Tag: Out of the Silent Planet

RETROSPECT: September 22nd – 30th

William OFlaherty Jack in Retrospect, Special Feature

Highlights for September 22nd – 30th include: Debut story of a Sci-Fi trilogy, a landmark book published anonymously and the death of Lewis’s father to cancer.

It’s no secret that Lewis is known for being a versatile writer. One of his earliest efforts that spotlighted this fact is what happened on the 23rd in 1938. This is when Lewis released the first of what is referred to many fans as the Ransom trilogy. That’s because Dr. Elwin Ransom is a central character introduced in Out of the Silent Planet. Released a dozen years before the Narnia stories, some call this his first imaginative apologetic work. Apparently Lewis himself wasn’t aware of how useful of a tool fiction could be to present Christian ideas in a latent way. It was

Daily Lewis – Fact / Quote / Quiz: July 25th

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

On this day (7/25) in 1941 the 13th letter from Screwtape was published in The Guardian. Wormwood has failed again…second conversion.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

[Screwtape Admits:] “I know that the Enemy [God] also wants to detach men from themselves, but in a different way. Remember always, that he really likes the little vermin, and sets an absurd value on the distinctiveness of every one of them.”

The Screwtape Letters XIII
(Published in The Guardian on 7/25/1941)

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QUIZ OF THE DAY:

What was the name of the person who was going to be sent where Ransom ended up going in Out of the Silent Planet?
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(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)

Daily Lewis – Fact / Quote / Quiz: June 27th

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

The first paperback edition of The Magician’s Nephew came out today (6/27) in 1963 (first published 5/2/55).

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“You can’t get second things by putting them first; you can get second things only by putting first things first. ”

First and Second Things
(Published in Time and Tide on 6/27/1942)

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QUIZ OF THE DAY:

What are Hrossa in Out of the Silent Planet?
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(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)

RETROSPECT: May 11th – 21st

William OFlaherty Jack in Retrospect, Special Feature

Highlights for the second of May (11th – 21st) include: Initial publication of Miracles, the landmark first meeting with a famous friend and securing his longest employment.

“Miracles” is among the many misused words in our vocabulary today. This was true even back in 1947 when Miracles: A Preliminary Study was released on the 12th by C.S. Lewis. Of course, Lewis was addressing more of an unbelief in the miraculous. In fact, as the inside dusk jacket of the first edition notes, the subtitle isn’t about Lewis giving his tentative thoughts on the subject, but rather the book is designed to be “a study preliminary to any historical inquiry into the actual occurrence of miracles.” That is, before any examination of specific miracles one has to believe that the miraculous can genuinely occur. Nearly thirteen years later (as mentioned in the previous column) a new edition was released containing a revised third chapter.

Fact / Quote / Quiz: February 18th

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

On this date (2/18) in 1938 J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a letter to his publisher to consider Lewis’s manuscript of Out of the Silent Planet.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“To some, God is discoverable everywhere; to others, nowhere.”

The Seeing Eye
(Published originally as “Onward Christian Spacemen” in the February, 1963 edition of Show)

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QUIZ OF THE DAY:

Lewis went back to the BBC this month in 1949 to record what talk that aired the same day of its recording?
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)

RETROSPECT: February 10th – 18th

William OFlaherty Jack in Retrospect, Special Feature

Highlights for the second third of February (10th – 18th) include: The concluding talk from the “What Christians Believe” BBC series, an explanation of the word “membership” in a talk to a group and the publication of a selection of Christian-themed essays.

In 1945 on the 10th Lewis gave a talk, simply called “Membership,” to the Society of St. Alban and St. Sergius in Oxford. It was also published later in the year and is now best found in The Weight of Glory. Lewis explained in his presentation that the word “membership” in the New Testament differs from the way it is used today. Instead of speaking of it in the sense of a group containing like items, the Christian meaning is close to “what we should call organs, things essentially different from, and complementary to, one another.” He also pointed out that believers are

Transcript of Douglas Gresham Interview (Sept. 2013)

William OFlaherty CSL Minute

The following is a transcript of the interview I did with Douglas Gresham, stepson of C.S. Lewis. It was recorded on 9/24/2013 during his visit to Asbury University.

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O’FLAHERTY: While this is the 50th anniversary of Lewis’s death and his legacy has lasted this long, looking ahead, not to the present here but ahead, what do you think will be the most remembered about Jack 50 or maybe 100 years from now if you don’t mind speculating.

GRESHAM: I don’t think it’s going to change very much you know. I think Christianity worldwide is at an all-time ebb at the moment and I think it’s starting to gather pace to come back with huge force again, Jack is going to

When Traveling Space (CSLM-30)

William OFlaherty CSL Minute

If you every happen to travel into space I know someone you should take with you.

Fans of Lewis’ science fiction know the person to have along with you when are exploring the heavens is Dr. Elwin Ransom. As told in Out of the Silent Planet, Ransom in kidnapped and taken to Mars by others who have evil intentions, but he outwits them. Then in the second story in the series, Perelandra, he travels to Venus to help save that world from corruption.