What you may not know about C.S. Lewis
Howdy my friends and greetings from the Great Plains of
North Texas!
I'll admit I've had a fascination with C.S. Lewis for quite some
time now and wanted to share some facts about him that you
may find interesting.
First of all his initials. I've seen and read his books over the
years but never stopped to think what his initials stood for.
Are you ready? Clive Staples.
Now...some people say that he went by his initials because
that was considered more sophisticated especially for an
author and professor and intellectual and I understand that
but come on!
I think that was just a convenient excuse not to have to use
his hideous name! I mean he himself didn't call himself
Clive or Staples, he called himself Jack and wanted to be
called Jack..can you blame him?
Ok Clive ain't that bad I reckon but Staples??? who is named
after an office supply store? Alright so his given name sucked
and he went by Jack which is a great name, our German
Shepard is named Jack.
Anyway the other thing I think is interesting is that he is
known as an English author but he is actually Irish and was
born in Belfast.
I have NO doubt that God put Mr. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien
together at Oxford because they became very close friends,
the best of friends actually, and literally crafted a scheme
which was as brilliant as they were.
Being committed Believers they wanted to get Biblical truth
out into the world but they didn't want to openly preach
the Gospel because they weren't preachers and knew that
method would instantly throw up walls of resistance to
their message.
Mr. Lewis knew this very well because he was an atheist
earlier in his life. Well they both had a love of fairy tales
and myths so they conspired to each write a series of
stories with Biblical themes and principles built into them,
thus disguising their true mission.
Hence we have The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and
also The Chronicles of Narnia. In this way the two gentlemen
were able to slip powerful but subtle Biblical principles and
precepts "under the radar" into society.
I could write alot about C.S. Lewis but I know ya'll are busy
so I'll continue another time, thanks so much for reading.
God bless you all!
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck
ps- you might be a redneck if:
Fast Food is hitting a possum at 80 miles an hour!
C. S. Lewis was a minimalist in language expression and defended the profound meaning of words with their practical denotation: “the most important sense of a word is not always the most useful... Men do not long continue to think what they have forgotten how to say.” So, in a way, I think that he abbreviated what was "evident" to him and had "meaning" for his linguistic sensibility was such that not only granted him access to the Inkings but helped him encode meaning into simple words... With the loss of Joy Davidman, whose children he was to raise as his own, Lewis published "A Grief Observed" under the pseudonym N. W. Clerk... Possibly, N. stood for "new," and W. stood for "widow"... I could write long and wide, I simply do not have a moment right now. ∜mp
oh this was perfect for you to analyze because Lewis was such a large literary figure! very interesting assessment if that's what it was, I don't quite understand all of it. I do know about his grief book and that is very insightful that the initials probably stood for New Widow, I bet it did. thanks so much @me422us for what you add to the comments.
It was rather "touching a common fiber"... I use myself abbreviations for pen names... :)
oh I understand, very good!
Clive Staples? I didn't know that. I can see why he went by the name Jack. Thanks for this post, I learned something new today. @ironshield
thank you sir! I always learn alot from your posts also!
Sneaky boys! It worked though so hats off to their ingenuity!
yes Ma'am it was a real conspiracy that worked!
how is the situation down there, is an update coming?
Probably later today. All is not well here! The conflict grows...
man I hate that!
I actually really like the name Clive - I might be the only one. I'm enamored with him at the moment. I am almost done reading the complete Chronicles of Narnia to my son at bedtime, one chapter at a time. It has taken ages. The farther you get into the stories the more you catch onto the religious undertones. They go over my son's head. I really like the way he portrays Aslan - peaceful, wise, loving. Those are the attributes I sense when I think of God, which I never really felt was portrayed in a church as well. C. S. Lewis does a good job.
thank you so much for your comments @ginnyannette and when I wrote this up I said to myself someone with the name Clive is going to harass me! lol, no it's not a bad name at all..unless you combine it with Staples!
That is so cool that you are reading those to your son and even if he doesn't realize the spiritual principles they are still being downloaded so that is very good. Yes many churches are quite dead and don't convey the love, wisdom, power and awesomeness of who and what God truly is.
God bless you!