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21st century reader meets early 20th century lit.

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21st century reader meets early 20th century lit.

Postby paminala » April 5th, 2010, 7:20 pm

Reading many of the posts here I became quite curious about the Space Trilogy books. To be honest I had not been aware of them before seeing them here. I finally got my hands on a copy of the series last week and I must say I'm enjoying it tremendously. So far I'm through the first 2 books and about to start the third.

I'm noticing something that I often notice when I read books written in periods markedly prior to our "technological" age. There are times that something the author must certainly have meant to convey one thing (and would have to his contemporary audience) leaves for a moment a very different picture in my mind before I say to myself, "oh no, of course not!"

This hit me quite strongly when I got to chapter 19 (I think) of Silent Planet. Weston is refusing to answer questions put to him by the Oyarsa. The Oyarsa orders him taken away to have his head dunked in cold water several times (14 as it turns out) in the hope that he will come back more cooperative than before.
Certainly Lewis' 1938 sensibilities could have meant many things by that little exchange.
Unfortunately my very American 21st century imagination, upon reading it flew in only one direction--waterboarding!
"oh no, of course not!"

Am I the only person who has ever had a moment like that?

How much of a barrier is it, do you all think, for the average reader's understanding of an author's intent that it was written in a time so different than their own?
All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
~ Galileo Galilei
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Re: 21st century reader meets early 20th century lit.

Postby Adam Linton » April 6th, 2010, 2:25 am

we have not loosely through silence permitted things to pass away as in a dream
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Re: 21st century reader meets early 20th century lit.

Postby paminala » April 6th, 2010, 2:37 pm

The 3 books are certainly different from one another. The first had a very "adventure story" feel, even an element of fun. The second seemed a bit more like an intellectual exercise dressed up as a story.

I'm only just about a quarter of the way into the 3rd but it seems darker. Both of the others were drawn in such bright colors and here there is so much in the shadows. The characters before were purer, now they exist in shades of grey. I can't decide whether Mr. Studdock(sp) will be a victim or a hero or perhaps even a villian. His wife is another entire issue! We need a whole thread devoted to what Lewis must have thought of women!

There is again that curious criss cross of time, though. I see so much of what is happening in my "now" in what he wrote in his "then."
All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
~ Galileo Galilei
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Re: 21st century reader meets early 20th century lit.

Postby galion » April 6th, 2010, 7:34 pm

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Re: 21st century reader meets early 20th century lit.

Postby Nerd42 » April 10th, 2010, 2:01 am

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Re: 21st century reader meets early 20th century lit.

Postby paminala » April 10th, 2010, 3:05 pm

Perhaps it just goes to show that I've read a bit more "fluff" in my miss-spent youth than some of you but I have to say Merlin didn't come as a suprise to me at all. In fact I was expecting him from the moment that well in the wood showed up.

The thing I took from Lewis using him in the way that he did was that it is the essential spirit of Britain that is embodied in that character. Merlin is an embodiment of the spiritual power of the land and the people of his own time which Lewis is recalling and reviving in his own.
Lewis seems to be saying by the use of this character in particular that it is by calling on the spirit of the past that we can resist destructive change that others label as "progress."
There are many episodes that point to the idea that, while we can no longer live that old life, we are not entirely removed from it either. He talks about things coming to a point. The rules getting tighter as what those in the past did we do not do now. I believe his example was Soloman having many wives worked for him but would not work for a man today. The rules don't change, they just grow more refined hence the difference in manners between Merlin and the others when they eat together. He does not use a fork to eat and yet still seems somehow polite. The same expectation of courtesy but in a less refined manner.

Overall I liked the way the "old ways" came forth to strengthen the battle against the new enemy. What I could have done without was the romance novel ending.
All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
~ Galileo Galilei
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Re: 21st century reader meets early 20th century lit.

Postby Matthew Whaley » April 10th, 2010, 5:00 pm

In a way THS is a classic love story. Mark and Jane are married but have lost their love for one another; they become separated early in the story and are not reunited until the very end. Science and the Idea of progress threaten to create chaos and confusion between men and women in the modern world. Mark and Jane undergo trials to not only find out who and what they really are, but learn obedience through the things they suffer.

Lewis loved the Arthurian Romances and he loved happy endings. This is one of my favorite books of his; I find each time I read it, I see some things I never noticed when I read it before.
"Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in."
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Re: 21st century reader meets early 20th century lit.

Postby Nerd42 » April 12th, 2010, 3:30 pm

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Re: 21st century reader meets early 20th century lit.

Postby agingjb » April 12th, 2010, 4:45 pm

Hmm. Reread the first chapter of THS again. An "ancient British, druidical kind of man" is mentioned at the end of Jane's dream. Then, in the description of Bragdon Wood, "Merlin's Well" is mentioned. There are plenty of hints that the N.I.C.E. want Bragdon Wood for some reason, and the Dimbles mention the legend that Bragdon Wood is where he is buried.

By the way, if you are unfortunate enough to have the abridged version of THS, bin it and buy the full version - quickly - and read it.

Anyway I don't find the appearance of Merlin (a more convincing Merlin than any other fictional version of the character) any more difficult than the - as it happens - inaccurate astronomy. This is myth - as others have said.
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Re: 21st century reader meets early 20th century lit.

Postby Nerd42 » April 14th, 2010, 3:37 pm

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Re: 21st century reader meets early 20th century lit.

Postby Matthew Whaley » April 25th, 2010, 10:14 pm

I absolutely love Merlin's appearance in the story and the night when Ransom and Merlin first meet! It's a chapter that I take as much time as I can to read, savoring every word. And I love the way Lewis portrays Merlin; very masculine, noble, agile, muscular and full of wit.
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Re: 21st century reader meets early 20th century lit.

Postby paminala » April 26th, 2010, 3:23 pm

I loved that too, and also the bit later when Merlin finds out that what he had taken to be just "pass words" are for Ransom actual truth. The book would have been missing something important--I think--without that meeting of powers of the past and the present.
All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
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Re: 21st century reader meets early 20th century lit.

Postby Matthew Whaley » April 27th, 2010, 5:30 am

The one thing that I would have wanted to know more about at the end is what happens to Merlin after he leaves Mark and Lord Feverstone. I think he dies, thats all we are told. After saving the world and what he went through, being taken up by a chariot of fire would not have been too much to ask! Also too, Grace Ironwood did not get much said about her at the end; and I would have liked to have seen her play a bigger part before Ransom leaves the building.
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Re: 21st century reader meets early 20th century lit.

Postby CSLFAN » June 29th, 2010, 11:18 pm

Remember also that Oyarsa was not trying to force Weston to answer him. He believed that Weston had suffered some sort of head-trauma and asked the Hrossa to tend to him by clearing his head. This may have seemed the best way.
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