The Narnian, ch 3 . . .

In this chapter we get Lewis's final years of schooling before university, and these were the best years in many ways for him, as he lived and studied with the "Great Knock," William Kirkpatrick. Here Lewis's logical and debating skills were honed, and he thoroughly enjoyed the freedom from the torments of his earlier schools.

His reading included "popular fiction, classic English novels, all of his classical, Italian, and German literature . . . [and] the greatest English poets" (63). His favorite reading was "Spenser's Faerie Queene . . . . "the prose and verse narratives of William Morris" . . . . and "everything he could find by Yeats" (63).

Jacobs quotes from a letter from Lewis to his friend Arthur Greeves:

"never since I first read [Morris's] 'The well at the world's end' have I enjoyed a book so much--and indeed I think my new 'find' is quite as good as Malory or Morris himself. The book . . . is George MacDonald's 'Faerie Romance,' Phantastes" (63).

I've chosen The Well at the World's End for my 401 students for later in the semester; I'll have to remember to point this out to them.

Jacobs points out that during his stay with Kirkpatrick, Lewis adopted a "materialist view of myth"; to him all myths, including the Christian myth, grew out of the natural processes and events in the world (48). Lewis himself wrote, "The two hemispheres of my mind were in the sharpest contrast. On the one side a many-islanded sea of poetry and myth; on the other a glib and shallow 'rationalism.' Nearly all that I loved I believed to be imaginary; nearly all that I believed to be real I thought grim and meaningless." (49)

I've known people like this, who deeply appreciate the beauty and delight that Lewis encountered in myth and poetry, though they may encounter it in different ways. It is a balm to them in their otherwise grim and meaningless lives. It saddens me. And makes me thankful for the grace of integrity in true Christianity.

After reading this chapter, I wished I had read it before I re-read the trilogy. All the way through THS, I was wondering if McPhee was modeled on someone Lewis knew; B[arfield], Humphreys, Tolkien, and Williams are all mentioned by name. Jacobs claims that Kirkpatrick is the model for McPhee as well as for Professor Kirke in the Narnia stories. It makes sense--wish I'd made the connection myself!