by .Ælfgifu. » April 20th, 2005, 2:03 pm
I've just borrowed the Letters of C.S Lewis from some friends and was reading it - for the first time - this morning. In a letter (addressed 'to a lady' I think) Lewis brought up the issue about 'the beauty of the female' - without making any quotations, but his own words were fairly close to those quoted in That Hideous Strength. Unfortunately, I now can't find the letter in question. I haven't finished the collection yet, but I'm fairly close to the end - it can't be right at the beginning (I read that yesterday). I have the impression in my mind that it was earlier than the writing of the Cosmic Trilogy (because when I read it I noticed the connection and it struck me as interesting that it was so early). My quick efforts at scanning the pages back this up, though I might have missed it somewhere.
Personally (speaking as a 'female') I think it is a good point and quite probably a true one. I've just run it past my Mum briefly and she agrees. If you look at advertisements you'll see that beautiful (and semi-naked) women are often used to sell something that only a woman might buy - not just clothes (for which you would obviously choose a good-looking model) but things like shavers for legs. Women in general find the idea of beauty in women attractive, and cultivate it in themselves. A girl will notice if her sister has brought a new top of had a haircut far more quickly than their brother will notice the same thing. Besides, if a woman's beauty is a gift, then it is naturally given to be shared - her instinct to do so just as naturally involves love of what she is sharing.