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The Studdocks' unborn child

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The Studdocks' unborn child

Postby Sylvia Lee » July 24th, 2004, 6:53 pm

Take my voice and let me sing always only for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from thee.
Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee.
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Re: The Studdocks' unborn child

Postby a_hnau » August 3rd, 2004, 7:51 pm

I found this fascinating too. I think a significant factor here is Lewis's objection to contraception as an example of Man's constant desire to tinker with the order of Nature (remember the quote, not sure where from, about the inhabitants of the Moon, who "do not lie with one another but with cunning machines - their real children they fabricate by secret arts" - Lewis would not have been surprised by any of the modern excesses of fertility research etc etc.) I don't think Lewis meant to develop the theme of the "child-that-never-was" further - it's another one of those almost throwaway lines that allude to so many unconscious mythological themes - the child who is a "chosen one" with a predetermined destiny (remember Tolkien's "you were meant to find the ring"), the idea that Jane and Mark are not (only) significant in themselves but were "meant" (that word again) to come together and have a child who would be significant (Biblical allusions such as John the Baptist, the whole genealogy thing).
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Re: The Studdocks' unborn child

Postby Sylvia Lee » August 7th, 2004, 11:29 pm

Take my voice and let me sing always only for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from thee.
Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee.
Sylvia Lee
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Joined: Jul 2004

Re: The Studdocks' unborn child

Postby jo » August 8th, 2004, 9:14 pm

"I saw it begin,” said the Lord Digory. “I did not think I would live to see it die"

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Re: The Studdocks' unborn child

Postby Guest » August 9th, 2004, 2:56 pm

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Re: The Studdocks' unborn child

Postby jo » August 9th, 2004, 2:59 pm

"I saw it begin,” said the Lord Digory. “I did not think I would live to see it die"

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Re: The Studdocks' unborn child

Postby Bill » August 9th, 2004, 4:17 pm

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Re: The Studdocks' unborn child

Postby Guest » August 9th, 2004, 6:42 pm

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Re: The Studdocks' unborn child

Postby a_hnau » August 9th, 2004, 7:18 pm

Hmmm... Perhaps this is oversimplifying, but (according to my first-year NT Greek :-) misogyny = hatred of women. I think it would be a brave person who would venture to say what Lewis hated, particularly when he was always incredibly careful to place caveats on his personal feelings (especially where his experience was limited or he recognised a bias in himself). In regard to women, how could Lewis actively hate persons whom God had created? Certainly he was always acutely conscious of the need for charity towards those for whom one has perhaps less natural sympathy or common ground. After all, hang it, Lewis was married for a time. I think the last word goes to Shadowlands - when Lewis was accused of not knowing any children, in the screenplay at least [I suspect but am not sure that Lewis in fact said or wrote something similar], he responds "But Warnie was a child once, and unlikely though it may seem, so was I" (not quoted exactly, but the sense is there)...
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Re: The Studdocks' unborn child

Postby loeee » August 9th, 2004, 8:30 pm

Lewis doesn't strike me as a mysoginist, more like someone who, until Joy Davidman, simply did not know or associate with many women. Certainly Til We Have Faces does not show an anti-female bias.

He was known to be notoriously shy of women until Joy, however. (or so I have heard)
"You can't go walking through Mordor in naught but your skin."
Put on the full armor of God.
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Re: The Studdocks' unborn child

Postby Guest » August 9th, 2004, 8:50 pm

Loeee,

I don't know how many women Lewis associated with in day-to-day life, but he had a fair number of them as correspondences; and not just general 'second order' correspondants either. Reading his letters, it is clear that he is on good terms with some of them - Sr Penelope, Jill Freud and Dorothy Sayers spring to mind.

Reading what you said about Lewis being shy of women makes me think you have been watching Shadowlands! However, notwithstanding the fact that I recall no real evidence of shyness in his letters, since I don't remember off the top of my head what his biographers said about his attitude in life towards women, I had better renounce such an assumption.

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cal-luminaries

Postby Guest » August 9th, 2004, 8:50 pm

From Malcom: I think it is one of the enduring calumnies....
----------------------------------------------

I think it is one of the enduring calumnies that one seldom hears phrases like "enduring calumnies" anymore. Well put, Malcolm.
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Re: cal-luminaries

Postby Guest » August 9th, 2004, 8:54 pm

Thank you! You have made Cal-lys Kitchen a happy place to be tonight! :)
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Re: The Studdocks' unborn child

Postby Guest » August 10th, 2004, 4:18 pm

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Re: The Studdocks' unborn child

Postby loeee » August 10th, 2004, 4:39 pm

"You can't go walking through Mordor in naught but your skin."
Put on the full armor of God.
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