Talk:The Screwtape Letters

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Is the Bill Waterson statement confirmed? Wormwood is just a herb, so there might be other explanations, unless he's said so himself, of course.

He has said so himself. See The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book, or, if that's not readily available, the cast page on the official web site. --Paul A 04:58, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Contents 1 Satire 2 The Guardian 3 Problem of Hell 4 Tolkien 5 Reference to "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" 6 Identity of "Patient" 7 Request for Clarification

[edit] Satire

Shouldn't the satirical nature of the work be mentioned in the article? As the whole book is written from the perspective of a demon, and everything bad is mentioned as a great thing for the progress of the patient it is certainly a satire. I just don't know where to put it, is satire considered a genre? 208.97.117.154 07:02, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

No. You are silly.--208.97.117.154 13:52, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Guardian

hfgytreytr I believe the link to "The Guardian" is incorrect. Lewis published in a now-defunct Anglican (?) periodical of that name, and what is now "The Guardian" (where the link will lead readers) was then called the "Manchester Guardian". Can anyone confirm this? The link should be fixed, and maybe an explanatory phrase inserted in the text.

--Lavintzin 22:27, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

You are absolutely correct (Lewis clearly states that "The Guardian" of which he speaks was defunct by 1961), and I have made the correction.

John W. Kennedy 23:45, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Problem of Hell

I have reverted the edit that added "Lewis fails to explain why a loving God would condemn anyone to Hell, see Problem of Hell." This seems more editorial than encylopedic. --betakate 18:58, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

I've put my comments back further down the article. Barbara Shack 18:04, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Tolkien

The sentence about Tolkien is close to meaningless, and the comment in the source purporting to explain it is ridiculous.

John W. Kennedy 23:53, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

I'd be in favor of taking the sentence out. CSL and JRRT "parted" only in the sense of their not spending a whole lot of time together later in life; I believe that had more to do with JRRT's dislike of CSL's wife than with any religious disagreements. -- Narsil 02:27, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Reference to "Screwtape Proposes a Toast"

This article on the "Screwtape Letters" references his sequel, "Screwtape Proposes a Toast", and that this work ("Screwtape proposes a Toast") is a work where C. S. Lewis speculates in more detail on the subject of "soul consumption".

I have to disagree with this in view of Lewis' own words in what was going to be his preface to a collection of his works of which the "Toast" was to be the title essay. This preface was written in 1962. According to Lewis' preface, "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" is an indictment of education, more specifically, education in America. In this writing, which was lost for awhile, C. S. Lewis explicitly states this.

This is what the publisher (see below re: the copy I own) adds relative to the preface Lewis wrote and "Screwtape Proposes a Toast": "This criticism of American education was written in 1962 as a preface to a collection of which the "Toast" was to be the title essay. After Lewis died, his publisher gave the book a new form, one result of which was that Lewis' preface was lost. Now recovered, it is published here for the first time."

Examination of Lewis' own words will prove this.

Lewis starts off in his preface: ""Screwtape Proposes a Toast" was written years after the original "Screwtape Letters". It takes over from them the technique of what may be called diabolical ventriloquism. Screwtape's outlook is like a photographic negative; his whites are our blacks and whatever he welcomes we ought to dread. But in the original Letters this device was applied to the religious and moral life of an individual. In the "Toast" the main subject is education."

A little further in the same writing Lewis stated: "The tendency in education which I was deploring has gone further in America than anywhere else. If I had been writing "straight" my article would have been an attack on the "public schools" in America."

The tendency in education he was refering to is what many policy makers (mainly conservative policy makers) in this country have condemned the public education system of doing in that it has lowered academic standards, has made it impossible for teachers to teach subjects of any substantive value or even to be teachers, and to grade and assess students' progress honestly - even if it means they have to fail some of the students.

I offer this quote from Lewis' preface as proof that this was his viewpoint as well: "In my view there is a sense in which education ought to be democratic and another sense in which it ought not. It ought to be democratic in the sense of being available, without distinction of sex, colour, class, race or religion, to all who can - and will - diligently accept it. But once the young people are inside the school there must be no attempt to establish a factitious egalitarianism between the idlers and dunces on the one hand and the clever and industrious on the other. A modern nation needs a very large class of genuinely educated people, and it is the primary function of schools and universities to supply them. To lower standards or disguise inequalities is fatal."

My source for making these points are from my own personal copy of the "Screwtape Letters", which includes "Screwtape Proposes a Toast", as well what would have been C. S. Lewis' preface to this second collection of his works.

The particular copy of the book I possess is "The Screwtape Letters", Revised Edition, and was published by Collier Books, Macmillan Publishing Company, in 1982.

In view of the above, this article should be revised to state what C. S. Lewis' intention was when he wrote "Screwtape Proposes a Toast", in that it was his indictment of public education, more specifically, American public education.

Layreader 18:32, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Identity of "Patient"

The paragraph "An interesting observation is that, although English-speaking readers from one of the Allied countries naturally consider the 'Patient' to be a young Englishman, there is absolutly no indication that this is the case, and the protagonist could with perfect ease be taken to be British, German, French, or any other nationality. To Lewis, as to the devils, it was a matter of perfect indifference whether the 'Patient' was a heroic RAF fighter pilot, a Nazi Stormtrooper, or an Italian peasant farmer - all are human, and all may be saved or damned for essentially internal moral reasons."

is clearly eronious since in Chapter VI Wormwood is encouraged to consider inflaming the Patient's malice for the Germans and Screwtape also complains that for such hatred the English are the 'most deplorable milksops'

129.67.20.84 10:11, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

Screwtape worries that the Patient's hatred for Germans is not sufficient to keep him (or other Englishmen) from being generous or forgiving to individual members of the German Army. Also, the patient is definitely not an RAF pilot, as he is never drafted into the military and has some sort of civilian role which he performs during Luftwaffe bomb raids. Fixed the paragraph referenced above in light of this information. Daniel B. Douglas 14:47, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Request for Clarification

"References are made to demons known only as 'ST' and 'WW,' (for it had become a crime in hell to even speak their real names) who had their letters found by a human and were punished by Beelzebub for their incompetence."

Since Kreeft and Alcorn are mentioned in the same paragraph, it is not clear whether the references are made in Kreeft's book, Alcorn's book, or some third work.Darkfrog24 19:33, 9 March 2007 (UTC)