Going through my blogs

OK, yes.  Never got back to this.  But I still intend to...someday!

Good Grief

I just noticed that it's been a year since I last posted here. That's awful. Well, what can I say? I've just gotten distracted.
Right now I'm half way through James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. This was one of Lewis' top ten favourite books. I'm finding that Johnson and Lewis were a lot alike in many ways.
I decided I wanted to get through the rest of Lewis' favourite books, but I'm afraid it's been to the neglect of the Letters. Well, I'm determined to get back to them. I enjoy them so much.
So when should you check back? Hm.

Durer's Prodigal Son & St. Jerome

Current Situation

Dear Reader:
The summer is over and I've gotten half way through Lewis' letters. I have about 132 pages to summarise for you and still hope to do so. My part-time Latin teaching position is rather full-time, so we'll see how things go. I am still reading.
Of interest is Lewis' appreciation for Albecht Durer. His two favourites, as of 16 Feb., 1919 (p. 434) are that of St. Jerome and the Prodigal son. He says there are others he would like if Durer hadn't put some nudes in the background "of the most brutal and deliberate ugliness"! He had the above two prints framed. I'll post them here for you.

8 June, 1917 - 24 Sept., 1917

We now find Lewis in the army and billeted at Keble College, Oxford, rooming with Paddy Moore. His mom and sister, Maureen, have also moved to Oxford to be with Paddy. Jack first mentions Paddy in 10 June letter, p. 317. He reflects over the changes in his life and the character of the fellows with him (p. 317). He describes his life at this time, the schedule he has, his “getting rid of some adipose tissue,” etc. 10 Jun., p. 321, he says he is in a very productive mood and writing verse. There is a rather humourous description of his getting drunk at a celebration of some of his friends and his behaviour (though it refers to his particular vice at the time) – p. 319.

With his father, two things are going on: 1) Albert’s attempts to do whatever he can to keep Jack from being sent into the trenches, and 2) Jack regularly telling his father how much he’d like for him to come over and visit him. These appeals to his father will go on, and on, through Jack’s various war experiences, but his father never comes. It’s very sad.

8 July, Jack writes from Univ. College, where he is spending a bit of time; he really hates parting from it. There’s a very touching scene where Jack goes wondering through the College and examines one of the rooms, still furnished by an absent student. (p. 324; v. et. 326). Wagner and Rackham are important at this time.

18 Jul, writing to his father, he “has it out” with him about being placed in the artillery, which his father thought would be safer. Jack just did not have the mathematical background to place there. Beside that, he’s feeling sentimental about his own unit. He has tea with a Trinity don and mentions that Jowett is pronounced like “poet” in Oxford. He’s longing to read Well’s God the Invisible King. He wants his father to write of intellectual matters because he wants to keep his “soul alive” and “not become a great, empty headed, conceited military prig.”

24 Jul., Jack writes to Arthur about his political feelings. He has “no patriotic feelings for anything in England, except Oxford,” for which he would “live and die.” If he were to “get interested” in politics back home, he would be a nationalist. He continues to write to Arthur about their good old days together, about the books they like and the quality of their bindings. The actual presentation of a book is regular fare between them. That’s why Lewis will often buy a book and then have someone rebind it in leather or some such, just so it will be nicer.

4 Aug., he is glad Arthur likes Tristram Shandy and Milton’s Comus. He mentions that G. E. B. Saintsbury, in his History, thinks it better than Paradise Lost, but not Lewis.

27 Aug., 10 Sept., 24 Sept., ending p. 336, Jack writes typically to his father but here we find Jack talking about how he is spending time with Mrs. Moore and her family. He says he likes her “immensely.” There will be more about Moore in the coming letters.

I know

I know I'm behind on my posts, but I have been reading! I will soon have a lot more stuff posted.

28 Feb. 1917 - 3 June, 1917

My having spent a few days in Oxford really helps to picture and appreciate these letters.

The letters continue to be to Jack's "Papy" and Arthur, alias "Galahad." He's struggling with a poetic work on Medea's early life; he scraps it. Hooper's note (p. 286) says he picks it back up but only fragments remain. 6 Mar. he says that Catullus is one of his poetic "gods," along with Morris and Keats. Interesting.

He is reading The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth C. Gaskell, and really likes it; he keeps talking about it. Sadly, he sees God as torturing Charlotte in it; "cruelty after cruelty without escape," "he's just in his element." He takes a moral lesson from it, however, to appreciate ones circumstances.

"I have finished "Paradise Lost" again." p. 290. 20 May, he writes that he is glad to hear from Arthur that he too likes Milton. In the same letter, he expresses delight in the artwork of Albrecht Durer.

He keeps having petty problems with his father (8 Mar.). It seems Albert was just too sensitive to the inevitable misunderstandings that take place when business is conducted via post. It has to be really hurtful to Jack.

14 Mar., Jack talks about how he likes to "keep to his bed" when he is ill and all the different comforts he enjoys when he has to do it. He just likes to be cozy and read good books, that's all!

Per Hooper, Jack was 5 feet 10 3/4 inches tall and 182 pounds when he entered the Officer Training Corp at Oxford. Hm. Sounds like me!

"How I love kettles!" (p. 298)

While residing at Oxford at this time, he had a roommate named Edgell that he hated. The fellow was a Christian and a mechanic-type. They had nothing in common. The fellow also seemed to lack social grace in dealing with Lewis; too bad. It could have been a great opportunity for helping Jack toward Christ. He was very interested in religion at this time and enjoyed talking about it with non-Christian, inquiring types. See Hooper note, 72, p. 303, where one of Jack's fellows describes him; mentions his interest in religion and how challenging he was in his scepticism. But beside Edgell, Lewis is finding himself happier than he has ever been (p. 304, 13 May).

27 May - mentions The World's Desire by both H. Rider Haggard and Andrew Lang as something he's enjoying. Got to read that. In the same letter, p. 310, he has a paragraph describing how his days are spent. The OTC is asking very little of him at this time. Lewis comes across lots of his Malvern acquaintances at Oxford but he really likes writing about those who are Irish and especially patriotic. It stands out in these letters that whenever Lewis writes favourably about England, he always says something like, "but not to be compared with our old hills, etc." He himself is very patriotic; he prefers the Irish above all others.