Into the Wardrobe

As I remember, the experience had been a dream, or so it seems. "I am caught by the morning and I am a ghost"-- I think that this is the form that Lewis took, although I am not certain that he really died in order to take on that form. "Do not ask of a vision in a dream more than a vision in a dream can give", said his teacher, George MacDonald. A dream can't answer if something really happened, e.g. the conversations or the reality of the people who were the ghosts. Lewis' experience just before he realized he was back in his study was just the end of his presence in that vision. I am not certain if the experience was reality, but visions are dreams which may not always be artificial, e. g. those in the book of Revelation in the Bible seem to have been actual events, though some of them are symbolic. The Great Divorce may have actually happened, and not just in Lewis' mind.

Larry W.

But the Little House books were (presumably) based on actual occurrences. Lewis was just fantasising. You might as well say that his Space Trilogy was based on actual occurrences.

Bill

The illustration that I used of Laura Ingalls Wilder was mainly to show that fiction can be based on real events, although it need not always be connected to the biography of someone's life. It's obvious that you and I have a different opinions of what fantasizing may mean-- I think the book is somewhat similar to the book of Revelation in the Bible (as I pointed out before) where fantasy and reality (in visions) can sometimes be seen as one. Even though I am not certain that there are visions in The Great Divorce, I leave the possibility open of it having something similar to them. I did not say that the events in the space trilogy really happened-- it is a very different series of books with other perspectives and experiences. I don't think it's best to assume that only one interpretation of a book is the correct one. It's better to be more open-minded and tolerant if someone's perspective of a book is different from your own.

Larry W.

You may have the last word.

Bill

The Dreamer closes his narrative by waking on his cold floor at 3am with "...the siren howling overhead."

The vivid detail of a long, pre-waking dream -- which under the World War II bombing and missile attacks on England amounted to "near death experience" -- ends, temporarily, with the "All Clear".

Lewis may have dreamed much of the content -- or not. Wartime Britain was much like that bitter, grey city fearing the dawn.

So do we -- with hope or not -- await the "cosmic all-clear". Christians claim we've already heard it.