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Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: August 9th, 2010, 9:24 pm
by Nerd42

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: August 10th, 2010, 7:20 am
by mwanafalsafa
Does Lewis ever explicitly refer to the solid people as "saints"? As I understand it they're just good people that went to Heaven... But is every person that goes to Heaven supposed to be a saint?

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: August 11th, 2010, 2:34 am
by Nerd42

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: August 11th, 2010, 4:25 pm
by paminala

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: August 13th, 2010, 10:29 pm
by maralewisfan
The Quieter and More Respectable Ghost
I used to get him confused with the Tousle-Headed Poet of chapter 2 because of his arrogance. He is a character very much in the same vein at least. The only thing that makes me think he isn't the same guy is because he's described as "quieter" and the Tousle-Headed Poet certainly isn't quiet.

I have always thought this was the guy who thought that one place was as good as another, and different management wouldn't change the way the place was run. But I guess I'm getting ahead.

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: August 29th, 2010, 5:19 pm
by Matthew Whaley
I think the reason why the "Saints" are solid and the "Ghosts" are transparent has to do with their respective choices while living on earth of either accepting God or rejecting Him. Since God is the creator and source of all life, if one desires to be independent of God till at the point of death, then he/she is cut off like a branch from a tree. The branch withers and dies on its own, while the branch that remains connected to tree continues to grow and bear fruit. The "solid people" are solid, because God is living in them (and have desired God to live in them); the "transparent people" are transparent, because God is not living in them (and have clearly chosen that option). I think in this story this may account for the appearances of substance and lack of substance for people in the afterlife. The New Testament defines a "Saint" as simply anyone who resides in Heaven.

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: August 29th, 2010, 11:51 pm
by Nerd42

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: August 30th, 2010, 8:24 am
by agingjb
Lewis uses "Bright People" or "Bright Spirit" fairly consistently. "Saint" does occur later for a particularly bright person, described as a "great saint".

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: August 31st, 2010, 1:36 pm
by Nerd42

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: August 31st, 2010, 3:27 pm
by agingjb
But of course the question remains: why did Lewis, or his narrator, use descriptive terms? Lewis, to emphasize that they have incomparably more reality than the ghosts? His narrator because he isn't yet quite sure what the Bright People are?

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: September 1st, 2010, 1:43 pm
by Matthew Whaley

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: September 2nd, 2010, 2:25 am
by nomad
I also think that having the Bright People be some clothed, some not is an attempt to portray a sort of Eden. But I also think it is part of their progression as they travel "higher up and farther in". The more solid they become, the more at home they are in this place, the more they lose the remnants of shame and self-consciousness that still cling to them, the less they need clothes. Each one may start their journey into Heaven at varying shades of ghostliness/solidity but none are yet in their eventual perfect form and the transformation doesn't happen instantaneously.

All the ghosts seem equally ghostlike, however. Or maybe at the ghostlike stage small differences aren't visible.

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: September 2nd, 2010, 2:29 am
by nomad
I love that the narrator says of the approach of the Bright People "I did not entirely like it.". Since we are looking through his eyes, it keeps us from being condescending of the others' reaction. It makes us one of them.

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: September 7th, 2010, 7:10 pm
by Nerd42
I'm guessing since the site is closing there's no point in trying to continue this book study

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: September 7th, 2010, 7:18 pm
by Matthew Whaley
We have three weeks, maybe we can figure something out and continue on Facebook. This is one of my favorite threads.