We’re listening to this fine book and this fine series once again right now (first time for my kids), and I’m struck again at how Lewis views so-called “progress.” Delightful. This notion is throughout the book, and the series, and indeed in much of Lewis. But here is one exchange that demonstrates it quite nicely. Isn’t it alarming what deeply evil things are often veiled in a black fog of “progress?”

“Tender as my years may be,” said Caspian, “I believe I understand the slave trade from within quite as well as your Sufficiency. And I do not see that it brings into the islands meat or bread or beer or wine or timber or cabbages or books or instruments of music or horses or armour or anything else worth having. But whether it does or not, it must be stopped.”

“But that would be putting the clock back,” gasped the Governor. “Have you no idea of progress, of development?”

“I have seen them both in an egg,” said Caspian. “We call it Going bad in Narnia. This trade must stop.”

C.S. Lewis, from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

(By the way, Caspian X = King Caspian the 10th.)

“Pleasures are shafts of glory as it strikes our sensibility…I have tried to make every pleasure into a channel of adoration. I don’t mean simply by giving thanks for it. One must of course give thanks, but I meant something different…Gratitude exclaims, very properly, ‘How good of God to give me this.’ Adoration says, ‘What must be the quality of that Being whose far-off and momentary coruscations are like this!’ One’s mind runs back up the sunbeam to the sun…If this is Hedonism, it is also a somewhat arduous discipline. But it is worth some labour.”

C.S. Lewis

HT: C.J. Maheny

Photo credit: jschiller

David Mills makes a list recommending where to begin when reading C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton –it is helpful (HT: Justin Taylor).

Chesterton is fairly new to me, so I have little to say for that part, I’ve only read a few of his books (which I have liked very much, though not with the same intensity as Mr. Lewis).

Here’s my own hasty list of favorite CSL books –for what it’s worth.

Fiction
1. Till We Have Faces (the only easy choice for me)
2. Perelandra
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
4. That Hideous Strength
5. Prince Caspian

Not Fiction
1. The Weight of Glory
2. The Screwtape Letters
3. Poems
4. Surprised by Joy
5. The Abolition of Man

I would also recommend, along with the autobiographical Surprised by Joy, that you consider the book Jack: A Life of C.S Lewis by George Sayer.

Wow, that was pretty hard. Not like storm-the-beach-at-Normandy hard, but, you know –not precisely easy.

I didn’t think about it too much. But I see that so many could easily go up in my list, while it’s hard to send any down. Plus, it’s almost impossible not to mention others, like The Four Loves and The Great Divorce, not to mention the other Narnia books. I guess that’s what makes a great author great.

So what’s your favorite C.S. Lewis work?

Note of Disclosure: The store links are to my Amazon store. If you buy there I get a kickback. In other words –this is all about money to me.

A friend of mine, Jodi, recently asked if I would use a pseudonym/pen name if my book is ever published. OK, so my name is boring. Samuel Smith is my name, along with, according to the N.A.M.E. (Naming Association of Maladroit Educationists) four and two-thirds trillion other people (in Japan alone).
So she suggested S.D. Smith. D is my middle initial, and yes, I was named after a woman named Dale. It’s not a problem; I’m half-woman on my mother’s side anyway. I thought “S.D. Smith” sounded a little pretentious (like the picture that my wife gently insisted that I add), but others like it, and I’m coming around to it.

N.D. Wilson uses initials as an homage to his favorite authors, who happen also to be some of mine (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, P.G. Wodehouse, G.K. Chesterton). And yes, if you don’t know what C.S.L.’s real name is, and what he went by, as well as what the J.R.R. stands for, and what P.G. stands for, then you are D.U.M.B.

O.K., so I don’t know what P.G. stands for. But I do know he was known as “Plum.”

While we’re on the subject of initials, do you know what O.K. stands for? From what I’ve heard (on NPR), it’s short for “All Correct.” Don’t ask me how that happened. “I’m A.C, you’re A.C.”

Jodi’s father (a minor folk-hero, and elder in my church) Kim Buttram, chimed in with characteristic suggestions, for both pen names and book titles.

“A Hole in the Ice” by S.K Moe

“A Walk in the Jungle” by L.E. Phant

“The Little Brick House” by B.B. Wolf

S.D. Smith is sounding better all the time, though B.B. Wolf is not bad.

More fun facts:

Did you know that J.K. Rowling is sort of invented? She is just Joanna Rowling, and has no middle initial, or name to go with it. The K is invented. She was afraid little boys wouldn’t buy a book about a boy if it was written by a lady, so hence the J.K. And I am not “jk.” lol (Who else hates that e-lingo?) lol…ugh.

Also, I had a friend in college whose first name was JB. It was not an initial, either. His last name? Seay. Pronounced “C.” His name was (and is, presumably) JB Seay. Cool huh? Sounds like: JBC. What school did we go to? ABC. And yes, I lettered in basketball and soccer. But I was, at best, a grade “C” player.

Let’s apply this sermon to our hearts

I think I need to stop, because this could go on forever. But you go on without me. Feel free to chime in (in the comments) with suggestions for a pen name, more funny acronym/initial stuff, and recipes for chicken pot pie. Or just comment so I don’t feel so terribly, terribly alone. *Sniff*.

T.T.F.N.