S7E14 – LC 1 – “Little Jacksie”

After the break of After Hours Month, the team return to discuss another Lewis letter collection, “Letters to Children”.

S7E14: “Little Jacksie” (Download)

Show Notes

Introduction

Quote-of-the-week

When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

C. S. Lewis, On three ways of writing for children

Chit-Chat

• The letter collections this season are: Letters to an American Lady, Letters to Children, The Latin Letters of C.S. Lewis. We also referenced two other Lewis books: The Chronicles of Narnia and Till We Have Faces.
• The founder of the C. S. Lewis Foundation, Dr. J. Stanley Mattson, recently passed away. Andrew referenced the following poem by Rev. Malcolm Guite:

• David worked out how he discovered Best Day Brewing. Patreon Supporter, Steve Clancy’s son works there.
• Matt made his pitch for why listeners might like to support us on Patreon.

Toast

• Andrew: Coffee (and 2023 Laphroaig Cairdeas)
• Matt: Coffee
• David: Cool Blue Gatorade

• Matt toasted Patreon Supporter, Aldo.

Discussion

01. “Forward!”

• The Forward was written by C. S. Lewis’ stepson, Douglas Gresham.

Jack is gone now. But he lives on for me in my memory, and for all the world in his writings, and for you in this book.

Douglas Gresham, Letters to Children (Forward)

• Matt spoke about his recent interview with Will Vaus where he spent time with Douglas and his wife at Rathvinden House in Leighlinbridge in County Carlow.

After my mother died, when I was fourteen years old, Jack and I became very close. You see, mother loved Jack and mother loved me, so for Jack and me a little bit of her lived on in both of us. One of my strongest memories of Jack was the evening after my mother died. It was the first time I ever saw a grown man cry. He put his arm around me, and I put mine around him, and we tried to comfort each other.

Douglas Gresham, Letters to Children (Forward)

• Andrew mentioned the Shadowlands movie (1994) where this touching scene is presented.

02. “Introduction”

• Most likely written by the editors Lyle W. Dorsett and Marjorie L. Mead.

The child as reader is neither to be patronised nor idolised: we talk to him as man to man… We must of course try to do [children] no harm: we may, under the Omnipotence, sometimes dare to hope that we may do them good. But only such good as involves treating them with respect… Once in a hotel dining-room I said, rather too loudly, ‘I loathe prunes.’ ‘So do I,’ came an unexpected six-year-old voice from another table. Sympathy was instantaneous. Neither of us thought it funny. We both knew that prunes are far too nasty to be funny. That is the proper meeting between man and child as independent personalities.

C. S. Lewis, On three ways of writing for children

I thought I saw how stories of this kind could steal past a certain inhibition which had paralysed much of my own religion in childhood. Why did one find it so hard to feel as one was told one ought to feel about God or about the sufferings of Christ? I thought the chief reason was that one was told one ought to. An obligation to feel can freeze feelings… But supposing that by casting all these things into an imaginary world, stripping them of their stained-glass and Sunday school associations, one could make them for the first time appear in their real potency? Could one not thus steal past those watchful dragons? I thought one could.

C. S. Lewis, Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What’s to Be Said

When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

C. S. Lewis, On three ways of writing for children

Some people seem to think I began by asking myself how I could say something about Christianity to children…. I couldn’t write in that way at all. Everything began with images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn’t even anything Christian about them; that element pushed in of its own accord.

C. S. Lewis, Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What’s to Be Said

The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

• Matt referred to the band, NEEDTOBREATHE

I learned early on that if you believe Jesus is the Light of the World there are two songs you can write about—you can write songs about the Light, or about what you see by the Light.

T. Bone Burnett

• Andrew referenced The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

All my seven Narnian books, and my three science fiction books, began with seeing pictures in my head.

C.S. Lewis, On Stories

It’s fun laying out all my books as a cathedral. Personally I’d make Miracles and the other “treaties” the cathedral school: my children’s stories are the real side-chapels, each with its own little altar.

C. S. Lewis, Letter to William Kinter (March 28, 1953)

• Matt referenced one of his interviews: S4E37 – AH – “After Hours” with Chris R. Armstrong.

03. “Jack’s Childhood”

• Jack’s school Wynyard was mentioned by Matt.

Papy is of course the master of the house, and a man in whom you can see strong Lewis features, bad temper, very sensible, nice wen not in a temper. Mamy is lke most middle aged ladys, stout, brown hair, spectaciles, knitting her chief industry. I am like most boys of 8 and I am like Papy, bad temper, thick lips, thin, and generally wearing a jersey…

C.S. Lewis (8 years old), Diary

We shake hands, and we begin to talk.

C.S. Lewis, Diary

• Andrew referenced Pastor Reggie Weems who has done lot of work on Lewis’ name change to “Jacksie” (The Soul of a Name: Finding Jacksie). He also an expert on Lewis’ nurse, Lizzie Endicot.
• David mentioned Report: C.S. Lewis’s ‘Boxen’ Animated Series in Development

Wrap-Up

04: “Concluding Thoughts”

Always write (and read) with the ear, not the eye. You should hear every sentence you write as if it was being read aloud or spoken. If it does not sound nice, try again.

C.S. Lewis, Letters to Children

Support Us!

• Please follow us on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
• If you would like to support us, go to our Patreon page.
• We would be grateful if new listeners would rate and review us on their preferred podcast platform.