“Tertiary Epic: Lewis’ Space Trilogy and Preface to Paradise Lost”
My paper was accepted for presentation at the annual conference of the C.S. Lewis and the Inklings Society, at Grove City College in Pennsylvania:
In his perhaps under-appreciated Preface to Paradise Lost, C. S. Lewis gives readers of Milton’s poem a strong foundation for understanding what he calls one of the “wonders of the world”. Countering “barbarian” critics who read and interpret the poem “from the wrong side”, Lewis explores it from inside the bounds of “civilization” – the “merry middle earth” of historical and Christian context within which it was written. The Preface not only gives insight into epic poetry in general, and Paradise Lost in particular, but also enlarges upon our understanding of Lewis’ own Space Trilogy. Illuminated by the Preface, the Trilogy takes on new dimension. C. S. Lewis might be said to have created a new form in this work – one which I will call Tertiary Epic as I explore its characteristics. I will give an outline of the Preface, and use Lewis’ own definitions of Primary and Secondary Epic to explain what I believe he has done to expand the dimensions of epic, and of the human person, through the three stories of the Trilogy.
(Note: This is where I met the delightful Eleanor Bourg Donlon, Assistant Editor of Dappled Things, who introduced me to the novels of Josephine Ward, and Dr. Anita Gorman whose wry introduction to the wonderfully awful prose of Amanda Ros sparked an Amanda revival at my house, with readings, and emulations, and clerihews in tribute.)
Here are two alternate abstracts I suggested for that conference:
“The Veiled Self: A Proposal for a Talk on C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces”
Though we see mythic symbolism in the original story of Cupid and Psyche, the characters themselves are not conscious of any supra-personal significance of their lives, or stories. They experience ‘life’ with the same limitation that frustrated the pagan world: the inability to pierce through the mystery of their own being to discover Self’s meaning and purpose. C.S. Lewis invested the myth with his own awareness of the human person fully real-ized in Christ. Though he did not force the story into the role of preparator evangelium, he nonetheless brought to his reading and retelling the illumination of the Incarnation. The effect of the subtle changes he made is to add texture, dimension, and light to myth itself and to our understanding of personhood. Using story as a veil to reveal, rather than to obscure, Lewis gives his characters and readers a glimpse of that Reality for which hearts may only yearn until they encounter Christ. His use of veil imagery is a beautiful reminder of the fragility and infinite value of the souls around us. I look at the way his approach deepens our understanding of the formation and freedom of the human person, whether pagan or Christian.
“Delight With Terror In It – Lessons on Growing Up: A Proposal for a Talk on Lewis’s Perelandra”
In Perelandra, C.S. Lewis traces the trajectory of human maturation through both Ransom’s and the Queen’s struggles to grow up. Both are offered two mirrors – one living, one leading to death. Lewis involves the reader in that critical choice by refusing to downplay either the attraction of the false mirror, or the frustrating nature of the true one. This choice, in Perelandra and in our own formation of Self, involves real risk, exposure, fear, and the certainty of pain. As he did wittily in The Screwtape Letters, Lewis does lyrically in Perelandra: exposes the lies and twisted reasoning that so often derail our progress toward full Christian maturity. The result for Ransom, for Tinedril and Tor, and for us, is an expanded sense of what it means to be human, and to accept the mantle of freedom: “a delight with terror in it”. I will move from the characters’ sense of ‘childhood’ to their ‘adult’ estate, focusing most intensely upon the pivotal, ‘adolescent’ need to experience and resolve the separate Self. It is at this point in their journeys and ours that the enemy most easily introduces the subtle and destabilizing lies that lure us to self-destruction.
Building the Bridge as We Cross It
For the 2006 Kansas City Catholic Home School Conference, I spoke about how we can educate our children well in spite of our own educational deficiencies, and about why we needn’t worry so much about getting them over the raging river of life. You may hear an audio file, ‘pop quiz’ I handed out to participants.
A Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) group requested a talk about homeschooling. I pointed out that it isn’t for everybody, but that its growing popularity is good for all of us. At some level every parent is a ‘primary educator’ of her own children, and in need of the kinds of resources and encouragement to be found in the world of homeschooling. We discussed three ‘levels’ at which they might find themselves offering home-grown education: Temporary/School Prep; Supplemental/School Support; Immersion/School Substitute.
An introduction and discussion of the essay for a college/adult Lewis readings study group. This essay has a huge message in a small space.
A Prayer, A Poem, A Person, A Place
For an interdenominational women’s prayer retreat, in collaboration with Sister Clara Remartini of the Apostles of the Interior Life - What does it mean that a person is God’s ‘poema’, His workmanship? We looked deeply into a poem’s capacity to be a place of encounter. Where ‘poem’ and ‘place’ intersected, we found the human person in his fullness, and so discovered a new sense of what it means to be a prayer. Holy leisure was woven throughout all these thoughts, and of course is the key to a person’s becoming ‘holy ground’ for others. This was one of two talks requested by Katherine Dinsdale – click here for her letter of recommendation.
For an Apostles of the Interior Life women’s retreat called “Let Yourself Be Loved”: Four ways of being loved and, for each, two opposite ways of avoiding that love. Know yourself; Receive the Person of Christ; Accept Loving Discipline; Rest in Sabbath. This talk included a mystery substance, a poem of mine written for the occasion, and a bunch of good know-thyself questions for those who would be loved.
For an interdenominational women's retreat: We discussed coming to grips with the tension of paradox, integration of rationality and imagination, the imagery and power of the veil, the dimensionality of the human person, the movement from myth to incarnation to being, and the realization of beauty, among other things.
Note: At various other times, I’ve offered introductions to Till We Have Faces in different formats.
For the annual conference of all the Collaborators of Your Joy with the Apostles of the Interior Life: What unity is, why seek it out, and how. We looked at four faces of unity – with unbelievers, with taskmasters, with spouses, and with self, through the words of St. Paul to the Ephesians. We considered some lies that eat away at the roots of unity, and Scriptural truths that help free us from those lies.
For the Serra Club of Lawrence, Kansas: A request for prayer for the November, ’08 Catholic-Muslim Forum in Rome. How can we love our neighbor, set aside even religious differences to minister Christ’s love to him, live at peace with all men? A 25-minute self-contained PowerPoint presentation of this talk is available on request.
Brief meditations for in-house retreats of the Apostles of the Interior Life, on the need of the soul for leisure, poetry, spaciousness.
Special interest seminar for the 25th Annual Mass of Celebration for Women, May 31, 2006, in Wamego, KS: Sabbath rest as the key to finding the kind of leisure that leaves us more whole, more human, more able to balance all the demands of life. The spiritual meaning and Eucharistic fulfillment of Shabbat Shalom - Sabbath peace.
Keynote address for the 25th Annual Mass of Celebration for Women, May 31, 2006, in Wamego, KS: Practical ways to dip into the kind of leisure that brings us interior equanimity; the focus here is on reconciling the busyness of life with the pace of restedness.
Homeschool How To – Choosing Curriculum
An overview of curriculum models and materials for a “Homeschool How-To” Intro to Home Education Workshop sponsored by the Lawrence Christian Home Schooling support organization, T.E.A.C.H.
I put this workshop together for the Students for Life at the University of Kansas. It is equally applicable to any group learning about influencing public opinion through letters to editors. You may look at the Class Outline and the Handout that accompanied this talk.
An Under-Appreciated C.S. Lewis Gem – “A Preface to Paradise Lost”
I initially developed this talk as an address for a Midwest Regional Lewis Association conference held in Lawrence, and was later given the opportunity to offer it to KU students in a C.S. Lewis Studies class as a guest lecturer. This book made a singular contribution to my thinking, and I love to share it with others. See my 'map' and 'digest' of this book.
Exploring C.S. Lewis’ “Till We Have Faces”
I believe this is Lewis’ finest work, yet it, too, is under-appreciated. It is a bit difficult to get into its meaning, and so I have offered a pre- and post-reading workshop. In the first, I help readers understand some of the recurring themes in the book itself, and give a sense of its context within Lewis’ own life and spiritual growth. In the postlude, I serve less as an instructor, and more as a facilitator of the discussion that follows inevitably on reading TWHF. You are welcome to the handout I created for these workshops.
Introduction to the Life and Work of Dorothy Sayers
Created for a public lecture and discussion series at Signs of Life Bookstore in Lawrence, Kansas – an overview of Sayers biography and key works. You may enjoy a succinct biography of Sayers by yours truly.
Improving Your College Research Papers
I created this intensive, two-hour workshop for Young Catholic Scholars (KU students awarded scholarships from the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center) based on my experience helping with student papers. I addressed many of the common mistakes and weaknesses I have observed, and gave a structural model for the design of thesis papers that I have always found extremely helpful. You may see the Outline and Handouts (1: Mechanics Issues, 2:Recommended Reading, 3: Usage Issues ,4: Process and Structure) I designed for these students.
Well, why not? I discussed, with a class of high school students of rhetoric, common reasons why not, and then made those reasons the very reasons FOR good argument. You may see the reasons and decide for yourself!
For a Kansas City Day of Reflection for Women sponsored by Familia, I spoke about how the Church, as a ‘mother’, models a great deal of pertinent wisdom for us in our vocation of motherhood. I later turned my outline into a full text so you may read those thoughts.
Also for the 2006 Kansas City Catholic Home School Conference, this workshop suggested a creative approach to handling the High School Transcript. It was drawn from an article I wrote for The Catholic Home Educator on “Creative Credit Reporting”, which you may read.
Notes on the Use of Time ,
Greetings ,Beginning the Interior Life