SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 7
Feeling somewhat unnerved by the presence of the angelic being in the waterfall, Lewis wanders downstream and runs into another ghost, this time a lean, hard-bitten man with an air of reliability, who inquires whether Lewis is going back to the bus to the Grey Town. Lewis says he hasn’t decided, but the ghost says he is going back—that he has seen all there is to see, that it is all propaganda and there never was any real chance of staying, since you can’t eat the fruit or drink the water or even walk on the grass. A human being couldn’t live in such conditions. He says he traveled extensively on earth and everywhere was just the same—all advertising stunts run by the same people. He says even the Grey Town/Hell is the same way—disappointing and no really interesting people.Lewis says he prefers the heavenly country and believes you could get acclimatized to it by staying there, but the ghost says that is the same old lie told all through life—that doing the right thing or being disciplined and persevering would lead to a better life. Not so–“They”(the same Old Ring) are running everything and could rescue people but would rather they be miserable.The ghost says there is no point in being rescued anyway because there is nothing to actually do in either place, since “They” have failed in their obligation to keep people from being bored. Since all the parsons and moralists have got things upside down, they keep on asking people to alter themselves, when instead “They” ought to adjust reality to suit their public. Lewis, depressed, says he will stay anyway, and the ghost leaves him, saying that it will rain soon and that Lewis will then find that the rain pieces him like machine gun shots.
MAJOR THEMES IN CHAPTER 71. Pessimism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. “What was Pekin like?” “Nothing to it. Just one darn wall inside another. Just a trap for tourists. I’ve been pretty well everywhere. Niagara Falls, the Pyramids, Salt Lake City, the Taj Mahal—–” “What was it like?” “Not worth looking at. They’re all advertisement stunts. All run by the same people. There’s a combine, you know, a World Combine, that just takes an Atlas and decides where they’ll have a Sight.”“So are the paths of all who forget God; and the hope of the godless will perish, whose confidence is fragile, and whose trust a spider’s web.(Job 8:13-14) He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’(Mt. 25:24-30)
2. Cynicism and complaining make it impossible to experience Joy.
“Same old lie. People have been telling me that sortof thing all my life. They told me in the nursery that if I were good I’d be happy. And they told me at school that Latin would get easier as I went on. After I’d been married a month some fool was telling me that there were always difficulties at first, but with Tact and Patience I’d soon ‘settle down’ and like it! And all through two wars what didn’t they say about the good time coming if only I’d be a brave boy and go on being shot at?”
hen they said to Moses, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”(Ex. 14:11-12) A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.(Prov. 15:4) From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. (Jas. 3:10-12)
3. Believing that the purpose of life is to be entertained leads only to despair.
“It’s up to the Management to find something that doesn’t bore us, isn’t it? It’s their job. Why should we do it for them? …It’s never a new management. You’ll always find the same old Ring. I know all about dear, kind Mummie coming up to your bedroom and getting all she wants to know out of you: but you always found she and Father were the same firm really. Didn’t we find that both sides in all the wars were run by the same Armament Firms? or the same Firm, which is behind the Jews and the Vatican and the Dictators and the Democracies and all the rest of it. All this stuff up here is run by the same people as the Town. They’re just laughing at us.”
I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” (Eccl. 2:1) And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.(Lk. 8:14) For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.(Phil. 3:18-19)
4. Blaming others for everything results in bitter inertia
“There seems to be some idea that if one stays here one would get…well, solider…grow acclimatised.” “I know all about that,” said the Ghost. “Same old lie…Don’t you see that if the official version were true these chaps up here would attack and sweep the Town out of existence? They’ve got the strength. If they wanted to rescue us they could do it. But obviously the last thing they want is to end their so-called ‘war.’ The whole game depends on keeping it going.”
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things (Rom. 2:1) For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.(Acts 8:23) I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul (Job 10:1) All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning…When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you. (Ps. 73)
MUSIC LINK:
IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER
In the bleak mid-winter frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter, long ago.
Our God, Heav’n cannot hold him nor earth sustain;
Heav’n and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter a stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.
What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb,
If I were a Wise Man I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give him, give my heart.
–Christina Rossetti, Gustav Holst
