Tag Archives: C. S. Lewis

Another Inkling, with a Birthday

Tolkien was the subject of yesterday’s post.  He was a member of the famed group of writers known as the Inklings.  Another Inkling was Tolkien’s close friend C. S. Lewis, who was born this day, November 29, in the year 1898.  In light of yesterday’s post, I thought the above quote was quite appropriate.

Clive Staples Lewis was the author of The Chronicles of Narnia as well as The Space Trilogy and a few shorter works of the fantastic.  Most of his writing was nonfiction and dealt with theology.

Like Tolkien, Lewis has been a target of criticism for years, albeit for his nonfiction as much as for his fiction.  Damn these dead white heterosexual men for letting their worldviews influence the fiction they wrote.  Unless of course it’s this week’s approved worldview.

I’m getting really sick of that type of attitude.  I’ve not read all of the Narnia books.  After I finish reading Tolkien that I haven’t read yet or rereading Tolkien that I have, I think I’ll read the rest instead of something published recently.  Just to show how woke I am.  Besides, simiply from a craft perspective, Tolkien and Lewis were better stylists than most writers working today.

John C. Wright Channels Narnia

one birght star to guide themOne Bright Star to Guide Them
John C. Wright
Castalia House
ebook $2.99

I’ve not read all of the Narnia books (I’m sorry! I will correct this defect in my reading ASAP.) I have read enough of them to see the influence of the Narnia books in this novella by John C. Wright.

What we have here isn’t a pastiche. You won’t find Peter or Lucy or Aslan or any of the other characters from C. S. Lewis’ classic fantasy in these pages. But their presence permeates the book.

Tommy is a single middle aged man. He’s just been given a promotion, and after celebrating a little too much that night, he drops his keys into the rose bush beside his steps while trying to unlock the door. After fumbling for them in the dark, he looks at the statue of St. George in the churchyard across the street to help him find “the key that I have lost”. What he pulls out of the bush is a black cat with a silver key about it’s neck. Continue reading

I Look at Lilith by George MacDonald

Lilith Back Cover HRMy latest post of Black Gate on the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series is George MacDonald’s Lilith.  This one is an allegory that has some really weird passages in it.

The book also had a major influence on C. S. Lewis.  There’s some speculation that MacDonald’s use of mirrors to travel to other worlds may have influenced The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.   And of course, MacDonald was friends with Lewis Carroll, so Alice may have influenced George.