Litsy

A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-18 | Joseph Loconte

I had just purchased this tagged book for my brother when I read this in A Letter for Mary.As a very young precocious reader,my brother was wild for Tolkien & owned many first editions.He lost everything in a fire when wild fires in CA burned down his house,garage, brewery.His family got out;he suffered burns on his arms. Fortunately I had borrowed his letters from Father Christmas, so he has this original book.We sibs celebrate #Jólabókaflóðið

AnnCrystal That's horrible 📚 glad he escaped 🙏💝. 3d

Jari-chan I'm sorry for what happened to your brother, but am glad that they got out 🙏 3d

kspenmoll @AnnCrystal @Jari-chan This happened about 15 years ago- they rebuilt & all is well. Thank you for your concern- Tolkien throws be back to that time. (edited) 3d

LeahBergen I‘m sure he‘s going to love this gift! ❤️ 3d

AnnCrystal @kspenmoll that's good 😘💝. 2d

35 likes5 comments

Enchanted_Bibliophile

The Screwtape Letters | C.S. Lewis

pick

I've been meaning to re-read this book.
Enjoyed it just as much this time around, with the added bonus of Screwtape's speech.

42 likes

Sace

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe | C.S. Lewis

#sundayfunday @BookmarkTavern

Tagging @LeafingThroughLife @Karkar @Decalino @Clare-Dragonfly and @Jari-chan

BookmarkTavern A wonderful pick! Thanks for sharing! 3w

38 likes1 comment

Rome753

The Problem of Pain | C. S. Lewis

pick

Found this interesting. Some of C.S. Lewis's arguments could be difficult to follow. While I might not agree with every point, I still found the book thought-provoking.

20 likes

Doppoetry

The Last Battle | C. S. Lewis

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so-so

Reading this last book felt as if you were at the beach, building a big, beautiful sand castle and a toddler ran up and trampled all of your hard work, and then said toddler ran off giggling. I am fully aware that it‘s a product of its time but I also don‘t think that excuses this piece of literature from being criticized and discussed in contemporary terms. Nor does it excuse the harmful material in it. --

Doppoetry There is so much to unpack here. I did not care for the ape and donkey subplot at all, this was the least believable plotline in a fantasy novel I have ever read, there is only so much stretching of the imagination that you can have before it just comes off like utter nonsense. 1mo

Doppoetry The ending of the world starts, with people and animals killing everyone and being killed left and right with a “trust me bro” type explanation of “I saw it in the stars” I imagine it‘s a not-very-subtle reference to armageddon. We see more racism with more of the stand in Middle Eastern people invading Narnia, there is a lore dump and it‘s revealed that Narnia has fallen and all the people are dead. The last surviving king of Narnia is devastated 1mo

Doppoetry -- He then Aragorn‘s his way through enemies, feels bad, surrenders, and then ends up dying. We also reach a new low with blackface, because that really is what these books were missing. In the end, everyone who has ever existed goes to superheaven, except for Susan, of course.
(edited) 1mo

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Doppoetry There is that revelation that the kids all died in a train crash and now they are in perma superheaven and it‘s supposed to be a happy ending but it reads like a delusional mess. Acting like Christianity is the only ‘valid‘ religion harms this work more than it helps it. I understand it‘s essentially religious fanfiction, but acting like these books are for “White Christian people only” is not doing this book/books any favors.
1mo

Doppoetry Susan (who is probably like 21 now) is “No longer a friend of Narnia” because she is now mostly interested in “stockings and makeup” and having a social life in the real world. I don‘t want to read TOO much into this as a commentary on women in general or people who lack faith and focus on other things. But considering how Lewis treats this character throughout the series--
1mo

Doppoetry -I don‘t doubt that he had some personal issue with anyone who isn‘t as devoted to Christian Teachings as him. Growing up is a part of life, everyone grows up. To hold that against this character is bizarre. I can‘t even begin to unpack everything wrong with how Susan is treated in these books, nor do I particularly want to.
1mo

Doppoetry I will only say that the overall message of “Susan is not barred from superheaven completely, but will be accepted into superheaven if she starts to blindly believe in everything Aslanjesus stands for and stops thinking about temptations (aka living her life)” isn‘t it.

1mo

Texreader Agree!!!! Such a downer for the series. 1mo

TieDyeDude Bummer. I remember my mom had a box set of this series. I always planned on reading it, but never did, and I don't have a lot of interest in it as an adult. (edited) 1mo

Doppoetry @TieDyeDude I would not recommend it, now that I've gotten through the whole thing. There are better works of fiction for children out there from the same time period. (edited) 1mo

3 likes10 comments

Doppoetry

The Silver Chair | Clive Staples Lewis

so-so

So far I liked this one the most, it felt like it took a page out of Tolkien's Hobbit. There was a grand-scale adventure with an end goal in mind and the adventure felt natural rather than “we have to do this because the plot demands it“. This would have been a solid 4-star hands down, except for the sexism that came out of left field at the moment.

“The school was bad because a woman was in charge, by the way“ isn't exactly a gotcha.

Doppoetry I really liked Puddleglum, he's exactly the type of character I feel for and it was nice having an adult character to take action and be a voice of reason and a type of mentor character.

I'm not sure how to feel about Lewis basing the character on his Gardner and giving him all these negative traits. (not that a character shouldn't have flaws, but his treatment in the book is a bit unkind) 1mo

Doppoetry I know I sound so redundant and probably come off so hateful towards this piece of fiction but the narrative of “Strong woman/woman with authority = bad“ bothers me a lot. We shouldn't teach young boys, hell, young kids in general to blindly follow faith, or teach them misogyny from a young age, this is harmful, considering the world we live in today. 1mo

Doppoetry I don't think religion in itself is bad, quite the opposite. Religion is important to many people, and there is nothing wrong with learning about morals and knowing general peace and where your soul goes. What I don't like is when men start misinterpreting or interpreting a religious text in order to manipulate people, especially young children who don't know any better. 1mo

Doppoetry Sorry, this turned into a rant, onto the final book! 1mo

4 likes4 comments

Doppoetry

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: The Chronicles of Narnia | C. S. Lewis

so-so

I didn't particularly like or hate this one. This had the skeleton of a good nautical story in there but a lot of it felt unpolished. Lewis drew from Homeric influences as well as Norse and Irish mythology and folklore, so that was interesting.

I have to keep telling myself that this is children's lit, and not judge the lack of... everything too harshly, but then The Hobbit exists. but I digress. It just doesn't have that “ummph“ moment.

3 likes

Doppoetry

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: The Chronicles of Narnia | C. S. Lewis

The soft void creature is overseeing my work #catsoflitsy

rubyslippersreads 😻 1mo

8 likes1 comment

Doppoetry

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: The Chronicles of Narnia | C. S. Lewis

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

🎧Lud in the Mist
🎧Rise of the King
🎧Dawn Treader

Progress:
Really needed to catch up on my reading goal so I started the Narnia books and have been getting through one of them a day. Hoping to finish Dawn Treader later today. Lud has been a delight to read through and i'll get back to Drizzt novels after Narnia in a few days. Will probably finish all of the remaining Narnia books this upcoming week.

5 likes