Jack’s doctor was Dr. R.E. Havard. In today’s episode, David interviews Sarah O’Dell, a scholar who is writing a book on this lesser-known Inkling.
S5E56: “The Medical Inkling: R.E. Havard”, After Hours with Sarah O’Dell (Download)
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Show Notes
Introduction
Quote-of-the-week
“[We spent] some five minutes discussing [Lewis’s] influenza … and then half an hour or more in a discussion of ethics and philosophy.”
Dr. R.E. Havard
Biographical Information
Sarah O’Dell is an MD and PhD candidate at the University of California, Irvine. She is studying in UCI’s Department of English where she has also completed a Medical Humanities emphasis. Her research focuses on the intersections between medicine, literature, and religion in the Eighteenth Century, as well as its re-interpretation of the medieval era. She has a BS in Biology and an MA in English from Azusa Pacific University, where she studied with Diana Glyer and began her work on Inkling and physician R.E. Havard. She is active in the world of Inklings studies and is working on a book which focuses on the life and works of Dr. Havard, the “medical Inkling” And finally, when she’s not writing, studying, or in the clinic, she enjoys poetry, sewing, and other creative endeavors…
Biographical Information for Sarah O’Dell
Chit-Chat
–
Beverage and Toast
- David was drinking Vat 69.
- Sarah was drinking a London Fog.
- They toasted top-tier Patreon supporter, Erica Hardy:
Since we’re talking about a medical doctor today, it’s only appropriate that we simply toast to your good health! Cheers!
Patreon Toast
Discussion
1. “Personal background”
Would you mind telling the listeners a little more about yourself and your rather interesting background?
2. “Inklings Encounter”
Where in your life have the Inklings appeared?
3. “Havard Encounter”
What prompted your interest in Harvard?
4. “The Forgotten Inkling”
What do we need to know about Dr. Havard?
- The Inklings cremation argument
- His nickname was “Useless Quack“
- Gave the first address to the Socratic Club
- Hosted dinner for Lewis and Elizabeth Anscombe
- Worked with Charles Williams
- Went on a sailing misadventure with “Tom” Stevens
- He was friends with Fr. Ronald Knox
5. “The Physician”
What was his medical background?
- Spent a year at Cambridge with J.B.S. Haldane, one of the inspirations behind Weston in the Ransom Trilogy. He is also quoted by Lewis in Miracles:
“It seems to me immensely unlikely that mind is a mere by-product of matter. For if my mental processes are determined wholly by the motions of atoms in my brain I have no reason to suppose that my beliefs are true. They may be sound chemically, but that does not make them sound logically. And hence I have no reason for supposing my brain to be composed of atoms.”
J.B.S. Haldane
6. “The Problem of (Mental) Pain”
What was Havard’s contribution to The Problem of Pain?
- Lewis asked Havard to write an essay for the appendix of the book of about 1,000 words. He produced one with 1,100 words, but the published version is 539 words, cutting out most of the material about mental suffering.
- Lewis had experienced the breakdown of Mrs. Moore’s brother, Dr. John Askins:
Secondly, it had been my chance to spend fourteen days, and most of the fourteen nights as well, in close contact with a man who was going mad. He was a man whom I had dearly loved, and well he deserved love. And now I helped to hold him while he kicked and wallowed on the floor, screaming out that devils were tearing him and that he was that moment falling down into Hell. And this man, as I well knew, had not kept the beaten track. He had flirted with Theosophy, Yoga, Spiritualism, Psychoanalysis, what not? Probably these things had in fact no connection with his insanity, for which (I believe) there were physical causes. But it did not seem so to me at the time.
Surprised By Joy
7. “Primary Sources”
What have been your primary sources in studying Havard?
- Most sources are at The Wade Center.
- Sarah has been greatly helped by the Havard family, John and Colin in particular.
8. “Dr of the Church”
- What role did his Catholicism play in his life?
By so clothing a situation with beauty, the poet makes it a living thing for us. Not only do the poets see further than most of us, but they have the art of making us see with them, and we see, moreover, in an especially vivid way. For they bring not merely intellectual knowledge; they stir feelings and emotions; they educate our hearts. So that there is in the world of poetry an enormous wealth of beauty, waiting only for our leisure, attention and exploration. And if poetry is a world, literature as a whole is an entire universe. Some of the greatest achievements of the human race are preserved in literature. We can resurrect (p. 231) and enjoy them when, and as often as we please. We can meet with and converse with the greatest human minds not only of our own days but of all ages. We can escape from the narrow confines not only of our own town and city, but of our own time as well. We are free to range over all historic time and the whole world. Literature will take us into the homes and lives of the wealthy and the poor; to the mind stored with learning and to minds rich only in the experience of suffering. The whole pattern of humanity is there for our study and delight.
R.E. Havard, “The Uses of Diversity” (1947)
9. “Inkling Interactions”
What were his interactions like with the other Inklings?
10. “Other collaborations”
Did Lewis and Havard collaborate on any other works?
- He came back from the Navy with a red beard and was dubbed “The Red Admiral”
- “The Admiral Stamped on the Quarter Deck” poem refers to Havard
- The bee in Five Sonnets was the result of a conversation with Havard
- Havard and Lewis co-wrote a Christmas play
11. “Forthcoming Book”
Would you mind telling us about your forthcoming book?
- The working title is “The Medical Inkling: R.E. Havard, C.S. Lewis, and the therapeutic imagination”
Show obedience with undivided mind to the bishop and the presbytery, and break the same Bread, which is the medicine of immortality, the antidote against death, and everlasting life in Jesus Christ.
Letter from St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Ephesians
