![]() ![]() In fact, through the wiles of Screwtape, and bearing in mind that the goal of the Lowerarchy (even in hell, there’s a hierarchy!) is the “anguish and bewilderment of a human soul”, we can learn several essential truths about ourselves – and God. Indeed, there’s a reason the Letters remain so poplar: it underscores with a clever wit and astute wisdom the temptations and weaknesses we all experience as human beings. Knowing this – that it was a work produced devoid of joy – seems fitting for a book that makes the devil – the ultimate joy sapper – its main character.īut, it also makes its brilliance, and humor, even more impressive. “…ut though it was easy to twist one’s mind into the diabolical attitude, it was not fun, or not for long.” “The ease came, no doubt, from the fact that the device of diabolical letters, once you have thought of it, exploits itself spontaneously,” Lewis explains. While it has entertained and enlightened readers for over 70 years – it’s Lewis’ most popular non-Narnia novel – playing the devil, it turns out, was not particularly enjoyable. ![]() ![]() Lewis (1898-1963) said of The Screwtape Letters (1942), his satirical novel featuring Screwtape, a senior demon of the “Lowerarchy”, who writes 31 letters to his novice nephew with advice on how to win the soul of a young man and keep him from “the Enemy” (i.e. “Though I had never written anything more easily, I never wrote with less enjoyment,” beloved author C.S. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |