5 November 2013 - C. S. LEWIS




C.S. LEWIS




G'day folks,
Today I feature a well known author - C. S. Lewis.


Clive Staples Lewis was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Born on 29th November 1898, he was widely known for his fictional work especially books such as The Chronicles of Narnia, The Space Trilogy and many others. His friends and family called him Jack though. He was a writer, poet, essayist and analyst. 


From a very young age, he displayed a keen interest in anthropomorphic animals. Also he loved to read, for him reading books was a simple task. His childhood was happy and carefree. Before being enrolled in a school, he was previously being tutored privately. In 1908, after his mother’s death, he and his brother joined a school. This was when he was just nine years old. After that, he joined the Campbell College but left shortly after being diagnosed with respiratory problems. From there on-wards, he attended the Cherbourg House, a preparatory school.




In 1916, he received a full-fledge scholarship from Oxford University. This was what formed his faith and he turned into an atheist. In order to join the army, he took a short break from studies but returned after being wounded. Over there, he made some really good friends. 

As a young boy, he was deeply inspired by Scandinavian literature. As he grew up, he gradually started to admire nature, modern languages such as Italian, German and French and the beautiful things that surrounded him. His teenage writings began to adopt different forms as he moved from one place to another. His mass appeal was wide since he wrote more than 30 books each year. While in Oxford, he wrote for Reveille that was C. S. Lewis first publication.


After graduating from his university, he began to contribute to various other publications. He wrote a volume on the 16th Century English literature. The publication became an instant classic. In recognition of his efforts, he received the Gollancz Memorial Prize for Literature. The money that he got from contributing to Screwtape Letters was given to the charity. Sometime later, he also gave live shows on radio based on the talks of Right and Wrong. There were different things that he talked about such as “What Christians believe” and “Christian behaviour”. In 1948, much to his dismay, he was elected in the Royal Society of Literature as a fellow; however he lost the election as a professor. Being disappointed, he rejected the election to the Order of the British Empire. His books, The Allegory of love is considered a master piece till today.




Later on, he became occupied with the health situation of his wife. After her death, his health began to worsen. He died on November 22, 1963. He is remembered all over the world by his readers and continues to be a role model for generations.


Famous quotes by C. S. Lewis
 
“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”


“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”


“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”


“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”




“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”



Clancy's comment: Mm ... interesting character, eh?


I'm ...







Think about this!

 

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