C. S. Lewis and Postmodernism (Part 3)

This is part three of a paper I wrote in grad school on C. S. Lewis and Postmodernism. You can read part one here, and part two here.

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Derrida (Left) and C. S. Lewis (Right

     A third echo of C. S. Lewis also came out of Derrida’s “Structure, Sign, and Play”, this one on the subject of “Being as presence” and the “series of substitutions of center for center, as a linked chain of determinations of the center. Successively, and in a regulated fashion, the center receives different forms or names” (279). Derrida is arguing that meaning is never complete in the moment because speech is absence; the “real” object, (the signified), is being referred to by an infinite substitution of words (the signs) thereby distancing the person farther and farther away from the “real” thing. Lewis believed that “the relationship between sign and signified was much broader than the cognitive act of assigning abstract symbols to ideas and experiences … [he] understood that the meaning of meaning is much larger, preceding abstraction, reason, and even language, and his understanding has implications, not only on a proper understanding of the nature of meaning, but also on our understanding of myth, truth, allegory, metaphor, epistemology, and even the nature of heaven” (Starr). Lewis depicts this idea of concrete meaning vs. abstract shadows of thoughts and words in many of his works including The Great Divorce: “hitherto you have experienced truth only with the abstract intellect. I will bring you where you can taste it like honey and be embraced by it as by a bridegroom” (43).

Lest anyone think C. S. Lewis was a radical postmodernist, it is prudent to point out one of the biggest obstacles: in The Abolition of Man, Lewis writes against the philosophy that assumes that all values are subjective, declaring the existence of the "reality beyond all predicates", "the Tao" (18). The Tao as defined by Lewis is "the doctrine of objective value, the belief that certain attitudes are really true, and others really false" (18). He discusses the inconsistencies in the theory that says all values are subjective when in the very act of making that statement the person who has made the statement has placed value on one not believing that any value would be absolute.

C. S. Lewis is most definitely still relevant in our postmodern age. His writings are not going anywhere anytime soon. At the end of The Abolition of Man, Lewis says that those who want to debunk or “see through” normal traditional or conventional truth or morality should be cautious. The following passage is a perfect word of caution to the more radical postmodernists:

You cannot go on 'explaining away' forever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on 'seeing through' things forever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too? It is no use trying to 'see through' first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To see through all things is the same as not to see." (Lewis 81)

Works Cited

Derrida, Jacques. “Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences.” Writing and Difference. Trans. Alan Bass. Chicago: U of Chicago, 1978. 278-93.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. “Overture” Mythologiques. (1964-71)

Lewis, C. S. The Abolition of Man.  New York:  Harper Collins, 2001.

---. The Great Divorce. New York: Collier, 1946.

Starr, Charlie. “Meaning, Meanings, and Epistemology in C. S. Lewis.” Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature. Spring/Summer 2007. Issue 97/98, Volume 25, Number 3/4. 161-182. ed. Janet Brennan Croft. Altadena, CA: The Mythopoeic Society, 2007.

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In response to the 31 Day blogging challenge, I will be posting every day in October. You can read previous posts HERE. Follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter to be notified of new posts. You can also Subscribe to get posts sent to you by email. (There is a simple form towards the top on the right where you can do this.)

Feel free to comment with your own thoughts and questions!

Index of Posts:
Day 1: 31 Days of C. S. Lewis (Introduction)
Day 2. C. S. Lewis on Longing (In "The Weight of Glory")
Day 3. C. S. Lewis on Sehnsucht (Longing and Desire in The Weight of Glory)
Day 4. C. S. Lewis Audio Recordings
Day 5: C. S. Lewis Online Resources
Day 6: C. S. Lewis: The Intolerable Compliment (The Problem of Pain)
Day 7: C. S. Lewis: What is "The Weight of Glory"?
Day 8: C. S. Lewis: The Great Divorce and The Weight of Glory
Day 9: C. S. Lewis: A Grief Observed
Day 10: C. S. Lewis, Myth, and Postmodernism
Day 11: C. S. Lewis, Myth, and Postmodernism (Part 2)
Day 12: C. S. Lewis and Postmodernism (Part 3 - Conclusion)

C. S. Lewis Online Resources

There are lots of great resources online for those who want to learn more about C. S. Lewis and his writings. Here are some of the best, in my opinion:

The Official C. S. Lewis Website: https://www.cslewis.com/us/lewis-resources
The C. S. Lewis Foundation: http://www.cslewis.org/resource/
The C. S. Lewis Institute: http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/
Into the Wardrobe: http://cslewis.drzeus.net/papers/
Wikipedia: C. S. Lewis
The Wade Center at Wheaton College
C. S. Lewis Online Reading Room
Mythopoeic Society: About the Inklings - http://www.mythsoc.org/inklings/
C.S. Lewis Bibliography compiled by Diana Glyer


Websites and Blogs of C. S. Lewis Scholars:
David Downing
Colin Duriez
Bruce L. Edwards: The C. S. Lewis Review
Diana Glyer, Author of The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community
Joel Heck
Malcolm Guite (Blog)
Alan Jacobs (Blog)
Arend Smilde
Charlie W. Starr, Author of Light: C. S. Lewis's First and Final Short Story
Will Vaus, Author of Mere Theology: A Guide to the Thought of C. S. Lewis among several others.
Michael Ward: Planet Narnia website
Donald Williams: Lantern Hollow Press

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In response to the 31 Day blogging challenge, I will be posting every day in October. You can read previous posts HERE. Follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter to be notified of new posts. You can also Subscribe to get posts sent to you by email. (There is a simple form towards the top on the right where you can do this.)

Feel free to comment with your own thoughts and questions!

Index of Posts:
Day 1: 31 Days of C. S. Lewis (Introduction)
Day 2. C. S. Lewis on Longing (In "The Weight of Glory")
Day 3. C. S. Lewis on Sehnsucht (Longing and Desire in The Weight of Glory)
Day 4. C.S. Lewis Audio Recordings
Day 5: C. S. Lewis Online Resources
Day 6: C. S. Lewis: The Intolerable Compliment (The Problem of Pain)

Top Ten Favorite Fantasy Authors

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

Top Ten Favorite Fantasy Authors

1. C. S. Lewis - This was a given, but that doesn't make it any less true! The Chronicles of Narnia and The Space Trilogy!

2. J. R. R. Tolkien - Again, I don't think I really need to explain this. Everyone knows what a genius Tolkien was. And if they don't, they should. 

3. Madeline L'Engle - I simply do not tire of her Wrinkle in Time series. I want to read everything else she wrote!

4. Charlie W. Starr - King Lesserlight's Crown. Read it. You won't be sorry.

5. J. K. Rowling - How can you not love the Harry Potter saga?

6. George MacDonald - I turned to MacDonald on Jack's recommendation. I simply had to read the book that "baptized his imagination". I must confess, I didn't really get it or like it at first. But upon re-reading more than once, I now rather enjoy Phantastes. I've got scores of other tales to read by this one! 

7. Rick Riordan - I love his Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and the follow up - The Lost Heroes of Olympus

8. Cornelia Funke - I'm fascinated with the concept of Inkheart, even if the story itself dragged on a bit.

9. E. Nesbit - another Author I discovered because of C. S. Lewis - he referenced Nesbit as a favorite of his when he was a child. And he retained a fondness for those tales.

10. Brian Jacques - Redwall Series - These books captivated me when I discovered them in 6th grade.

Bonus: Andrew Peterson - Okay, so technically I haven't read his Wingfeather Saga yet... it's been on the to read list for awhile now, but I have a lot of confidence that I will love it... so here's hoping...

Who are your favorite authors in any given genre?

Tuesday Top Ten Books

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

Today is: Top Ten Favorite Books You've Read During The Lifespan Of Your Blog 

That's a hard category for me since technically I've had this blog since 2006...

But since I've only been blogging more about books since the beginning of this year, so I'm going to choose the Top Ten Favorite Books I've Read in 2012 (thus far...)

1. The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis (re-read)

This was probably the fourth or fifth time to read this book and I loved it even more than the previous times. I also got to dig deeper since I was leading a discussion on it in a Literary Club type setting with friends.

2. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

I really loved this book! I can't believe I hadn't read it prior to this year. It is a must read for lovers of fantasy literature/fairy tale genre. I think I finally got around to reading it because I had heard Charlie W. Starr's book, King Lesserlight's Crown: A Children's Story for Grownups, Too, compared to it, leading to a rather postmodern experience of reading the later material prior to reading that to which it may be compared...

3. Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis (re-read)
Obviously this book is not in the same genre as most on this list, but it's by C. S. Lewis and it remains an incredible apologetic and summary of what Lewis considered the essentials of Christianity. I love the part on transposition. If you like to think about levels of reality than you will too. Lewis was influenced in this by Flatland by Edwin Abbot Abbot. Here are some fun posts/articles I just discovered that talk about this connection:

a. Flatland… (Geometry of Faith) 

b. Mere Christianity to Flatland
c. C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, and Mathematics by David L. Neuhouser, Taylor University

4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

British humor and wit at its finest!

5. Enchantment by Orson Scott Card
Another fun fantasy read.

6. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
I love fiction/fantasy that plays with the boundaries of fiction/fantasy (like Inkheart!), so it is no wonder I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the others in the series.

7. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling (re-read)
I don't think I really have to explain myself here, do I?

8. A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken
This is a story of the author's marriage, the search for faith, a friendship that developed with C. S. Lewis, and dealing with the loss of his wife.

9. One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp
Have you ever thought much about the secret to joy or the sin of ingratitude? This book is poetic story, full of conviction and challenges.

10. Be Still my Soul edited by Nancie Guthrie
This collection of essays on "the problem of pain" - has helped me in not only developing a more helpful theology of suffering, but more importantly, it has been helping me hold onto Truth through the deaths of friends and loved ones... I guess you could say it's been helping me grasp these Truths at a deeper level - meeting me where I am.

Books Purchased at the C. S. Lewis Colloquium

Books Purchased at the C. S. Lewis Colloquium:

Some of the books...

1. Light: C. S. Lewis’s First and Final Short Story by Charlie W. Starr
2. Poetic Diction: A Study in Meaning by Owen Barfield
3. The Most Reluctant Convert: C. S. Lewis's Journey to Faith by David C. Downing
4. Looking for the King by David C. Downing
5. Planets in Peril by David C. Downing
6. Are Women Human? by Dorothy L. Sayers
7. The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers
8. Spenser's Images of Life by C. S. Lewis*
9. Selected Literary Essays by C. S. Lewis
10. Inside Prince Caspian: A Guide to Exploring the Return to Narnia by Devin Brown
11. Inside the Voyage of the Dawn Treader: A Guide to Exploring the Journey Beyond Narnia by Devin Brown
12. The Gray Wolf and Other Stories by George MacDonald
13. The Wise Woman and Other Stories by George MacDonald
14. The Golden Key and Other Stories by George MacDonald
15. Saving the Appearances: A Study in Idolatry by Owen Barfield
16. The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs
17. Branches to Heaven: The Geniuses of C.S. Lewis by James T. Como
18. Descent Into Hell by Charles Williams
19. Reflections from Plato’s Cave:  Essays in Evangelical Philosophy by Donald T. Williams

*Of course I really need to read Spenser's Faerie Queen before reading this...

10 Books I Am Reading

10 Books I Am Reading Now & Next

1. Light: C.S. Lewis's First and Final Short Story by Charlie W. Starr
2. The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis by Alan Jacobs
3. The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
4. The Most Reluctant Convert: C. S. Lewis's Journey to Faith by David C. Downing
5. Are Women Human? by Dorothy L. Sayers
6. The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers
7. Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change by Paul David Tripp
8. On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson
9. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
10. The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit


What books are you reading now or plan to read next?

Monday: 10 Books that Changed my Faith

Wednesday: 10 Favorite Books from Childhood

Thursday: 10 Books that are Classics

Friday: 10 Books I read over and over

Saturday: 10 Books I am Reading

Sunday: 10 Books from When I was Wee

The 2012 Colloquium on C. S. Lewis and Friends

Tomorrow I will drive to Taylor University to attend my first conference related to C. S. Lewis! I've been wanting to attend one for years!

What I am most excited about:
Hearing Charlie Starr present: "Light: C. S. Lewis's First and Only Short Story". I've been looking forward to reading Dr. Starr's new book since I first heard about him starting it around a year ago!

I'm also looking forward to hearing keynote speakers Alan Jacobs and David Downing.

The following are the titles of papers to be presented that most interest me:

Jan Prewitt, "Examining the Characters of Two Minor, But Nevertheless Heroic, Characters‐Sam and Gimli‐as They Relate to the Heroic Journey as Described by Campbell"

Joe R. Christopher, "C.S. Lewis's Lost Arthurian Poem"

Jonathan Himes, "Feminine Leadership: Lewis's Reason and Spenser's Britomart"

Martin Batts, "C.S. Lewis and a Return to the Great Books"

John Stanifer, "A Prisoner's Duty: The Sacred Role of Reading in the Christian Life"

William Vaus, "C.S. Lewis' Reading of George MacDonald"

Benita Huffman Muth, "Few Return to the Sunlit Lands: Lewis's Classical Underworld in The Silver Chair"

Sharon Kotapish, "The Intertwining of Reason and Imagination: Casting Truth in an Imaginary World"

Kimberly Moore-Jumanville, "C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and the Necessity of the Terrible Good"

Donald Williams, "A Tryst with the Transcendentals: C.S. Lewis on Beauty, Truth, and Goodness, Part II: Truth"

David Rozema, "Facts and Meanings: From Word to Myth"

Paul Michelson, "The Evolution of J.R.R. Tolkien's Thought on Fairy-stories"

Constance Rice, "Renewed Interest in popular Culture of the Fairy Tale"

Crystal Downing, "From Versailles to Verneuil: The Shaping of Dorothy L. Sayers"

Mark R. Hall, "Aragorn and Arthur, Merlin and Gandalf: Tolkien's Transmogrification of the Arthurian Tradition and Its Use as a Palimpsest for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings"

Jessica D. Dooley, "Whimsy and Wisdom: Fairyland as a Window to Reality in the Fiction of Chesterton and MacDonald"

Paulette Sauders, "Through the Lens of The Four Loves: The Idea of Love in Till We Have Faces"

Michael P. Muth, "A Wild Hope: Resurrection Bodies, Creaturely Integrity, and Lewis's Platonism"

Unfortunately I'm going to have to pick and choose between some of these that will be presented at the same time in different rooms... decisions, decisions... (And no, I did not list all the papers being presented. You can see the entire schedule here: http://lewisconference.zondervanlibrary.org/schedule/)