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SCREWTAPE

                                         08/02/02

C.S. Lewis  -  _The Screwtape Letters_

                                  (originally published
                                  during the second world war
                                  with an addendum in 1961)

Lewis understands much about
the mind games human beings
play with themselves...

It's depressing that he was
incapable of seeing his own           Nothing new, though:
Christianity as just another
mind game.                            Human beings can often
                                      see great distances in
                                      one direction, but seem
                                      totally blindfolded in
                                      another.



             I'm of the opinion that trying to
             be "positive" about something is a
             losing game.

             It's extremely difficult to do
             without coming off as an inane
             pollyanna.  But there's a
             simple trick for getting around           DOUBLE_THE_NEGATIVE
             this in using double-negatives.


   Positive advice:                  Double-Negative advice:

  "Just tell yourself:               "Hey, you're no more screwed
  'I am a worthwhile person'"        up than anyone else."



               _The Screwtape Letters_ is a triumph
              of the double negative.  The demon
              Screwtape carefully recommends
              different methods of confusing human
              beings, and we know that we're
              supposed to take this as a warning to
              avoid these kinds of traps.


Imagine this was written in a
more straight-forward way, as
a set of sermons explaining                C.S. Lewis mentions that
how you're supposed to think...            the book seems unbalanced
Would it work at all?                      without the angelic point
                                           of view, but he didn't feel
                                           up to writing it.

                                                 I think I know
                                                 the feeling.

Lewis shows a tremendous amount of
discipline in keeping the book brief.                     GENTLER
He resisted the temptation to milk a
very popular schtick.

      Consider the way one of the current
      crop of writers would work up this
      idea:

           Why limit yourself to just *one* side
           of the conversation?  The reader has to
           keep making all those inferences about
           what the letters from Wormwood are
           like.  How about including an
           occasional missive from Slubgob in the
           file?  Why not a transcript of
           Screwtape's interrogation at the hands
           of the secret police?  Oh and those
           love letters exchanged between
           Wormwood's "patient" and lover?  Oh,
           and how about the communications with
           the other junior demons riding the
           lover and the mother, and...

           And where are the sequels?  How about

              Screwtape goes West
              Screwtape in Space
              Screwtape goes to Washington
              Screwtape in Disneyland
              Screwtape does Dallas
              Screwtape in Redmond





      "Music and silence -- how I detest them both!  How
      thankful we should be that ever since our Father entered
      Hell -- though longer ago than humans, reckoning in light
      years, could express -- no square inch of infernal space
      and no moment of infernal time has been surrendered to
      either of those abominable forces, but all has been
      occupied by Noise -- Noise, the grand dynamism, the
      audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and
      virile -- Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms,
      despairing scruples, and impossible desires.  We will
      make the whole universe a noise in the end.  We have
      already made great strides in this direction as regards
      the Earth.  The melodies and silences of Heaven will be
      shouted down in the end.  But I admit we are not yet loud
      enough, or anything like it.  Research is in progress."


                         "Screwtape", pp 202/203
                         Macmillan Paper edition.




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