"Jack" Lewis as a child
I picked a sorry time to start a blog. I’m approaching the busiest point of an already unreasonably busy semester. But hey, I need to start some time, so I’ll start slowly; just a couple of short letters to get the ball rolling.
The 1905 letter is the very first that Jack wrote to Warnie, and is the first contained in the published collected letters. Warnie is away at Wynyard School and Jack is about eight years old. Jack is talking about the adventures of his canary and some Halloween celebrations. One point that I found interesting is how plain and straightforward his language is. He’s reporting on events truly and completely, even if some of the evens must have been exciting (the fireworks) or even terrifying (his dog going into spasms and foaming at the mouth). Everything is told in plain, straightforward style.
The second letter is shorter, and is full of news from Jack’s imaginary world of Boxen. I know that Jack later said that Boxen was a rather dry, unmagical place, but I must say that I find his level of detail in demography and political intrigue to be a bit mind blowing. A short quote speaks for itself:
The colonists (who are of course the war party) are in a bad way: they scarecly leave their houses because of the mobs. In Tararo the Prussians and the Boxonians are at fearful odds against each other and the natives.
A couple of things strike me about these two letters.
- First, I find it ironic (and scary) that Lewis at eight years of age is writing more creatively and coherently than a significant number of my college students do at eighteen or even twenty. I’d like to say that it was simply due to Lewis’s innate genius, but I’m afraid its probably not that simple….
- Second, I’m amazed to see Lewis’s detailed knowledge of Boxen. I know that we might be tempted to write that off quickly because, after all, it is his own imaginary world that therefore we should expect him to know quite a bit about it. Then I remind myself that he’s only nine flippin’ years old! How many modern nine year olds have you heard talking like that?
Of course, I wonder sometimes if that isn’t simply because we, as a civilization, haven’t simply become lazy in our thinking. Coming up with that level of detail is hard work for most of us, and we’d rather let someone else do it for us and then just present us with the results. We certainly have become lazy in our writing. Becoming a decent writer is difficult, and we want to be able to skip the practicing part and and expect instant gratification. If we can’t have that, many of us just give up. Quite sad really.
Mere Lewis 
I have heard one seven year old who comes close . . .
I agree with your analysis here wholeheartedly! With the 20 second attention span so many of us have today I don’t think we give ourselves time to fully develop our own thoughts let alone think creatively! But I also think Jack was given his extraordinary gift of imagination and writing because God wanted him to explain great truths to all of us in ways we could understand so we could draw nearer to Him. Even then God knew He could capture the modern 20 second attention span, non imaginative, modern person by providing them with intrigiung and thought provoking literature-which is what Jack provides! God giving Jack the gift of storytelling doesn’t really surprise me though at all…didn’t He tell His own stories and parables along the sea of Galilee 2,000 years ago? 🙂
True. 🙂 I also have come, over time, to think of Narnia as the “milk” that leads people into the “meat” of Lewis’s more important philosophical works. Most people I know who read Lewis deeply hear of him through Narnia and, after they’ve immersed themselves in that world, branch out from there. Narnia can grab our 20-second attention span and gives us a reason to consider lengthening it to where it can accommodate more important things.
I know I enjoy his philosophical works quite as much as his fictional ones. The same “light,” for lack of a better term, flows through them all. More properly, they become the conduit for the Great Light from the Greater Source to flow through to us in understandable ways.
And I definitely think its that Light that makes Narnia so enjoyable. It strikes a chord with people that feels “right” and “good.” They know there is a sense in which it reflects the way things should be. Apart from that, they’re just short, seemingly random books made from a hodgepodge of mythology.
I think that may be what the modern movie makers are missing BTW. They’re trying to obscure the Light without losing the attraction, in order to appeal to a broader audience. They’re struggling for the simple reason that they’re obscuring the very thing that makes Narnia significant and attractive!
I’d better stop now. This could be several posts in and of itself! 😉