My wife and I read Neil Gaiman's Coraline during our recent trip to Boston. It was an interesting and quirky book; having seen the movie first didn't take anything away. In fact, this is a case where the movie may be better than the original book.
The series revolves around a town where teenagers are coming back to life (zombies)
I'm a fan of Lewis and have read Narnia many times over the years and his popular apolgetics books at least once. But I've never heard of this "Great War" nor of this Barfield. Can you elaborate? It seems I've long missed some interesting Lewis material.Originally Posted by Ockeghem
One of the key topics in Lewis's "Great War" with Barfield was whether imagination -- and I hold that literature is an expressive projection of the imagination -- is a valid road to (philosophic) truth. (To state it more succinctly, whether imagination is a valid road to truth.) I think so. Lewis' response was quite nuanced. Originally, in their argument (which went on for years), he did not accept the imaginative route as valid. I think he came to accept it as such, but with important qualifiers.
Originally Posted by DaveF
There is much to be gotten from Lewis outside of "Narnia."
Regards,Myths, Lewis told Tolkien, were "lies and therefore worthless, even though breathed through silver."
"No," Tolkien replied. "They are not lies." Far from being lies they were the best way — sometimes the only way — of conveying truths that would otherwise remain inexpressible. We have come from God, Tolkien argued, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily toward the true harbor, whereas materialistic "progress" leads only to the abyss and the power of evil.
"In expounding this belief in the inherent truth of mythology," wrote Tolkien's biographer, Humphrey Carpenter, "Tolkien had laid bare the center of his philosophy as a writer, the creed that is at the heart of The Silmarillion." It is also the creed at the heart of all his other work. His short novel, Tree and Leaf, is essentially an allegory on the concept of true myth, and his poem, "Mythopoeia," is an exposition in verse of the same concept.
Building on this philosophy of myth, Tolkien explained to Lewis that the story of Christ was the true myth at the very heart of history and at the very root of reality...
...Such a revelation changed Lewis' whole conception of Christianity, precipitating his conversion.
Just this past weekend there was a PBS documentary on this story. The filmmaker followed in McCandless' footsteps and interviewed a number of people who knew him. One guy, it turns out, had found his backpack in the bus (which the police foolishly and completely missed). It was believed to be empty but he found a hidden compartment which contained numerous forms of ID for Chris, plus $300 in cash. This implies that maybe he intended to return if his adventure failed.Originally Posted by DaveF
Finished listening to audiobook of Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer. Quite interesting book. As with his Into Thin Air, it was an exciting, tragic story of extreme outdoorsmanship.