But if the lords were glum, the common people in the streets were huzzaing and throwing caps in the air. It would have puffed me up if I had not looked in their faces. There I could read their mind easily enough. Neither I nor Glome was in their thoughts. Any fight was a free show for them; and a fight of a woman with a man better still because an oddity–as those who can’t tell one tune from another will crowd to hear the harp if a man plays it with his toes.
~ Character in Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.
From all my lame defeats and oh! much more
From all the victories that I seem to score;
From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf
At which, while angels weep, the audience laugh;
From all my proofs of Thy divinity
Thou, who wouldst give no other sign, deliver me
Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust instead
Of Thee, their thin-worn image of my head.
From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee
O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.
Lord of the narrow gate and the needle’s eye,
Take me from all my trumpery lest I die.
~ The Apologists Evening Prayer
God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts to us in our pains. Suffering is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.
He wants a child’s heart, but a grown up’s head.
He who converts his neighbour has performed the most practical Christian-political act of all.
~ in God in the Dock
I had known Redival’s tears ever since I could remember. They were not wholly feigned, nor much dearer than ditchwater…. It’s likely enough she meant less mischief than she had done (she never knew how much she meant) and was now, in her fashion, sorry; but a new brooch, much more a new lover, would have had her drying her eyes and laughing in no time.
~ Character in Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
I want God, not my idea of God.
It burned me from within. It quickened; I was with book, as a woman is with child.
~ Character in Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
The one sin the gods never forgive us is that of being born women.
~ Character in Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.
“We’ve had scores of matches together. The gods never made anyone–man or woman–with a better natural gift for it. Oh, Lady, Lady, it’s a thousand pities they didn’t make you a man.” (He spoke it as kindly and heartily as could be; as if a man dashed a gallon of cold water in your broth and never doubted you’d like it all the better.)
~ Character in Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
When I fail as a critic I may yet be useful as a specimen.
Yet it surprised me that he should have said it; for I did not yet know that, if you are ugly enough, all men (unless they hate you deeply) soon give up thinking of you as a woman at all.
~ Character in Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
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C.S. Lewis, John F. Kennedy, and Aldous Huxley all died within just a few hours of each other. Peter Kreeft explores their worldviews through an imaginary conversation held “on the other side.” Well worth the read!
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C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
I enjoy reading books that have been recommended by people I know. Sometimes I like them, sometimes I don’t. However, I almost always benefit from reading them if for no other reason than I come to know a little better the person who suggested the book.
When someone tells me that a book was meaningful to them, that they enjoyed it, or that it changed them, and I follow-up by reading that book myself, I have connected with that person on a much different level than if I had coffee with them or sat in Sunday School with them.
Thus, when I noticed on Barry Creamer’s blog profile that Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
Although we rarely seem to make contact, I consider Barry to be one of my most precious friends. I think he is the best preacher of our generation, I admire his commitment to family and church, I am challenged by his understanding of the history of ideas, and,… well, you get the idea. He is an amazing fellow and I looked forward to engaging a book that is one of his favorites.
Thus, I came to the book with pretty high expectations. During the first 100 pages the book fell a little short of those expectations and I found myself wondering just why Barry thought so highly of it. It was interesting, even intriguing, but it was not spectacular. However, I could hardly put the book down during the final two-thirds of the book. I would not go as far as did the New York Herald Tribune when it proclaimed the book, “The most significant and triumphant work that Lewis has yet produced” but I certainly understand why they would think so. It is a great book and without reservation I give it an enthusiastic recommendation.
In Till We Have Faces Lewis reworks the myth of the Psyche and Cupid. It is a compelling story of Love, and Love’s imitators (desire, dependency, etc). Lewis’ adaptation is complete with vibrant characters, an absorbing plot, and many layers of meaning for those who can’t resist the temptation to explore and deconstruct them.
I expect this book to be on my list of favorite books read in 2007. And, I am planning to re-read it soon so it may very well appear on my list of favorite books read in 2008. Lewis once said that if a book was not worth reading multiple times, that it was not worth reading even once. This book has joined the Kevin Canon of books that I periodically re-read.
I hope that you will choose to read it also, and then drop back by to let me know what you think of it.
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Here are some of my favorite quotes from Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
It burned me from within. It quickened; I was with book, as a woman is with child.
~ page 247.
The one sin the gods never forgive us is that of being born women.
~ page 233.
Yet it surprised me that he should have said it; for I did not yet know that, if you are ugly enough, all men (unless they hate you deeply) soon give up thinking of you as a woman at all.
~ page 131.
But if the lords were glum, the common people in the streets were huzzaing and throwing caps in the air. It would have puffed me up if I had not looked in their faces. There I could read their mind easily enough. Neither I nor Glome was in their thoughts. Any fight was a free show for them; and a fight of a woman with a man better still because an oddity–as those who can’t tell one tune from another will crowd to hear the harp if a man plays it with his toes.
~ page 217.
“We’ve had scores of matches together. The gods never made anyone–man or woman–with a better natural gift for it. Oh, Lady, Lady, it’s a thousand pities they didn’t make you a man.” (He spoke it as kindly and heartily as could be; as if a man dashed a gallon of cold water in your broth and never doubted you’d like it all the better.)
~ page 197.
I had known Redival’s tears ever since I could remember. They were not wholly feigned, nor much dearer than ditchwater…. It’s likely enough she meant less mischief than she had done (she never knew how much she meant) and was now, in her fashion, sorry; but a new brooch, much more a new lover, would have had her drying her eyes and laughing in no time.
~ page 63
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