by a_hnau » September 7th, 2004, 8:18 pm
Oh! I quite agree; I try to read anything of Lewis's I can get my hands on, but in some of his work the only part of it I can grasp is his style - I am not familiar with, or haven't even heard of, some of the people, the literature, that he treats with such skill and precision. I do try and puzzle out bits of the foreign languages, though. A favourite quote, from That Hideous Strength;
Jane, though she had a smattering of Latin, had not understood their conversation. The accent was unfamiliar, and the old druid used vocabulary that was far beyond her reading - the Latin of a man to whom Apuleius and Martianus Capella were the primary classics and whose elegances resembled those of the Hisperica Famina. But Dimble had followed it.
I know I harp on about this, but the elderly gentleman I visit (who was a pupil of Lewis at Oxford in the 30's) represents a "dinosaur" - he is, I imagine, much as Lewis also was.
But Lewis is a way in to appreciation of the classics - for me, wanting to know even a fraction of what Lewis had at his fingertips is sufficient motive to dig deeper. I think it's in Screwtape, Lewis refers to the experience of a schoolboy who has heard bright tales of Troy, but now has to "buckle down" and start his lessons in Homer...
Urendi Maleldil