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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
             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          
                         page 202/203,      
                         Macmillan Paper Ed.




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