Again I am reminded just how much I really love C.S Lewis. Love, love, love. This book is a collection of essays much like Fern-Seed and Elephants: and Other Essays on Christianity, only the subjects are more political. Here we get to see what Lewis thought of political and social equality, modern education, satirical cartoons, etc. So far it reveals Lewis to be quite the conservative, which rocks. I’ve only read about halfway, so I’ll give a brief description of each essay I’ve read or a quote from it.
The Necessity of Chivalry – “The knight is a man of blood and iron, a man familiar with the sight of smashed faces and the ragged stumps of lopped-off limbs; he is also a demure, almost a maidenlike, guest in the hall, a gentle, modest unobtrusive man.”
This is such a fantastic essay, describing exactly what I find is missing in today’s men. Either they are so effeminate and metrosexual that they take longer to get ready in the morning than I do, or they are so savage that all they can think about is food and sex and want to beat anyone who gets in the way of that. C.S Lewis used Lancelot as a good example of a balanced man, but if you read my previous post, you might note that Uriah from the story of David could be considered a good example as well, even though he has a very minor role before he dies. See, he’s a soldier, he likes good food, and he’s probably crazy about his wife considering she’s so h0tt, but even though David gets him plastered he will NOT go sleep with his wife because he knows his men are still in camp. It really sucks that he was killed…he seemed like an awesome dude.
ANYWAYS, this is a fantastic article, so read it sometime.
Equality – Lewis on democracy vs. fascism. “Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters.”
Three Kinds of Men – A brief rundown on living for yourself, living for the “good of society” on your own strength, and living for Christ alone.
My First School – An amusing allegory between Lewis’ days at a boarding school, where you hoped for home, though you could hardly fathom that it would ever come, and being on earth and hoping for heaven, when you can hardly fathom it as well.
Is English Doomed? – “The true aim of literary studies is to lift the student out of his provincialism by making him “the spectator” if not of all, yet of much, “time and existence.”
Democratic Education – One of my favorite essays to date. It opens with a quote from Aristotle: “Democratic education ought to mean, not the education which democrats like, but the education which will preserve democracy.” How brilliant is that? Quite. Lewis elaborates more on social equality as a medicine for the fallen condition of man, rather than a thing that is good of itself.
“Equality (outside mathematics) is a purely social conception. It applies to man as a political and economic animal. It has no place in the world of the mind. Beauty is not democratic; she reveals herself more to the few than to the many, more to the persistent and disciplined seekers than to the careless…ethical, intellectual, or aesthetic democracy is death.”
He speaks of a foreboding movement in education not unlike the No Child Left Behind Act, which is unfortunately no longer foreboding, but present. “The kind of democratic education which is already looming ahead is bad because it endeavors to propitiate evil passions, to appease envy…bleating ‘I’m as good as you,’ is the hotbed of fascism.”
What a badass and politically incorrect yet absolutely correct statement.
A Dream – A story about a crew members on a ship during a storm all working together to keep it afloat. After the storm is over, the crew members are kept in occupation by being taught things of no real use to their profession. Lewis compares it to the military keeping conscription in peace time, but keeping the soldiers involved in such activities that are of no real use in peace or war, such as parades etc.
Blimpophobia – An elaboration on points made in A Dream, and also a response to what I believe was a political cartoon in England after the war. “Those who wish for whatever reason to keep their fellow citizens regimented longer than is necessary will certainly say that they are doing so in the interests of security, but I say the disappearance of all these Masters at an early date is just what security demands…If they extend their power too long or abuse it while it lasts, they will be more hated than any body of Englishmen have been hated by their compatriots since the time of Peterloo.”
“If you want a man to refuse the nasty medicine that he really needs, there is no surer way than to ply him daily with medicines no less nasty which he perceives to be useless.”
And that is as far as I’ve read! This post was far longer than I intended, but oh well. I’m about halfway, so there’s more Lewis to come!
Okay, so a month or so back I found your blog, I can’t remember how exactly; I probably “Stumbled” onto it or something, but it looked interesting so I copied it into my Favorites tab. I think it was around the time you started reading the Bible through and as I’m doing the same thing at the moment I thought it would be interesting to read someone else’s observations on it.
I myself am only on Leviticus trying to slog through the various (and so vividly detailed) ways of properly disemboweling a sheep in preparation for the different offerings and sacrifices. Thankfully, having grown up in the church, I’ve read most of the Bible before and know that it gets better or I’d be very tempted to quit at this point.
Anyway, I sort of forgot about your site as I didn’t put it in the correct “Favorites” folder (I have several folders divided up by categories. Yeah, I’m anal retentively awesome like that.) until tonight when I saw it sitting in the general interest section and wondered what it was. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a recipe site for my favorite ever cocktail (although now that I think about it, that would be a pretty small and inconsequential site), but thankfully it was even better.
I’m really enjoying going back over your old entries and I think my IQ has gone up a few points in the reading of them. In the future, I’ll be sure to try to join in any discussions that might take place here as I think that they could be fun as well as informative. Also I’m guessing that there will far fewer instances of the pseudo-word “pwn-ed” in the comments which is always a good thing.
Basically what I’m trying to say is: Hi! Your site is Bad. Ass.
Cheers,
Matt
P.S. I will have to seek out that C.S. Lewis book. I’ve read and enjoyed most of his others, but somehow this one has escaped my attention until now.
P.P.S. Chivalry isn’t completely dead, (despite radical feminism’s best attempts to quash it) it’s just that those of us who still subscribe to its tenets have to be quasi-covert about it until we’re sure that we’re in the presence of Ladies who actually appreciate that sort of thing. Dirty looks, eye-rolls and/or lectures about being able to do it their selves when opening a door or staying to the street side of a woman while walking down the sidewalk get awfully tiresome after awhile.
Thanks very much, Matt! Also, I’m glad that you consider a blog about books to be “bad ass.” What an awesome adjective, eh!? One of my favs, to be sure.
It’s true, feminism tries to convince women that if a man does something for you it’s because he thinks you’re too weak to do it yourself, which is hardly the case at all. I understand how feminist idea might have started and I am all for women’s rights, but ultimately “feminazi’s” have done less good for women than they suppose. I don’t want to be treated as “less than a man,” but I don’t want to be treated “like a man” either. Right? So let chivalry live on!
Well, there are a million and one political blogs of which I’m a fan or several, but there are very few literature ones. Most of those are run by snooty pseudo-intellectuals who adore authors like Richard Dawkins and his “The God Delusion” and think that it drives a nail into Christianity’s coffin. It’s nice to find a blog where someone reads the kind of books that I like to read and makes intelligent, but not condescending observations about them.
Also, blogs about books…scratch that…GOOD blogs about books are bad ass, because books are bad ass.
) I wish I had as much time to read as I did when I was a kid, but with the interference of adulthood it becomes more difficult as my time keeps getting pulled between working during the day, doing music at night, going to the gym, going to church and sleeping. 
)
Anyway, as regards the chivalry topic and all that entails, I would recommend that you check out “Wild At Heart” by John Eldridge and “Captivating” by John and his wife Staci. Both great books about masculinity and femininity from a Christian perspective; what’s missing in today’s men and women and how to fix it.
On a whim, I just read Blimpophobia in my Church’s library. What an astonishingly relevant piece. Our own country’s department of homeland security may need the same kind of critique. The brilliant insight of Lewis, he’s a critic of pacifism but clearly sees that a blind rejection or phobia of pacifism counter-intuitively leads toward pacifism and increases the chances of war. Masculine virility is virtuous, Lewis seems to be saying, but it’s self-defeating if it knee-jerk reacts to things that sniff of the aloof, the effete, the muddleheaded, dare I say the feminine? What a brave thing for Lewis to have written in 1944. Something along a similar lines needs to be written in 2008. Emma, what caused you to read this?
Matt, I’m reading a 1990 book by Bill Hybels: “Honest to God: Becoming an Authentic Christian.” Consider this passage at page 38: “The freedom of authentic masculinity is an amazing thing to see. It produces a “divine elasticity” in men. Finally, they can lead with firmness, then submit with humility. They can challenge with a cutting edge; then encourage with enthusiasm. They can fight aggressively for just causes, then moments later weep over suffering. These are masterpieces God had in mind when he created man. God looks at them and says” Very good. You are magnificent creatures — and authentically male.”