“It is this omnipresent flavour of feel that makes bad inventions so mawkish and suffocating, and good ones so tonic. The good ones allow us temporarily to share a sort of passionate sanity. And we may also—which is less important—expect to find in them many psychological truths and profound, at least profoundly felt, reflections. But …
Not the Best Idea, Really
“Modern evangelicals in our culture have gotten money, power, and influence, and it has been like giving whiskey to a two-year-old” (Mother Kirk, p. 21).
Trying to Get Marriage Right
In case you were interested, the new book on marriage is now in.
Narnian Grace
One of the important lessons we learn in Narnia is not just that Aslan is like Christ (and that we are like the people in Narnia who serve and worship him). We also learn the nature of the relationship between Aslan and his servants. The best way to describe this relationship is that of grace. …
Literary “Realism” Mistaken for an Argument
“Authors, restrained by our laws against obscenity—rather silly laws, it may be—from using half a dozen monosyllables, felt as if they were martyrs of science, like Galileo. To the objection ‘This is obscene’ or “This is depraved’, or even to the more critically relevant objection ‘This is uninteresting’, the reply ‘This occurs in real life’ …
And Many Probably Should
We all know that it is not fitting for any length of time to go by in these parts without somebody bringing out old charges against me. Try to think of these charges as an order of refried beans in a cheap dive of a Mexican restaurant, meaning that the refrying actually took place about …
Uptight Grammarians, Out With Whom We Do Not Wish to Hang
“I am thinking of what I call Style-mongers. On taking up a book, these people concentrate on what they call its ‘style’ or its ‘English’. They judge this neither by its sound nor by its power to communicate but by its conformity to certain arbitrary rules. Their reading is a perpetual witch hunt for Americanisms, …
Love of Story
Of course, the Narnia stories are themselves stories, and we should be enjoying them on that level. As we have been talking about various “lessons” that we can take away from them, I have wanted to be careful that I didn’t wreck the stories by making sure that everybody gets Edified. But at the same …
It All Comes Down to the Point
“Every art is itself and not some other art. Every general principle we reach must, therefore, have a peculiar mode of application to each of the arts” (C.S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism, p. 28).
Round, Round, Get Around, I Get Around
Those who know me know that I do enjoy following politics, speaking and writing on the virtues that made America great. Between 2 am and 5 am, it appears that I am the Chairman of Townhall.com. And of course, there is the warm, approachable designer side of things as well. When it comes to interiors, …