: Mordred, Guinevere, Lancelot, etc. P. 43. d. Chapter Four: The Coming of Love. Williams acknowledges the features of Courtly Love to include: 1) The Religion of Love, with the beloved as the object of one s devotion; 2) Courtesy, those acts great or small of self-offering for the beloved; 3) Humility; and 4) Adultery (explain why adultery was part of Courtly Love). 1) But the real power developing in the Myth was the coming of love idealized in marriage [This was the theme developed by C. S. Lewis in his masterful work on the Medieval Love Allegory]. 2) There were dalliances and these unfortunate events led to consequences, but, as Geoffrey of Monmouth said, love in the king s court... encouraged all lovers to virtue (P. 55) which meant the reservation of physical union to marriage. e. Fifth: The Coming of the Grail. The Grail would come to mean far more than an anti-gnostic statement; its presence in the story sought to embody Christian elements that elevated Courtly Love into something baptized and best expressed in marital fidelity. Also, in this chapter Williams writes of the development of the myth P. 66. In commenting on this Lewis asks, What then is the achievement of the Grail? He answers, It is Christ-consciousness instead of self-consciousness it is Christian, orthodox, and Trinitarian P. 79. Williams and the Arthuriad 1. Lewis begins his own exposition of Williams by defining his unique usage of terms and place names thus making Williams more accessible to the reader. 2. Definitions: a. Logres: 4

14 1) The term was used to indicate King Arthur s realm. The word is derived from the Welsh word Lloegr a land of fairy which was also Britain, or, more specifically, a land within Britain. P ) It was also used to speak of Britain in an enlarging world Britain and more than Britain (P. 80), or as Lewis clarifies Arthurian Britain P. 99. b. Broceliande: 1) The Wood of Broceliande: it is west of Logres, off the western coast of Cornwall as Lewis observes both a forest and a sea a seawood. P. 99 [This description bears a familiar resemblance, perhaps even an inspiration for the Floating Islands of Lewi s Perelandra. 2) Through Broceliande runs a road that leads either to: a) Carbonek the castle of Holy things, the dwelling place of Pelles the guardian of the Grail P. 99. And beyond Carbonek to Sarras the Land of the Trinity or Heaven. (1) Note the Kataphatic: the Castle of Holy things are, in their way Iconographic. (2) The Castle stands as an Affirmation of Images. b) Or, the road through Broceliande leads to the Antipodean Ocean, in Williams telling of the tale, it is the realm of P o-lu or Hell. P (1) Lewis clarifies that Consciousness in Po -Lu consists only of rudiments or relics, the turmoil of the mind of sensation. It is on the very fringe of Hell. [The Great Divorce: it is not humanity, it is only remains] (2) Elsewhere Lewis adds: (a) The Fall was an alteration in knowledge. P (b) Hell is inaccurate P. 106 [Lewis s own thought about the nature of Hell fall in line with what he observes here: 1) Hell is an asylum ( Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven -Milton quoted by 5

15 Lewis in A Preface to Paradise Lost), and, 2) Hell is a place for the eternally incorrigible (Lewis: In the end all who are in Hell choose it: we either say to God Thy will be done, or He says to us, Thy will be done. The gates of Hell are locked from the inside ). (c) Since the Fall, instead of Co-inherence there is Incoherence. P i) Lewis wrote in A Preface to Paradise Lost that Continued disobedience to conscience makes conscience blind [See the philosopher s use of Akrasia] ii) This is also a reminder why Milton names the capital of Hell Pandemonium. (3) Sin estranges us: from God, others, even from self, causing separations of head from heart, or soul from flesh, etc. Sin alienates us from Reality and therefore from any true sense of that Reality where the moral life is compromised. Without sensitivity to Reality we have nothing objective with which to confirm or deny our notions, thoughts, or judgments. We are left with mere subjectivism and self-referentialism in our thoughts about the world and a rationalized, utilitarian treatment of others. People matter, not objectively as those made in the Image of God to serve the purposes of God; but rather, people matter if they are useful to me. It is the denial of the humanity of others, and in that act of denial our own humanity atrophies [these are themes Lewis develops masterfully in the Ghosts of The Great Divorce (1945) and in the Weston, the Unman, in Perelandra (1944) both books were published at the time Lewis gave the Williams lectures at Oxford]. 3) As mentioned above, the road through Broceliande leads either to Heaven or Hell. a) All journeys away from the solid earth [that is reality] are equally, at the outset, journeys into the abyss. P b) The choice of King Arthur: (1) Dante s De Monarchia Function Precedes Essence [Explain]. (2) Lewis notes that a fatal flaw occurs when King Arthur speculates, is The King made for the Kingdom, or the Kingdom made for the King? P

16 (a) Camelot unravels: the King has gone against the grain of the Divine design of the universe. The Doctrine of Exchange has been ignored, the High Courtesy violated, Camelot begins to unravel. (b) We see something similar in Lewis s Queen Jadis of Charn, who will become the White Witch of Narnia. Her kingdom also unravels due to her own self-reference. When civil war breaks out in Charn, she speaks The Deplorable Word destroying her world and saving only herself. In that moment she becomes anti-aslan (who gives up his life in an expression of the High Courtesy to save others), one could add this is, in fact, an expression of anti-christ. [cf. The Magician s Nephew & The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe] c) Arthur, on the path that runs through Broceliande has taken a step towards Hell. He has stepped away from the Natural order of things. He has moved outside the Tao ( the doctrine of objective value ) and chaos results. (1) As Williams tells the story Lancelot also fails when he chooses illicit love for Guinevere over his loyalty to his friend, King Arthur; and he chooses against the responsibilities of his calling as a knight of the round table. (2) So it is with Guinevere when she chooses adultery with Lancelot over her vows to the king. (3) Many of the major characters those noble is some respects, is flawed. Both the dignity and depravity can be seen in them and consequently mirror these things for the reader. Consequently, Williams must turn to themes of redemption. c. Explaining further, Lewis defines Byzantium: 1) It is the City; and, as has been noted, it is the place where Exchange occurs and, therefore, the High Courtesy can be rediscovered. 2) To clarify Lewis makes reference to Williams work on The Theology of Romantic Love. He looks at the role of Beatrice in Dante s City of Florence and the role Virgil plays as Dante s writes of Romantic love. Let me provide some background for those less familiar with Virgil s Aeneid or Dante s The Vita Nuova and The Divine Comedy. 7

17 a) Explain the Aeneid [In Lewis s A Preface to Paradise Lost, a book Lewis dedicated to Williams in 1942, Lewis translates two lines from Virgi s Aeneid and then makes the following observation: Twixt miserable longing for the present land And the far realms that call them by fates command (Aeneid V. 656) It will be seen that in these two lines Virgil, with no intention of allegory, has described once for all the very quality of most human life as it is experienced by anyone who has not yet risen to holiness or sunk into animality in making this one legend symbolical of the destiny of Rome, he has willy-nilly, symbolized the destiny of Man. (Pp ). b) Explain the place of Beatrice in the Vita Nuova and The Divine Comedy 3) Lewis writes of Beatrice: in her (at that moment) [the moment Dante meets Beatrice] Paradise is actually revealed, and in the lover Nature is renovated. The great danger is lest he should mistake the vision, which is really a starting point, for a goal; lest he should mistake the vision of paradise for arrival there. Pp If Dante does this he falls into the error of King Arthur, and Lancelot, and Guinevere, and all who have compromised the ture treasure of God for those things that moth and rust destroy. 4) It is Taliessin, the poet, who guides the reader through Williams telling of the Arthurian Myth, much in the way Virgil, the poet, guides Dante through the Inferno and the Purgatorio. a) Lewis writes, Taliesin s voice sharpens; he is thinking of Virgil. More exactly he is thinking of Palinurus [the helmsman of Aeneas's ship] who died with no more reward for all his wandering than Italy seen from a wave. (Aeneid VI) P b) Lewis writes that even as Beatrice cannot replace God, no more than a gift can replace the giver of the gift, so too, even poetry, in the end, must plunge into the void. c) Poetry, Beatrice, Arthur s Logres, Lewis warns, must die giving way to something greater (cf. Tennyson s 8

18 Our little systems have their day, They have their day and cease to be, They are but broken lights of Thee, And Thou, O Lord, art more than they. In Memoriam) d) Lewis, acknowledging that nothing in this world can fully approximate that for which the heart most years; adding that ours is a universe that breathes a Universal sigh. P (1) Even Moses can never see the full Glory of God and the Promised Land he must see it from a distance. (2) Even Virgil was not to realize fully the effect of his own poetry, Lewis says He made honey not for himself; he helped to save others himself he could not save. P e) Dante s Beatrice & Lewis s Joy: She turned to look, but not at me, she turned to the eternal fountain. 3. At the Failure of Logres Lewis notes, We are happily reminded of the complexity of the real world. Inside the growing failure of Logres something else is springing up. P a. One of the laws of the city: Unless devotion is given to a thing which must prove false in the end, the thing that is true cannot enter. P b. Note: Lewis s 4 Phases of Enchantment (Unenchanted, Enchanted, Disenchanted, Re-enchanted). 4. Redemption comes in the figure of Galahad and the quest of the Grail. In this portion of Lewis s exposition, even Lewis must admit that the imagery becomes bogged down in complexity. Suffice it here to say: a. Hinting at the means of redemption two problems are presented by Williams: 1) The first is contextualized by the image of the Bedouin Shepherd with the stone and the shell [the Image is borrowed from Wordsworth s the Prelude]. The Stone represents Reason, the Shell, the romantic longings of the heart. These are divided by the Fall. Lewis observes: The first problem of life to fit the stone and the 9

19 shell P.168. How can you reconcile head and heart. How can estrangements be reassembled? 2) The second problem, in answer to the first, is set forth by a slave girl who asks, Taliessin: Who knows? And who does not care? P [Of course the answer is found in one: God knows and God cares. b. Suffice it here to say that Galahad emerges as a symbol of Christ. P.178. And, as Galahad is central to the process of redemption in Logres so too must every one participate in in the High Courtesy of redemption. In this way, Williams poems breath into the literature of the Arthur stories what is behind all stories, that is, God was in Christ [and we might add, continues to be in His Body, the Church], reconciling the world to Himself. Concluding Thoughts and Observations 1. A read of The Arthurian Torso reveals a labor of love Lewis extended to his dear friend, Charles Williams. It also reveals how much that friendship mattered to him that he would put such effort into this work. 2. Furthermore, it reveals source material for much that percolates into Lewis s other books. I ve mentioned: The Great Divorce, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength, The Magician s Nephew, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, as well as various essays ( The Weight of Glory, The Inner Ring, and Membership come immediately to mind) as well as much Lewis wrote in literary criticism of the period. 3. I think too, a reader can pick up very creative and profound expressions of soteriological themes written in an almost breath taking manner. 4. Regarding Lewis s critique of the poems as literature, Lewis is not overly sanguine: a. He thinks the likelihood of eventual extinction of the poems is due to their obscurity. Lewis does mush to bring out of the depths that which was hidden from the light. If the poems do survive, Lewis will have much to do with the resuscitation. b. His praises of the poems are these: 1) They contain Wisdom. P ) They have about them a kind of Deliciousness or Beauty P

20 3) And they have strength of Incantation. P If I say that in this respect it seems to me unequalled in modern imaginative literature, I am not merely recording the fact that I find many of William s doctrines appear to me to be true. I mean that he has restated to my imagination the very questions to which the doctrines are answers. Whatever truths of errors I come to hold hereafter, they will never be quite so abstract and jejune, so ignorant of relevant data, as they would have been before I read him. P And, while more can be said, no serious Charles Williams scholarship can afford to neglect this work where Lewis guides his readers into a most memorable discussion of Williams big ideas. And no serious Lewis scholarship can neglect the impression left on Lewis by Williams. Glossary: 1. Logres: Arthur s Britain. 2. Broceliande: the wood and sea west of Cornwall through which a trail leads either to Heaven or Hell. 3. Carbonek: The Castle of Holy Images a prequel to Heaven. 4. Sarras: Heaven. 5. The Antipodean Sea, the sea to P o-lu. 6. P o-lu is Hell. 7. Exchange: the High Courtesy: I give my life for you. 8. The City (the place of Exchange). 9. Byzantium: The City, the place of Exchange & of Redemption. 10. This also is Thou; neither is this Thou a. This also is Thou the Kataphatic The Affirmation of Images; the emphasis is on Immanence. When the Kataphatic goes bad it drifts towards idolatry. b. Neither is this Thou the Apophatic the Negation of Images; the emphasis is on Transcendence. When the Apophatic goes bad it drifts towards legalism. c. Note Jesus remarks in Luke 7:33-35, For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine; and you say, He has a demon! The Son of Man has come eating and drinking; and you say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners! Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children. 11. The Co-inherence those who practice exchange knowingly or unknowingly. 11