Where does the time go when it's not around here?

Soo, I have been typecast and I've decided to blame Robby D for it. At this point, Emma probably already knows the story (update--Emma was texted) but I'm going to pretend I have other readers. We have an independent art project that's a series of whatever. I asked Maghini if she had maybe a suggestion of something I could do, and she said, "Well... maybe a comic about Jack Kerouac?" Woahh! Typecast! (Ignore the fact that I was toying with something having to do with Kerouac.) Robby D, you and your turning me into an obvious Kerouac lover! No, kidding, I'm cool with it. I appreciate it!





What did I read? I read CS Lewis's Screwtape Letters. Fun thing I wasn't aware of, CS Lewis's middle name is Staples. Staples. I'll give you a second to soak that awesomeness in.


Awesome matter #2 is this copy I picked up is an edition from 1953. Which means it is a very, very quality book. And, for once, I have a book that's older than 50 years and does reek of mold and possibly smallpox. Actually, I don't think Descent of Man or Hunchback of Notre Dame smell like either of those things, but that's besides the point. Anyway. What I'm getting at is I love it because it's pretty like that. And fun to hold. This is the kind of book I'd love to carry around all day. (Stop looking at me like that.)



The book is a series of letters from Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood. Screwtape is an elder demon, apparently quite successful in turning people from the Enemy (God, duh) and is writing his nephew letters meant to help him turn his first case away from the Enemy. So, like many of his other books, there's quite a strong Christian influence, even though in this book you may not be expecting it. (I expected nothing going into it--I liked the binding on the book and the name. Those things are enough for me.) Also, ironically enough, quite a case for Christianity--or, religion in general. Or, not being a satanist at the very least, if nothing else.



"The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn"--Luther
"The devill... the prowde spirite... cannot endure to be mocked"--Thomas Moore (Both quotes appear before the story's start.) You know, I was thinking about this, and I can't believe how silly that is. I mean, according to many religious texts--yeah, this is the truth. Whether it's the Christian devil, or some other deity of evil, or even just a tricky or playful good guy, they're ultimately powerful. Too strong, too smart, too much having the tendency to devour human souls. But, as soon as someone says something like "Oh, silly god/dess, they are stupid/not as good at weaving as me/couldn't ever fool me", they appear and are all like "Nuh-uh, it's done". They get so MAD. Hubris. It's a bad business.

In the preface, CS Lewis says: "There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them" (9). This is obvious; it hardly needs an explanation. Just thought it was worth mentioning--it can be applied to a great many things, and a great many people aren't aware of the dangers.

"There is wishful thinking in Hell as well as on Earth" (10). I just like the phrasing. Heck, there's probably more wishful thinking in hell--I point to Mephostophilis from Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. At one point, he tells Faustus that even while shadowing Faustus on earth is torture--because he can see happy people, with full lives, free of, well, hell. Damnation.

"All mortals turn into the thing they are pretending to be" (54) / "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be"--Kurt Vonnegut Oh, hey, guys.

"No natural phenomenon is really in our favor" (80). So, through Screwtape, CS Lewis is saying that natural phenomena is 'good', right? Because it can't be an advantage to a demon. And in that case, I think CS Lewis just said people are inherently good. Yay! JOHN LOCKE. (Also believed people are inherently good. Because you care so much?)

"His faction has frequently admitted that if ever we came to understand what He means by Love, the war would be over and we should re-enter Heaven. And there lies the great task. We know that He cannot really love; nobody can: it doesn't make sense. If only we could find out what He is really up to!" (98). It would seem that by rebelling, Lucifer would have filled the hearts of his familiars with hate and lies (well, there's a reason why they call him the "father of all lies", I guess) and they've never quite regained it. If you've happened to have read Neil Gaiman's comic book Murder Mysteries, it implies that Lucifer rebelled because he was--well, heartbroken. He was God's number one angel, subservient and completely trusting in Him. However, God's wrath is enacted in front of him and disintegrates a fellow angel into little more than dust. The squares on that page are burned into my mind: crying, Lucifer says, "That wasn't fair. That... That was not just." After that, he leaves, and Raguel's commentary is something like: "X may have been the first to love, but Lucifer was the first to shed tears and I will never forget that." In his head (as I've imagined it) his image of God was ruined forever--he was heartbroken. So, being unable to feel love, and disabling his followers from feeling it makes sense in that line of thought, I guess. (Also, compare this quote to "The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell"--CS Lewis, from The Four Loves.)

Screwtape also claims you can make a person unhappy by screwing up their notion of love--that is, having them read books of the soppy sort, to make them believe love is irresistible and fantastic and descends at first sight. Then, no human love will ever make up to that ideal. Jane Austen: accidentally a satanist? Because Mr Darcy will skew my views of romance forever. This me, DYING ALONE. Don't let Screwtape know.

Screwtape also implied that through demonic doings, fashions go in and out in an effort to make a human more unattractive to another. His case in point is "the beard" (102). I practically died laughing. I mean... it just sounds so silly.

Describing a Christian girl, Screwtape says: "She makes me vomit" (111). There is a huge amount of difference between saying "She makes me want to" and "She makes me". That was really all I'm pointing out. I mean, he probably was for real throwing up. Ick. Oh, but also, the finality and truth of the statement kind of makes me giggle. I mean, you have to admit, it sounds kind of silly.

"Transformation proceeds from within and is a glorious manifestation of that Life Force which Our Father would worship if he worshipped anything but himself" (115). This is quite possibly the biggest warning flag CS Lewis puts up throughout the novel. HUBRIS IS BAD, AND IT IS WHAT SATAN HAS. WOAH RHYMING KIND OF. SWEET.

Screwtape mentions 'contemporary' writers thinking of Jesus in a new light--one of these new ways is in a Marxian light. Oh, Oscar Wilde, you wrote a whole essay on this which I own? And it's called 'The Soul of Man Under Socialism'? Huh.

"We have trained them to think of the Future as a promised land which favoured heroes attain--not as something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is" (130). In a book of quotes, this is quoted as being "The future is something which everyone reaches... (etc)" Either way, it's a delicious quote and a reminder I think a lot of people need. The future is all around us, in every single millisecond and puff of air, moving forward slower than one can imagine, but still fast enough to shock. You see?

Ooh, I have to spoil the end. I need to. It's delicious the way the end of Little King's Story is delicious. So, don't read if you don't want it spoiled, yeah? Wormwood fails. Apparently, he writes to his uncle begging for help of some sort--because he 'loves' him. His uncle's response? "Love you? Why, yes. As dainty a morsel as ever I grew fat on" (156). Earlier in the letters, he hints that those who can't feed hell (with souls) will end up on the table themselves. Screwtape ends the final letter with: "Meanwhile, I have you to settle with. Most truly do I sign myself Your increasingly and ravenously affectionate uncle SCREWTAPE" (160).

I'd recommend this book highly. Some people may be put off by the Christian overtones, but it's an interesting book, and to be quite frank, I think very little of people who reject things simply because of their ideologies. I find it quite cowardly--in that, you feel the need to abuse it thoroughly and cannot even approach a symbol of it without a yellow belly. I can't say I agree with everything I read, and I can't say I've never been offended by a book, or movie, or any other form of media that would support any sort of view--but I give it a chance. Woah, sorry to get all preachy. It's just--I deal with a lot of people like this. And I have for a great many years--and the behavior disgusts me. Ehm.



In other news, I drew and inked a 'practice picture' of Kerouac. DO NOT LISTEN TO EMMA IT IS NOT GOOD HE LOOKS LIKE HP LOVECRAFT.