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Tolkien and the Death of C.S. Lewis

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• Tolkien and the Death of C.S. Lewis

• Tolkien and the Death of C.S. Lewis

  Alcuin > April 5th, 2005, 07:13 PM

• Tolkien and the Death of C.S. Lewis

  Alvin Eriol > April 6th, 2005, 12:04 AM

  I don't have any light to shed on this outside of what anyone may glean from the relevant Letters. Letter # 261 seems IMO particularly telling, in which he defends Lewis' memory in response to certain others who in his opinion didn't know what they were talking about and ignorantly if not maliciously misrepresented Lewis.

  Quote:...I wish it could be forbidden that after a great man is dead, little men should scribble over him, who have not and must know they have not sufficient knowledge of his life and character to give them any key to the truth.

  .
  
  Maybe Tolkien, in view of the fact that he'd been estranged from Lewis and disliked certain of his works, particularly the Williams-influenced ones, was recusing himself, if you will, on the grounds he should be disqualified from such commentary on Lewis, lest for those reasons he would fail to do Lewis justice? The Letters do IMO seem to rule out animousity or bitterness.
  
  That's my take, anyway.
  
  I'll go grab some sleep now, and resume scribbling over dead great men another day. :crown:

• Tolkien and the Death of C.S. Lewis

  Alcuin > April 6th, 2005, 01:42 AM

• Tolkien and the Death of C.S. Lewis

  inked > April 13th, 2005, 11:46 AM

  Also, Tolkien and Lewis were both of the mind that an authors' works were significant for their ideas. They abominated the concept of the life of the author as the definitive source, or even a significant source, or information about the works they produced. Lewis addresses this in "The Personal Heresy" an essay on criticism. I strongly suspect that Tolkien was disinclined to provide ammunition for the already vast literary "critics" in the way of enablement of that error.
  
  Also, given the climate of their times and the bonds of friendship and spiritual comeraderie which persisted with all the known consequences of the "law of undulation", I rather think Tolkien was loathe to comment on a very personal matter. He was critical of Lewis' latter works and thought LETTERS TO MALCOM CHIEFLY ON PRAYER particularly dreadful in parts (as noted in a letter to his son, IIRC). Given the background of the Inklings, I rather suspect he wouldn't go public because Lewis could not respond similarly (on even the level of the B&B conversations). And Chas. Williams was a source of disagreement betwixt them, but not so much that it did not result in mutual contributions to his festschrift.
  
  Then again, the cult of personality to which we have become addicted, did not exist in the same mode, either. So the courtesy of the turn of the century (19th to 20th) persisted.
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