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Chapter 3 - The Arrival

Chapter 3 - The Arrival

Postby Nerd42 » August 9th, 2010, 9:24 pm

Last edited by Nerd42 on August 31st, 2010, 1:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

Postby mwanafalsafa » August 10th, 2010, 7:20 am

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?
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Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

Postby Nerd42 » August 11th, 2010, 2:34 am

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Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

Postby paminala » August 11th, 2010, 4:25 pm

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
~ Galileo Galilei
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Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

Postby maralewisfan » August 13th, 2010, 10:29 pm

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.
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Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

Postby Matthew Whaley » August 29th, 2010, 5:19 pm

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.
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Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

Postby Nerd42 » August 29th, 2010, 11:51 pm

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Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

Postby agingjb » August 30th, 2010, 8:24 am

Lewis uses "Bright People" or "Bright Spirit" fairly consistently. "Saint" does occur later for a particularly bright person, described as a "great saint".
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Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

Postby Nerd42 » August 31st, 2010, 1:36 pm

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Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

Postby agingjb » August 31st, 2010, 3:27 pm

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?
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Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

Postby Matthew Whaley » September 1st, 2010, 1:43 pm

"Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in."
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Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

Postby nomad » September 2nd, 2010, 2:25 am

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.
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"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best -- " and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.
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Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

Postby nomad » September 2nd, 2010, 2:29 am

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.
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"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best -- " and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.
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Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

Postby Nerd42 » September 7th, 2010, 7:10 pm

I'm guessing since the site is closing there's no point in trying to continue this book study
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Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

Postby Matthew Whaley » September 7th, 2010, 7:18 pm

We have three weeks, maybe we can figure something out and continue on Facebook. This is one of my favorite threads.
"Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in."
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