I really liked the first half of the book, especially any time that the characters were debating about right and wrong, dealing with things like obedience, duty, and love. I like the awkwardness Lewis draws out when Ransom is trying to explain things like death, hatred, and sin to a creation that had never tasted of any of them, and I enjoyed the tabula rasa logic of the Venus's "Queen".
Other than that, I thought I would pass on some neat quotes from Perelandra:
(Ransom speaking about his experience of space)
"On the contrary, it is words that are vague. The reason why the thing can't be expressed is that it's too definite for language."
-- I like that one, something utterly definite that cannot be defined by words… that's something to get your brain-gears turning...
and this:
Ransom had been perceiving that the triple distinction of truth from myth and of both from fact was purely terrestrial -- and was part and parcel of that unhappy division between soul and body which resulted from the fall.
...
The whole distinction between things accidental and things designed, like the distinction between fact and myth, was purely terrestrial.
...
And he bowed his head and groaned and repined against his fate -- to be still a man and yet to be forced up into the metaphysical world, to enact what philosophy only thinks.
I really like this quote (or… squished together series of quotes) for multiple reasons:
1. It restates what I said in a previous post, the synonymity of belief and faith, in a different manner
2. It states that predestination and free will are not mutually exclusive and are rather a matter of perspective
3. It reminds us that our world is a metaphysical world, that we live in more than just some loosely connected physical and non-physical reality, and that our philosophy and our actions should line up, that we have a place and a part to play.
Anyway, it took me too long to finish this book (I had listened to about a third of it in the car over break)… to tell the truth, I was wasting my time on useless Hulu TV and playing a online FPS… anyway, here's to getting school work done and reading more… :)
Now I officially FOLLOW your blog, who's the creeper now?
ReplyDeleteC.S. Lewis is the best at representing his philosophy in awesome fictional form. Good luck with That Hideous Strength, though - I've tried 2 or 3 times and only made it halfway through.
Yay! A follower... but you're not braindead! I need some braindead followers who I can turn into minions to do my bidding! ... That makes me think of "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog"...
ReplyDeleteActually, I already finished "That Hideous Strength," and the second half is a good bit better than the first. Maybe you should just pick up wherever you left off... because yes, there is waaaaay to much college politics and rambling, seemingly pointless narrative at the beginning...
However, I really need to read some of his nonfiction sometime. I'll have to put that on my queue.
That's because you're ENTJ, aka The Evil Overlord! And way to show me up with reading the whole book already...and you haven't read his nonfiction??!?!!!
ReplyDeleteSince I gave up New Year's resolutions for New Years, I thought it would be a good idea/worthwhile thing to give up Hulu for Lent... meaning that I now have a good bit of time to read. (or, it's the best procrastination tool I now possess)
ReplyDeleteBut... yeah... I have never read many of the C.S. Lewis quotes I've come to love in their original form. Which one should I read first?
screwtape letters, mere christianity, weight of glory.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I've actually read Screwtape a couple times, so I'm gonna plan on reading Mere Christianity soon (and we'll see how my planning works out...)
ReplyDelete