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.

God and death are none of my concern; I'm no philosopher

Woah! Apparently, blogger can now be accessed from school! So, maybe you will get updates from me in November... Like I said before, the reason why I'm really not writing is because of Nanowrimo, which I'm about 2,000 words behind on anyways. My story is confusing as hell and terrible, but that's beside the point. It's a free writing thing, 1500 words a day for a goal of I don't even know at the end of November. Somehow, someone weeds through all these and decides on one to be published, which is why I have hope for my awful story, because I read the one that was published a few years ago and wow! Ah... uh. How do I say this diplomatically? It was no Macbeth. It was no Hamlet. It was about a Romeo and Juliet. Maybe I'm garnering bad karma here, but dude. It was bleh.

Anyways, because I keep on forgetting to put my NanoWrimo on a hard drive I was just messing on the computer and here I am. Wishing I brought my Faustus book like I was planning to. However, I can complain about it without the book in hand. So, first off, the author, Christopher Marlowe, was the man of the time. After he was killed, Shakespeare was the coolest guy around, but Chris Marlowe was the main-er man. This book (play) of his is like the book of his. It's about Dr Faustus, an apparently accomplished doctor who decides within the first two pages suddenly that he wants to have the power to bring men from the dead. I hated Frankenstein, but Victor at least thought it out. Dr Faustus was just like, you know what I'm going to do today? Sell my soul to Satan. So the beginning was kind of sort of definitely rushed. (According to Wikipedia, Goethe's rewrite pins him as a man who wants more than earthly pleasures, IE, "earthly meat and drink." Which I think I prefer, gives him more of a back story, which Marlowe's chorus kind of failed at.)

One thing I can remember is Faustus demanding a wife from the demon he named his servant for his lifetime, Mephastophilis, and M. (you think I'm retyping that? Not in this lifetime.) summons a demon woman and Faustus says "Oh! What a hot a whore!" which made me practically die laughing. Just being honest... it was pretty hilarious.

What else can I remember off the top of my head? Faustus had an annoying personality, it was actually quite similar to Pip from Dicken's Great Expectations (bear with me on this). Pip started Dicken's book as a poor kid who wanted to be rich, then a rich kid who decided no, that wasn't so great so he made people's lives miserable, and I think somehow he became lower class again (though I've repressed it, so...) and then marries a girl who abused him as a little kid. Throughout all this, he wheedles and whines and whilst reading I often fantasized about hitting him over the head with a stovepipe. Basically, he was never happy, and he was a 'woe is me' fellow and nothing was ever great. Dr Faustus was basically the same--right after he trades his soul over to Satan he starts panicking (no sympathy, bro, it's not like you didn't know the end results) and regrets, but then somehow calms down again and goes to make everyone's lives miserable with his new demonic powers. Then he is going to die and cries that he's going to hell. It may seem a little mean that I'm calling him whiny, but seriously--he is warned a million times about this by M and even Lucifer, and even he's like oh eternal damnation! Crud! Aside from that, ugh. He and Pip have the kind of personalities I would kill someone for. Or maybe just punch them in the face.

Uh, what else? Later, Faustus sees Helen's summoned ghost (the Helen; Paris's Helen) and says the famous lines: "Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, and burnt the topless towers of Illium?" Which was awesome and may have been my favorite part just because I had no idea where those lines came from. I don't recall if they're said exactly in The Illiad (for example, they say she launched a thousand ships, but not exactly in this verse) unless if I missed it, but if not, it's kind of cool that this is where those famous lines came from. I love those lines, even if I can't figure out why Chris was so popular.

EDIT: An interesting scene is when M. talks about his life with Lucifer and how he came to fall into such state. (Faustus, the genius, asks M. where M. is damned. Uhhh, duhhhhh?) Even after wishing he could save M.'s soul (M. describes his fall in quite thorough detail, too) to give him thousands of souls (noble, and sweet), he still goes ahead with trading his soul over to Lucifer. Uh, what? Idiot. Speaking of Lucifer, Satan and Lucifer were trending topics on twitter today. Why...?

"'...Or as beautiful/As was bright Lucifer, before his fall.'" I never get this. Lucifer, before falling, was said to be beautiful--so beautiful his very skin glowed and sparkled as though from within (I'm paraphrasing from several sources) but obviously he's usually pictured as a red humanoid being with goat horns and goat legs and a tail. (I'm thinking it was inspired by Pan, a Greek god who was a bit of a trickster, loner, and kind of mean to humans.) I DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS. I can imagine a subtle change, in the eyes or face, becoming cruel, hard, or narrow, but not such a dramatic change like this. There's no satisfying mythology regarding this (I don't really recall a thorough description of this change in Paradise Lost, just that his mindset had changed) and in church, I've noticed, they never seem to touch upon the darker things, here is a good example of an Episcopalian lesson: "Jesus was a good guy, and told many parables. One if his followers, Judas, was jealous and greedy and sold him out." Satan does appear on and off in the bible (I think the only time he physically appears in Jesus in the desert) but he's always... demonized. The stories we learn are always archetypes, like he was a wicked man, and then he was good. Jesus was always good. Moses was always good. (Until I saw The Prince of Egypt, I had no idea he beat an Egyptian man to death). Satan, always bad, never did he dream of anything more. (Accept my extremely biased opinions, thanks to John Milton). So, I think Lucifer's visage stayed just the same before and after. I mean, doesn't Satan come in a beautiful visage? Or something like that?

They make a reference to the tale of the hunter (I'm not spelling his name) and Diana--a hunter in the woods came across the goddess Diana bathing, and she became so enraged she splashed him with water and he turned into a doe and his own dogs turned upon him. Is it odd I like that one?

A servant calls someone "Sir Sauce-box". That probably was his job (or something like that) but. SAUCE-BOX. OH MY GOD. Shankspeare Sauce-Box??? Oh my God, yes. YES.

I know I'm just reiterating, but those lines about Helen are incredibly poetic. I'm keeping the book for those lines.

THE END.


What else have I read? I finished 1984, The Cartoon History of the Universe Volumes 1&2, and am currently in the midst of The Terrible Tudors and Slimy Stuarts (A Horrible Histories book!) and The Arabian Nights, which the publishers decided would be made better if they only collected ten out of the original 250+ stories from The Thousand and One Nights. (Whose idea was this!?)

In other news, I need a nap badly.