C.S. Lewis on his nearly lifelong fear of insects*:
"To this day I could almost find it in my heart to rationalize and justify my phobia. As Owen Barfield once said to me, 'The trouble with insects is that they are like French locomotives—they have all the works on the outside.' The works—that is the trouble. Their angular limbs, their jerky movements, their dry, metallic noises, all suggest either machines that have come to life or life degenerating into mechanism. You may add that in the hive and the anthill we see fully realized the two things that some of us most dread for our own species—the dominance of the female and the dominance of the collective."
Lewis was undoubtedly brilliant and was perhaps the greatest Christian apologist of the twentieth century. But when it came to the role and place of women, he was unable to transcend the cultural retardation of his day (1898-1963). Fortunately, I am consistently able to to resist any such provincial bias. Which is a sarcastic way of wondering in what ways I am blinded by the assumptions of my day.
A homemade cookie to the first commenter who can correctly name the two other famous men who died the same day as Lewis.
*Quotation taken from Surprised By Joy, Harcourt Brace Janovich, 1956.
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6 comments:
JFK and Aldous Huxley. I had to look it up. :) Interesting trivia, though! So... when do I get my cookie...
Speaking of insects, one of the reasons my roommate and I get along well is that he hates them and I smash them (provided they are indoors :-P)
That's the only practical use I have found for a calculus book so far...
I just want a cookie.
I really did know it was Aldous Huxley & JFK - my dad has made a point of telling my sister and I that for years. Not sure why, but it definitely comes up any time Kennedy is mentioned...
Have you read The Narnian? My favorite college professor wrote it about Lewis - it is a great book.
ooh I knew JFK off the top of my head, but I had no idea on the other person. Does that make me eligable for half a cookie?
I actually knew this one from reading a great little book back in high school called Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialogue Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C.S. Lewis & Aldous Huxley.
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