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Agustin
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Agustin
Lider de la Orden del Leon
Edad: 39
Registrado: 03 Nov 2005
Ultima Visita: 03 Mar 2024
Mensajes: 3116
Ubicación: Argentina
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 Publicado: Sab Jul 05, 2008 11:31 am Asunto: Entrevista a Douglas Gresham, de The Duncan Group |
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Entrevista a Douglas Gresham, de The Duncan Group
http://www.duncanentertainment.com/interview_gresham.php
| Cita: |
TOPIC: C.S. Lewis
SUBJECT: Douglas Gresham
FILM: THE MAGIC NEVER ENDS - The Life & Work of C.S. Lewis
INTERVIEWER: Chip Duncan
TRANSCRIPTS: Patrick Hammerlund
© 2001 The Duncan Group, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Any unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws.
The segments included in this interview excerpt were recorded during September, 2000 in Carlow County, Ireland as part of THE MAGIC NEVER ENDS, a documentary on the life and work of C.S. Lewis. The documentary is a co-production with Crouse Entertainment Group and WTTW-Chicago. The video, book, and compact disc are available for purchase at our company store.
Douglas Gresham is one of two stepsons of C.S. Lewis from Lewis's marriage to Gresham's mother, Joy Davidman. He is also the author of LENTEN LANDS: My Childhood with Joy Davidman & C.S. Lewis. The book was the inspiration for the Richard Attenborough film SHADOWLANDS starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger.
(* This transcript has been edited due to length.)
Who was C.S. Lewis?
That's a very complicated question, actually, who was C.S. Lewis. I think first and foremost, he was a Christian, secondly he was a scholar. And he was probably the most intelligent man I have ever met in my life. And secondly, probably the most widely read man I have ever met in my life. … He had an uncanny ability to take what seemed to be the most complex of issues and reduce them to such simple language that anyone could understand what he was talking about. He was also a man who although conscious of his own sinfulness, was at the same time equally conscious of his own forgiveness. And this gave him a great sense of joy in life. He was a very humorous man, a great wit, great fun to be with. A conversation with Jack was mostly laughter. He was warm, compassionate extraordinarily humorous and a good companion. Who was C.S. Lewis, that's a very big question, we could probably go on for days.
What do you consider most important about Lewis the man and his work?
His work is far more important. I think Jack probably would far rather we remember Jesus Christ through the work, than remember C.S. Lewis for the work. So, I think the work is far more important than Lewis the man. People are very interested in Jack as a man and rightfully so. But, of course always beware of the personal heresy as Jack put it. It's far more important to remember the Christ whom Jack was pointing to all the time in his works, even his works of fiction. And then to get too tied up in Jack the man.
Can you talk about his relationship with his brother?
Jack and Warnie had a very close fraternal relationship. Warnie was his best friend throughout his whole life, as well as his only brother. I don't think in all the time I knew them I ever heard a cross word between them. They knew each other extremely well and spent most of their lives together except for periods when one or the other was away at war or college or somewhere. They were really great friends, inter-reliant on each other. Their friendship, and their brotherly love for each other could have been a model for any two siblings in the world. Warnie was one of the world's greatest English gentlemen of the old school. Of course he did have a binge alcoholism problem, but when he was sober, he was the most delightful character. And he and Jack were firm friends right up to Jack's death.
Warnie was a burden whenever he started drinking. And I think in a sense, Jack was a burden on Warnie in a way, because Jack's life took these strange twists of looking after, in an honor bound commitment, looking after Mrs. Moore and Maureen Moore and so forth. And Warnie had to stand and watch that even though he didn't really understand it, didn't really accept it, in any case. And then of course my mother came into the scene. And although Warnie loved my mother as much as Jack did, though in a different way, the burden of what happened with her death, what happened to Jack because of her death, was very difficult for Warnie to take.
You lived with him, what made him a colorful person?
Certainly he was respected in our community, in the area in which we lived, despite the fact that the people in the area were working class people for the most part. He was a man who would walk for miles at great speeds, and people found that a bit strange perhaps. I was only e-mailed by somebody the other day who found it extraordinary to think that someone would walk from The Kilns down to Magdalen and back, every day. Which isn't a great distance, but people just don't do it anymore. … Jack's colorful characteristics would have been mostly exhibited in his friendships. He was, I suppose, to a certain extent what one would describe as a bon vivant, a man with a great joy in life. That might have been regarded by some as being colorful. But, he wasn't your eccentric or weird professor by any stretch of the imagination. He was able to walk into a workingman's bar and discuss anything. And to find that plumbers, electricians, builders, laborers, farm laborers whatever, found him just as agreeable as academics. I don't think he was seen as being in any way eccentric.
More of a populist?
Not deliberately. He wasn't deliberately a populist, he was interested in what people had to say, genuinely. I always regard a populist as someone who feigns that interest in order to be popular. But Jack didn't do that at all, he was genuinely interested in people. And he found that people with no education often had as much to say and as much worthwhile things to say as people who had a great deal of education. So he was genuinely interested in people. He was accepted by everybody.
Who were the Inklings, what did their name mean, why did they exist?
The Inklings were a sort of unofficial and loose grouping of people … people who shared common interests, interests in literature, interests in words and languages and so on, who just started to meet together in order to discuss these things and have a few pints of beer and smoke a few pipes of tobacco and generally have a good time. What came of it later, of course, because, I suppose, of Jack's enormous intellectual ability and the people who were naturally attracted to that, it became a loose formation of some of the greatest writers of our century. The names that stand out are the people like Neville Coghill, J.R.R. Tolkien … they were men who first and foremost shared interests in literature and all kind of other things, and would get together to talk about not only literature and language, but also the works that they themselves were writing. It was a normal practice in a one of these informal meetings either in a pub or in Jack's room, for whoever was working on something at the time to read passages of it aloud to the rest of he group. And invite criticism. I'm not sure that I would have the courage to read my work aloud to people like C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien and invite criticism. But they did. And I think that the process of honing their words with great minds of equal interest in literature is one of the things that characterizes the finished works of these men on such a high level. They had great minds to bounce their ideas and their word usage off and benefited from each other's criticism all the time. So, the Inklings became this kind of loose grouping together of literary minds. And as I said, they argued about practically everything under the sun, and yet remained friends.
Was C.S. Lewis a genius?
Oh, absolutely, there's no doubt about that. He was a complete genius. He also was a very fast reader, but he had honed the talent and perfected the strange memory that resulted in never forgetting anything he had read. Now he could, he could ask you to pick any book off of his shelves, and you would pick a page and read him a line and he would quote the rest of the page; in fact, quote the rest of the book until you told him to stop. He had this enormous capacity to remember everything he'd ever read.
A photographic memory?
I'm not sure, photographic perhaps or phonographic, one or the other. It might have been the sounds that stayed with him, I just don't know. I'd rather feel it would have been the sounds … Because he enjoyed the sounds of words and the sounds of word structures. So I feel it was probably the sounds that stayed with him, and the meanings that stayed with him. But the result of this of course, was that he had read enormously widely, all the great classics of literature before he was 25 or 26 years old and mostly in their own languages. And it stayed with him, so he could just draw on this huge morass, if you like, of knowledge of literature at any given second.
He not only remembered the words and the sounds of the words, and particularly in poetry the structure of the poetry and the rhythms of the poetry. But, he also remembered the personalities of the characters, the involvement in the text. That was important to him, how literature was constructed, how the emotions transmitted through the literary works were constructed, how they were transmitted. All of that was important to him, and he did retain it, yes.
Didn't your mother have the same ability?
Yes, she had the same kind of ability. I think actually hers was probably even more acute than Jack's. She was the only person I ever knew, who I ever saw able to catch Jack out in a slightly incorrect quotation. Which he loved, he found it delightful when he was called out. But, um, yes, her memory was extraordinary.
What were Lewis' early views of Christianity and how did they change over time?
Jack's views on Christianity began with him being a fairly fervent Christian child, when he was a little boy. He was the son of two devoted Christians, his mother particularly. And as a little boy he went to church and believed in God and believed in Jesus Christ. But his mother's death, I think, was the first wedge that was driven into that masonry, into that structure. And then his subsequent upbringing by people other than his parents, influences of people other than his parents began to shatter the structure of the Christian faith. And eventually at one of his schools, he lost it completely. Being a man with an intensely powerful intellect and rational mind, he soon began to try to rationalize everything around him, and rationalize God out of his life. That, of course, is in itself a sort of cyclic procedure, because, if you continue to do it, once you've rationalized God out of your life, and go further in the search for truth an rationality, you have to rationalize him back in again later on. And that's more or less what happened to Jack. His tutor W.T. Kirkpatrick was a rationalist and a humanist, and he had the influence on Jack of making him think and search for truth much more deeply than he had before. The end result of this being that he began to ask, what could be described by an atheist, which Jack was at the time, awkward questions. Then when he went to Oxford, he found much to his initial surprise, the people he liked the most and began to admire the most and began to associate with, were mostly Christians. The people whose minds he admired most, were mostly Christians. The people whose behavior he admired most were all Christians. And so you did really have to begin to look at this topic of Christianity and try to figure out what there was in it, if there was anything in it at all. In the end of course, people like Hugo Dyson and (J.R.R.) Ron Tolkien held enormously lengthy discussions with him. All night on occasions about such matters. And Jack, of course, being a rational mind and being a powerful intellect, began to realize that God, of course, did exist. And it's interesting to note that he really began to believe in God as existent almighty force, after a discussion with Hugo Dyson and (J.R.R.) Ron Tolkien at Addison's Walk that lasted almost all night. And he then found himself suddenly realizing that God was real.
Can you talk about why Lewis' work is accepted throughout Christendom and all of its denominations?
The fact that Jack's work as a Christian apologist and a Christian writer is so well accepted across all the denominational spectrum, is because it doesn't deal with anything denominational. He avoided denominational issues because he found them to be trivial. He found that what we all share in common is so much more important than the differences that separate us. I personally have no denominational affiliation at all, I am a non-denominational Christian because I do believe that one of the greatest problems with the denominational churches is that they tend to concentrate on the trivial at the cost of the essential. I think this is a sadness in Christendom. Jack obviously felt much the same way, it's reflected in his writings. He doesn't deal with the denominational issues at all. He works with Mere Christianity and that's the important part. That's what's important about life and about Christianity in general. The reason he's acceptable to all denominations is simply that he is not denominational in his writing. He is Christian. And I think the sooner we all wake up to the fact that we should be Christian rather than denominational, rather than Baptist or Presbyterian or Roman Catholic or whatever, the better off the world will be. We need to dispense with the trivialities and get back to Jesus Christ and I think that's the direction Jack was moving. Lots of people have tried to say, of course, if Jack had lived longer he would have become a roman Catholic or a Presbyterian or a this or a that or the other thing. I think the Mormons have probably baptized him in absentia since his death. But the truth of the matter is that toward the end of his life Jack was moving closer to Christ and further from any denominational lines at all. And I think that's the direction we should all be going.
Did he pray?
All the time.
Can you talk about that?
I don't know what he prayed, but it was not uncommon for me to walk into a room to find Jack praying. And I would say, "I'm so sorry Jack." And he would say, "Don't worry I was only praying." You know, it was, the interruption was not something he found irritating, when I'd walk in and interrupt him in prayer. He prayed while walking, he prayed while sitting in his chair, he would pray at, throughout the day. I think, for a man like Jack, prayer eventually becomes a matter of conversation with Christ, more than supplication. For many of us, in when we start in our Christian lives, regarding prayer is a matter of supplication first and foremost. And then a bit later on we get mature enough to include some thanksgiving and some praise in our prayer life. Eventually I think one should achieve a state where one's prayer is conversation with Christ, which includes thanksgiving, and praise and supplication as well.
When did your mother fall in love with C.S. Lewis?
Fairly enough, I think it happened after he fell in love with her. She loved, there's no doubt about that, with a sense of agape, philia, and storge. Right up to the point where she was dying. But there was one moment in their experience together at that point when he was looking after her when she realized that she had fallen head over heels in love with him. And I think it took place while he was being attentive and taking care of her as a sort of auxiliary nurse by that stage. She had been brought home to die at the Kilns. She was thought, at the time, only likely to live a few days maybe a matter of hours. And Jack was constantly nursing her, in conjunction with professional nurses. And it was at that point that she fell head over heels in love with him, emotionally.
And he with her?
I think he already had by that time. I think he'd already fallen and realized his love for her when she was in the hospital, before she was sent home to die. And they were actually married in the hospital. A lot of people have sort of postulated, or some people have postulated the idea that my mother set out to entrap Jack into marriage. But they forget that it was actually Jack's decision making process that brought the marriage about, not hers. She was dying. It was Jack who said I am going to marry you. And he set up and did it.
But there was romantic love between them?
Oh yes, enormously. But again this is something that grew larger and greater after they were married. They were married in the hospital, she came home to die, but she went into remission. And they had the happiest four years of their lives. And I don't think I have ever seen two people more in love. I mean there are some times when you see a young couple head over heels in love with each other in every sense of the word love. And they almost carry an aura of it with them. Well Jack and my mother in-in middle age developed this immensely powerful love for each other. And it was visible, you could actually see it. I remember one occasion I was being packed off to school in South Wales, mid-Wales, and they came to see me off at the railway station. And as the train pulled out; it was a weird experience, rather like one of those ancient Greek mythological experiences; I looked back and saw Jack and my mother standing in a glow of their own making. And it was a glow not only of great love and affection, a visible aura, but also had a tinge of doom about it. And I wept all the way from Oxford to South Wales, I couldn't stop.
The doom coming from?
That she was to die. It was evident to me at that, at that time that my mother was soon going to die. This was after they had lived together as husband and wife for three years. And she did die while I was at that school, within a year.
When she died, you then had three or four year where you were raised by C.S. Lewis,
I now want to try something with you. I will call out some of the titles of Lewis' book and you tell me what you think. Lets start with the Chronicles of Narnia…
The Chronicles of Narnia are today and will be forever, perhaps the greatest classics of children's literature of the 20th century. I think the reason for that, one of the reasons for that is that they deal with truth, inescapable truth. They dealt with reconciliation, forgiveness, things of that nature which are essential for children to learn at some point in their development. One of the greatest problems in western society today is that we've given up the search for forgiveness and reconciliation in favor of revenge. And that of course destroys any society quite quickly. You see a great deal of it in today's television programming, everyone looking for revenge and uh, it washes through the whole society. And this is one of the most destructive things in our society. Truth, truth telling, all of these things are dealt with in the Chronicles of Narnia.
They're also, of course, very beautiful stories, beautifully crafted in terms of the actual, the sculpture of the words formations, the sculpture of the book. They're beautifully done. They are, I think, exceptionally valuable books, and I don't care whether you're an atheist or a Buddhist or whatever, your children should still read the Chronicles of Narnia because of the moral teaching they get from them, and the great fun they will have reading them. Very enjoyable books, great books, great books.
Can you talk about the reaction to the Chronicles of Narnia when it was first created? I know Tolkien didn't like it.
Tolkien didn't like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe because Tolkien was a purist in mythological terms. The idea of mixing mythologies was an anathema to him. He didn't like it at all. Couldn't understand it, I don't think. I don't think he had the depth of perception to understand what Jack was doing with it. It's fair to say that among the Inklings Hugo Dyson couldn't stand The Lord of the Rings. Jack on the other hand thought The Lord of the Rings was a great masterpiece of literature and was constantly encouraging Tolkien to carry on with it and finish it and publish it. Tolkien got very discouraged over that for a while. Tollers on the other hand didn't like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, or the Narnian Chronicles at all. And I think it's largely because Jack did mix in so many different cultures and mythologies. Wh-which, mixing them all together to Tolkien would be rather like putting coffee and tea in the same cup. He liked to keep them separate and pure, he was very much a purist. So, the overall reaction to, I think, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe when it was first introduced was greatly enthusiastic. And of course the reaction ever since has been greatly enthusiastic.
Why have they lasted for so long?
I think the question as to why the Narnian Chronicles have lasted as long as they have is probably somewhat short sighted. We look at it that way, I think the question should rather be, why will the Narnia Chronicles be eternal? As long as literature lasts they will last. And I think the answer is because they're true. They contain so much truth. All the greatest literature we have is truth, based on truth, based on the eternal truth of the war between good and evil. One of the greatest fictional pieces, Christian fictional pieces written for adults in current times is The Lord of the Rings. One of the most powerful Christian books ever written. Because it contains the essential truth, which is also contained in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The works of Dickens show the truth about society as it was at the time, and so on. And those sorts of things with these essential truths contained in them, as a sort of, almost like a-a flavoring, if you like, will go on forever.
The Screwtape Letters?
Ah, "The Screwtape Letters" is one, again one of the greatest books, I think, ever written. I love "The Screwtape Letters". For me it's a book of instruction a book of interest, amusement, delight. There's so much in it, so many depths in it. Interestingly, Jack found it one of the easiest books to write, but one of the most unpleasant to write. He had to do a, sort of, mental gear change; to change sides, to think like the enemy. And he found it a grubby, dirtying process. But the frightening thing to him was that as soon as he'd done so the ability to tempt seemed to be so, so good so easy so-so run so quickly from his mind, I think it rather disconcerted him. But yet it, I think it's a great book, it's a wonderful book, I think everybody should read The Screwtape Letters. Every Christian needs to have a copy close at hand at all times and probably re-read it once a year. It's only a small, short book it doesn't take long. There's a recording of it done by the English actor John Cleese, which I think is brilliant. Wonderful book, wonderful book.
Mere Christianity?
Mere Christianity is a classic of Christian apologetics. I don't think it's ever been, certainly never been bettered and it probably never will be. It cuts through all of the denominational rubbish, all the dross that we've added to what Christ did, and what Christ taught. Cut through right to the nitty-gritty of the matter and makes it so very simple for people to understand what Jesus was really all about. Once you start waving the incense burners and putting on the golden robes and the great jeweled hats and the processionals and the icons ad all of these bits and pieces we add to it, get rid of all that stuff. Underneath is one of the most beautiful truths, the most beautiful truth, the world has ever seen. Mere Christianity reveals it. Mere Christianity draws back that dark curtain of religion that people try to draw across the blinding face of God. It's an all-time classic.
What were some of Jack's favorite things?
Some of Jack's favorite things; good tobacco, good beer, good tea, strong Darjeeling or Ceylon tea, good friendships good, conversation, good literature, good food, a good fast walk in the countryside, preferably, anything of beauty, anything finely crafted well constructed. I think that Jack enjoyed what was well done. Everything God does is well done. So he enjoyed all of nature, because God did it well. I don't think he much time for shoddy things, for planned obsolescence, things of that nature. Jack enjoyed good quality anything, in a sense, those things that display the beauties of God's creation to the best of their advantage, whether they be the artisanship of man bringing those out, like finely crafted woodwork, furniture and so on, or whether they simply be a beautiful oak tree.
Was he one of those kinds of people, a genius that only needed four hours of sleep a night?
Well Jack usually was up till, probably 11 or 12 at night and he was up in the morning around 5 or 6.
And when did he do most of his writing?
The correspondence would be done in the mornings. He would be up early, he would say his morning prayers, he would read the Bible, at least a chapter of the Bible a day every day. First he would answer his letters right after breakfast. All of them for the day, unless there was one that was particularly difficult to where he'd have to look into it, research it or something. And then he would write after lunch until tea time. And he would write after tea until dinnertime, 7 o'clock in the evening. And then after dinner he would read or talk or play Scrabble with mother or something. But he wrote mostly during the afternoons. He'd also take a walk during the afternoons he'd take time off to go for a walk for exercise. But most of his time, if he finished his correspondence early, he'd start writing before lunch. But usually it was after lunch, he'd begin writing, after he'd had his walk, and then he would continue writing until-until dinnertime.
Is there anything that you would like to talk about that my questions have not covered?
I think the only thing we haven't discussed is Jack's personal courage. Jack was a very brave man in many ways, many types of courage. He was very physically brave; he was a very brave soldier in the First World War. He was very brave in the fact that he married a woman that he knew to be dying and accepted the burden of loving wholeheartedly a woman he knew to be dying. He accepted two stepsons, the responsibility there. He was immensely courageous, he was courageous in his work, in his writings, the fact that people mightn't be prepared to accept what he wrote didn't worry him, he knew it had to be written and he wrote it. If it was true he wrote it. I think this is, this is one of the things that does get missed is Jack's immense personal courage on a lot of different levels. I think it's important that people know that he was a very brave man.
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_________________ 変わる時代の中で変わらない夢を掴もう - Kawaru jidai no naka de kawaranai yume wo tsukamou - Incluso en tiempos cambiantes, alcanza ese sueño constante,
激しい雨に打たれても現実に流されない…君でいるために - Hageshii ame ni utarete mo genjitsu ni nagasarenai. Kimi de iru tame ni - Incluso si llueve fuertemente, no escapes de la realidad, ya que eres el que eres
My dream will never change. - Mi sueño jamas cambiara (BOY - The Alfee)
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Agustin
Lider de la Orden del Leon
Edad: 39
Registrado: 03 Nov 2005
Ultima Visita: 03 Mar 2024
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Ubicación: Argentina
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| Publicado: Sab Jul 05, 2008 11:34 am Asunto: Entrevista a Douglas Gresham de La orden filipina de Narnian |
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Entrevista a Douglas Gresham de La orden filipina de Narnianos
http://www.filipinonarnians.org/fullnews/douglasgreshamint.html
| Cita: | TPON Interviews Douglas Gresham for the Second Time
February 10, 2006
Douglas Gresham
C.S. Lewis's stepson, Douglas Gresham, grew up with Narnia. The Horse and His Boy was even dedicated to him and his brother. Douglas has since become the creative and artistic director of the C.S. Lewis Company. He was the co-producer of 2006 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and is currently at work on the sequel of Prince Caspian.
He has twice taken time from his busy schedule to answer questions from the Philippine Order of Narnians, and here are some excerpts (Some parts were taken from the first interview):
On Lewis for an International Audience
TPON: It would seem that CS Lewis wrote Narnia more or less for a readership that was mostly either British or American. But its appeal has certainly crossed many boundaries. With Narnia turning into a movie franchise, readers in many countries are discovering Lewis for the first time. What aspects of the books are most difficult to translate for an international audience?
Gresham: It is very interesting that despite the fact that Jack was originally writing for only a British audience (the Americans came as a later after-thought), the Narnian Chronicles appeal to everybody no matter what their culture or background. There is no difficulty at all in translating or perhaps transporting would be a better term, all of Jack's story lines and themes across all cultures and seemingly across all times. I think this is because the issues that he deals with in Narnia, and the ways in which he deals with them, are common to all people no matter where they live, or their cultural origins.
TPON: On a personal note, do you think CS Lewis would have enjoyed a visit to the Philippines if he had the chance?
Gresham: Yes indeed, I think he would have found the Philippines both beautiful and fascinating as do I.
TPON: On an even more personal note, would you mind horribly if we called him Jack the next time we email you?
Gresham: No of course not, it was the name that he preferred.
On Lewis for Today's Youth
TPON: You gave an interview once and this quote was very interesting: "One of the things that happened is that the great concepts that people have lived by were thrown out in the 20th century as if we thought they were outmoded or out of date, and as a result our society is crumbling all around us. Now the new younger thinkers are beginning to grope around looking for new answers. What we need are all of those virtues of personal commitment, courage, honesty and honor that we had thrown away but are there to be found in the tales of Narnia." CS Lewis, of course, addressed this issue a lot in his works. Do you think today's youth face any particular stumbling blocks to "groping around looking for new answers?"
Gresham: No I don't. One great advantage that we have over the forces of evil, is that they are incapable of originality, they cannot create or come up with anything new, so time and time again throughout the history of Man the Devil keeps trotting out the same tired old lies and temptations over and over. Our great failing is that we look for "new answers" instead of looking back over the centuries and realising that the issues faced by the men of the Old Testament are, at root, precisely the same issues that we have to deal with today and that Jesus came here to deal with all of those. All we have to do is study what he said and then put it into practice. The answers to all our dilemmas and temptations are all there, all we have to do is learn them and use them. Looking for "new answers" to old questions is symptom of our pride and arrogance. The better way is to look back, re-discover the old answers that Jesus gave us two thousand years ago, and then use them.
On the Accuracy of Portrayals of Lewis
TPON: What's the most common misconception people seem to have about CS Lewis?
Gresham: That he was a dour academic who kept himself apart. He was actually a consciously joyful redeemed Christian who surrounded himself with good and brilliant friends. A man full of humour and warmth. He was a great companion and full of fun. He was also a man who was never afraid to show his Christianity in practical ways whenever the opportunity arose.
TPON: What's your opinion about the portrayal of Lewis and you in Shadowlands? [Editor’s Note: The movie Shadowlands, adapted from a play of the same name, showed howCS Lewis and Joy Gresham met. It starred Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger.]
Gresham: The portrayal of me was very good but Jack's role as done by Tony Hopkins was not in the least like Jack.
TPON: What's your favorite among the seven [Narnia] books?
Gresham: Which ever one I am Reading when somebody asks that question.
TPON: What character can you easily identify with yourself?
Gresham: Lots of them in part, but perhaps Shasta in The Horse and His Boy the most.
TPON: Of today's authors, do you think any has work which has similarities to CS Lewis'?
Gresham: No (though many have tried).
TPON: Aside from Narnia, what's your favorite book?
Gresham: "Ingathering" by Zenna Henderson.
On Bringing Narnia to Film
caspianartTPON: We know that Andrew Adamson and Walden Media have been very respectful of the original material. In theory, though, how much veto power do you hold over the script?
Gresham: We create the scripts in a collaborative manner, I meet with the writers and Andrew, and we go carefully through every line, honing and refining until we are satisfied that what we have is right. I have as much "voice" in this process as anyone on the team who are all very respectful of my knowledge and expertise.
TPON: The biggest criticism of the LWW film seems to be that there isn't enough of Aslan in it, and Aslan doesn't seem to be as all-powerful as he is portrayed in the books. Any thoughts on that?
Gresham: Yes, two thoughts. One is that no matter how much of Aslan we might want to put in a movie we are, as always, constrained to some extent by budget realities. To make a Lion for Aslan who looked anything less than perfect would be terrible, so we tend to try to make every hair of his mane and every move that he makes as close to perfect as we can. You have seen the result on screen. Now I am not about to tell you how much it costs to produce that quality of CGI, but let's just say that it is not cheap. Somewhere along the line one has to decide how much money is to be spent on what, and to put more of Aslan in the movie means to put less of other things. We had to try for a good balance and I think we achieved it very well.
The on the topic of Aslan being all-powerful (but restraining his power), just how would one portray that in a movie? Remember this? 1 Kings 19:11 Then He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD." And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.
Aslan in the LWW, is the still small voice (except when he roars).
TPON: Many people are into the Narnia stories particularly because of the themes that are behind them. What do you think are the most important themes of Prince Caspian that absolutely must be in the movie?
Gresham: That one I will wait to answer till after the movie is released. I am not about to give anything away at this stage.
TPON: Many are apprehensive about the portrayal of Calormenes in the Horse and His Boy, which seem to have a Middle Eastern flavor. It's still far away, but do you have any idea how the Calormenes might be approached in the movies, given a post-9/11 audience?
Gresham: Yes I do, but I am not about to give that away either. However, I don't think that the descriptions of the Calormenes do have a Middle Eastern flavour. I think you need to look further afield and further back. But in any case, taking offense is a personal choice, and if people want be offended by what I do in a movie that is their right and their responsibility. I will not pander to the likes, dislikes, preferences or prejudices of individuals who might be in our audiences, if you start to do that, sooner or later you wind up with artistic porridge.
Some Personal Questions
TPON: How was it like to grow up with CS Lewis?
Gresham: It was just my childhood, and I have nothing to compare it with so that is a very difficult question. In all it was a time of great learning and privilege.
TPON: What aspect of being raised by CS Lewis and Joy Gresham did you find most difficult?
Gresham: Their (from my viewpoint) untimely premature deaths.
TPON: Do you feel you have to follow in your stepfather's footsteps?
Gresham: I don't feel that I have to but I would love to be able to.
TPON: We've often read interviews where you would describe your stepfather, or your mother's relationship with him. What do you remember most about your mother, as an individual?
Gresham: Her warmth of character, her wit, her almost incredible intelligence, her musical talent, her immeasurable courage and her love.
TPON: How is your involvement with Rathvinden Ministries? Has the busyness from the Film Production limited your role in any way?
Gresham: This question is now redundant as Rathvinden Ministries is no longer. Merrie and I were beginning to realise that all ministries have their allotted life-spans, as do we ourselves, and as we moved into our sixties, we were finding 17 bedrooms on 20 acres of land to be just too much work for us. If God's way of telling you to slow down is allowing you to become ill, His way of telling you to stop may well be allowing you to die. Merrie and I were beginning to wear out so we decided the time was right to sell Rathvinden and move to somewhere that the sun shines a bit more often than it does in Ireland. So we now live in Malta and are waiting to see what the Lord has in mind for us here. As for me, the Lord seems to be keeping me pretty busy with the film industry, but His will comes first and if He decides to change that, so be it.
TPON: What's the weirdest question ever asked to you?
Gresham: Wow, I can't really remember , but I have had some pretty weird ones over the years.
TPON: Do you like Turkish Delight?
Gresham: Very much.
TPON: Having asked all that, we'd like to say how much we appreciate the work you're doing with the CS Lewis Company, bringing the Narnia stories to audiences around the globe, among other things. It's quite a blessing to us. We are all looking forward to Prince Caspian, and 2008 is going to be a long long wait. Some of our members are also eager to see a film version of Till We Have Faces ( ! ), but again, are willing to wait.
Gresham: Thank you. But to see a film version of Till We Have Faces would be easy; you find me the budget and I'll make the movie. 
TPON: Thank you again for your time and for being such a blessing to us all.
Gresham: You're welcome. Blessings, Douglas. |
_________________ 変わる時代の中で変わらない夢を掴もう - Kawaru jidai no naka de kawaranai yume wo tsukamou - Incluso en tiempos cambiantes, alcanza ese sueño constante,
激しい雨に打たれても現実に流されない…君でいるために - Hageshii ame ni utarete mo genjitsu ni nagasarenai. Kimi de iru tame ni - Incluso si llueve fuertemente, no escapes de la realidad, ya que eres el que eres
My dream will never change. - Mi sueño jamas cambiara (BOY - The Alfee)
del.icio.us Last.Fm
Instrucciones para soñar
Massugu Go! Mas Adentro, Mas Adelante, Manabichan lo sabia, Lewis Tambien.
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Agustin
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| Publicado: Sab Jul 05, 2008 11:38 am Asunto: Entrevista a Douglas Gresham y comentarios de Amelia Harper |
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Entrevista a Douglas Gresham y comentarios de Amelia Harper
| Cita: |
What’s New in Narnia
By Amelia Harper
Note: This interview originally appeared in the Fall 2005 issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.
Some of the tales we read in childhood are ones we feel we must share—that we must pass on to our children. For many homeschooling families, C.S. Lewis’s seven books of the Chronicles of Narnia are near the top of the list of stories worth sharing.
However, Narnia is undergoing some changes, it seems. A new combined volume presents the stories in a totally different order than most remember. Rumors swirl about “new” Narnia books written by another author. And on December 9, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe will hit the big screen in a full-scale cinematic production. For some Narnia fans, this is a long-awaited event. Others fear that Hollywood will spoil the innocent beauty of Narnia and strip the story of the spiritual subtext that gives the tale a dimension beyond the normal childish fare. Is there truth to the rumors? Is there reason to be alarmed—or excited?
It is true that few stories have had such a large and wide-ranging audience. According to Douglas Gresham, the stepson of C.S. Lewis and the Creative and Artistic Director of the C.S. Lewis Company, around 80-90 million copies of The Chronicles of Narnia have been sold worldwide. This translates into an estimated 400 million readers of the celebrated series.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was first introduced to the world more than 50 years ago and was greeted with enthusiasm from the beginning. What was most surprising was not the response to the book but the source. It was written by a middle-aged Oxford college professor, a former atheist who was, at the time of the writing, a confirmed bachelor. He was a man better known for his poetry, scholarly tomes, and works of lay theology than for children’s tales.
Yet the appeal of the simple story of wondrous adventures and supreme sacrifice quickly gave it a foothold on both sides of the Atlantic, and Lewis soon had an audience clamoring for more. Over the next six years, Lewis quickly produced six more stories of the world of Narnia and completed the seven-book series, originally published from 1950 to 1956. The Chronicles take the readers on a whirlwind tour of the Narnian world, from its very creation to the scenes of its final destruction, weaving wit and wisdom into the daring adventures of Lucy, Edmund, Peter, Susan, and assorted friends who enter Narnia from our own primary world.
The books were produced, in part, as a result of a conversation between Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, who were great friends and shared a love of literature. In one conversation, they were bemoaning the type of literature that was often produced in the modern age, when Lewis commented, “If they won’t write the kinds of books we want to read, we shall have to write them ourselves.” Lewis encouraged Tolkien, who had by then published The Hobbit, to continue his work on a grander scale. The result, for Tolkien, was the production of his masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings. Lewis wrote his celebrated space trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. Later, he wrote the seven Chronicles of Narnia, which he called a “fairy tale addressed to children.”
However, the appeal of Narnia extends far beyond the audience to which it was addressed. Teenagers and adults also find pleasure in Lewis’s skillfully woven tales. In an interview, Colin Duriez, author of several Lewis biographies as well as The Field Guide to Narnia, revealed his own reaction to Narnia for the first time when reading it as a teenager. Duriez had at that time been exposed to Lewis’s works through reading only Mere Christianity in his Welsh high school. He looked for other works by Lewis and stumbled across The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. “I went through the wardrobe with Lucy and entered the same forest and was captivated,” he said.
Part of this wide-ranging appeal comes from Lewis’s own philosophy of writing for children. He felt that the writer needed to respect the intelligence of his audience, connecting with children on the basis of common experience, not a forced educational perspective. “We must meet children as equals in that area of our nature where we are their equals …,” Lewis wrote. “The child as reader is neither to be patronized nor idolized: we talk to him man to man. But the worst attitude of all would be the professional attitude which regards children in the lump as a raw material which we have to handle…. I will not say that a good story for children could never be written by someone in the Ministry of Education, for all things are possible. But I should lay very long odds against it.”
There is no denying the lasting legacy of the Narnian Chronicles; but what about the rumors of new Narnia books written by another author? Gresham says that they are not true. However, in the works are some books that retell the original stories in a simpler form suitable for picture books for small children.
The newest combined edition of The Chronicles of Narnia also has some changes. It now presents the stories in the order in which they took place in the chronology of Narnia, beginning with The Magician’s Nephew, not in the order they were originally written. According to Gresham, Lewis would have preferred this presentation, which does make the series easier to follow. However, many people still prefer to enter Narnia first through that wardrobe with Lucy, the place where the new Narnia movie begins.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe , produced by Walden Media and distributed by Disney, promises to be a visual and cinematic treat although, as with all book adaptations, it may differ somewhat from your own inner vision of Narnia. Wherever you choose to enter this world, it is well worth visiting, especially with a child at your side. As the new movie approaches, this may be just the time to take a trip through the books again yourself.
Amelia Harper is author of Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings and a contributor to the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. In November, she presented a paper on “Worlds of Imagination in the Writings of Lewis and Tolkien” at a C.S. Lewis conference at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.
An Exclusive Interview with Douglas Gresham
By Amelia Harper
Note: This interview originally appeared in the Fall 2005 issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.
C.S. Lewis’s surprising late-life marriage to Joy Davidman brought two young men into Lewis’s life: David and Douglas Gresham. Douglas Gresham, the younger of Joy’s two sons, recounts his own experiences during this time period in his book Lenten Lands: My Childhood with Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis. He is now working on a biography of Lewis, which will be published by Broadman and Holman in October 2005.
After living for a time in Australia and Tasmania, Douglas Gresham and his wife Merrie moved to Ireland, where he continues to work in a counseling ministry that focuses on Post Abortion Syndrome, child abuse, and other family counseling issues. Gresham, now the father of five adult children, also writes and lectures in addition to his responsibilities to the C.S. Lewis Company and his involvement with the new film The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. For this issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, Douglas Gresham has graciously agreed to an exclusive interview.
Douglas Gresham On C.S. Lewis
TOS: Mr. Gresham, how old were you when you first met C.S. Lewis?
GRESHAM: I was eight years old.
TOS: I understand that when you first met Mr. Lewis, you were already a fan of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Did Mr. Lewis in person fit in with the way you envisioned him as the author of the tale?
GRESHAM: Not at all. As a little boy whose head was full of Narnia and such, I always thought of him as a great stalwart figure in armor and carrying a sword. After all, this was a man who actually knew personally High King Peter of Narnia and Aslan the Great Lion! Instead, there was this stooped, middle-aged, scholarly looking man with nicotine-stained fingers and teeth, wearing the most amazingly shabby clothes I had ever seen. However, Jack’s warmth and vivacity of personality soon made up for his appearance, and we were soon firm friends.
TOS: I note that The Horse and His Boy , one of the seven Chronicles of Narnia, was dedicated to you and your brother, David. Were you privileged to hear any of the stories before they were published? Did Mr. Lewis ever discuss them with you? Since it is said that he knew very few children on a personal level, did he ever ask your opinions regarding the works?
GRESHAM: I don’t think it is at all true to say that he didn’t know many children. The Kilns [C.S. Lewis’s house] had been home to groups of children evacuated from London during [World War II]. Jack had also voluntarily assumed responsibility for Maureen Moore [the sister of a comrade killed in World War I] when Maureen was about 12 or 13, and the house had always been full of her friends. This sort of thing is often conveniently forgotten by biographers. However, Jack did often read bits and pieces to me and, indeed, he asked for my opinions, probably as an exercise in charity more than for any real value my opinions might have had.
TOS: Richard Attenborough’s film, Shadowlands, which stars Debra Winger and Anthony Hopkins, depicts an interesting and moving account of the marriage of your mother and Mr. Lewis. In the movie, a young Douglas Gresham is often featured. How accurate is this movie in portraying the true story? For instance, I note that the movie does not include David at all and depicts you as considerably younger than you truly were at your mother’s death. Do you recommend this movie as good way to learn more about Mr. Lewis?
GRESHAM: Good question. Do I recommend it as a good way to learn more about Jack? No. But do I recommend it as a possible introduction to him and, as a good movie, definitely yes! Shadowlands is very inaccurate concerning matters of historical fact, but then it was never intended to be an historical documentary. On the other hand, in terms of the emotional progression through which the protagonists pass, it is spot on. Shadowlands is the fictionalized re-telling of one of the most beautiful and moving love stories of the twentieth century. Beautifully written and filmed, it is a wonderful movie in its own right. If it then stimulates people to read books to find out the real truth behind it, that is a rich bonus.
TOS: In addition to your own book Lenten Lands: My Childhood with Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis, what biographies or autobiographies of the life of C.S. Lewis would you recommend to families who wish to know more about him?
GRESHAM: I think the best biography in print, as I write, is by George Sayer. It is called Jack: C.S. Lewis and His Times. There is also C.S. Lewis’s autobiographical work Surprised by Joy. My new book, which is a mere telling of his life story without any scholarly analysis or literary criticism, is due out in October and will be published by Broadman and Holman. It is called Jack’s Life.
Douglas Gresham on Homeschooling
TOS: In earlier conversations with you, you told me that you were an ardent supporter of homeschooling. What is your opinion of homeschooling and how did you reach that opinion?
GRESHAM: Homeschooling and why I advocate it is not a matter of whether the schools are good or bad, though obviously I would rather children went to good schools than to bad ones, if go to school they must. It is that, as someone who has been trained and works in the field of post-childhood abuse trauma, and has devoted considerable thought to the matter, I have formed the opinion that the entire concept of school is flawed. In fact, it is a terrible mistake.
Look what we do: we observe what God has designed, a pair of parents, one of each sex, and two pairs of grandparents, often with a few aunts and uncles thrown in. In fact, a Family. This is the unit designed by God Himself for the specific purpose and ministry of raising each new generation.
Then what do we do? We take the child and remove him from this carefully designed support group of parents and close family members, all of whom share a genetic bond with the child, and plunge him into a mass group of his peers, all of whom are as ignorant and as demanding as he is, with one adult stranger supervising. In terms of the psycho-emotional development of the child, this is complete madness.
A child is best nurtured by having the one-on-one attention from each of the two parents for a specific period of time each day. Ideally, a child should be homeschooled by both parents sharing the task equally, though I do realize that this is not always possible. Bear in mind that I am not referring to idiotic parents, criminal parents, drug-addicted parents, or self-indulgent, self-obsessed parents, nor to anyone else who should never be graced (in my view, not God’s, of course) with progeny in the first place. I am referring to normal, well-adjusted, good parents. And with our modern habits of sending children away from their home and families for the better part of every day, these [well-adjusted parents] are becoming more and more scarce as the vast majority of people are damaged or scarred emotionally and intellectually themselves by being exiled from their home and parents and placed in the hands of strangers at a young age.
It is a trans-generational progression exacerbated by the fact that those who are damaged very often are not even aware of it. If I had known back then what I know now, my children would never have gone to school until they were at least 18 years old. Satan hates what God loves and God loves us, Mankind. The basic unit of Mankind is the family, so Satan has targeted the Family, and he has been pretty successful, mostly by using “good intentions.” I think that “School” is one of his very clever inventions. As far as I am concerned, schools are for fish.
TOS: You also indicated that you have received some opposition because of your position on homeschooling. Can you tell me more about your experiences regarding this?
GRESHAM: I have been advocating homeschooling for many years now in my public addresses, ever since I discovered the emotional and psychological reactions of many children on being sent to schools and the subsequent damage that a school environment almost inevitably inflicts on them. On many occasions there have been teachers in the audience who have taken exception to the idea that the industry in which they have chosen to work in order to benefit children has in fact been detrimental to the children instead. There have also, let it be said, been teachers who have suddenly realized what I am talking about and that they have been witnessing it unknowingly for years.
TOS: C.S. Lewis sometimes recounted his horrid experiences in a public boarding school. Yet he seemed to be a firm proponent of traditional education and sent you to a boarding school as well. How do you think he would have regarded the modern homeschooling option?
GRESHAM: I cannot help but think that if he had done the research and learned about the emotional and psychological needs of children, he would think exactly the same as I do.
Douglas Gresham on the New Narnia Movie
TOS: I understand that you are acting as the liaison between the C.S. Lewis Literary Estate and those who are producing the new film, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. What exactly does your role in the film entail?
GRESHAM: My position is that of co-producer of the film. My role in the film is to act as a sort of in-house Narnia expert, to try to ensure that everything that appears in Narnia is “Narnian.” I play a sort of watchdog role on the movie (probably being a nuisance at times) and also keep an eye on all the ancillary products that go along with a movie these days, such as video games and other merchandise that folks love to have available to them.
TOS: Early on, some Narnia-watchers expressed concerns over rumored changes in the story as it was converted to film. How accurate is this film to the settings and plot of the book?
GRESHAM: Very accurate. That was always one of my areas of responsibility, to ensure that the film was faithful to the story and to Narnia itself.
TOS: Do you think that Mr. Lewis himself would be proud of this film?
GRESHAM: Yes I do. If I didn’t, I would have just wasted the last five years of my life. I think he would have been particularly proud and pleased by the performances of our four superb young actors who play the Pevensies, and I think he would have liked them all as people, too.
TOS: Do you think that there will be more films produced from the Chronicles of Narnia series? Are any plans in the works? If so, how many films will there be?
GRESHAM: It all depends on how successful the first one is. If it is a hit (as I am convinced it will be) then we will do the next one. If that is a hit, we will do the third, and so on. In other words, as long as the public really wants to see movies of the Narnian Chronicles, we will go on producing them till we run out of books.
TOS: How do you think this movie will compare with the BBC production of the past?
GRESHAM: There will be no possible comparison.
TOS: Some people have expressed concerns that a secular production company would distort or ignore the subtle Christian overtones of the actual story. In your opinion, how is this aspect being handled in the movie?
GRESHAM: Bear in mind that The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is not a “Christian” book, and Jack never intended it to be so. People will find in the book as much symbolism and underlying meaning as they seek to find. So also, I hope, it will be with our movie. You’ll just have to wait and see.
Editor’s Note: The Old Schoolhouse Magazine will post a review of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe on its website, www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com , as soon as the film is available for preview. Please check the website close to the expected release date of December 9, 2005. For more information about the film, please go to www.narnia.com.
Amelia Harper is a homeschooling mother of fie and pastor’s wife. She is author of Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings, a complete one-year literature curriculum for secondary level students. She is also a freelance writer who contributes regularly to newspapers and magazines, as well as TOS. |
_________________ 変わる時代の中で変わらない夢を掴もう - Kawaru jidai no naka de kawaranai yume wo tsukamou - Incluso en tiempos cambiantes, alcanza ese sueño constante,
激しい雨に打たれても現実に流されない…君でいるために - Hageshii ame ni utarete mo genjitsu ni nagasarenai. Kimi de iru tame ni - Incluso si llueve fuertemente, no escapes de la realidad, ya que eres el que eres
My dream will never change. - Mi sueño jamas cambiara (BOY - The Alfee)
del.icio.us Last.Fm
Instrucciones para soñar
Massugu Go! Mas Adentro, Mas Adelante, Manabichan lo sabia, Lewis Tambien.
http://www.agustinbosso.com |
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Agustin
Lider de la Orden del Leon
Edad: 39
Registrado: 03 Nov 2005
Ultima Visita: 03 Mar 2024
Mensajes: 3116
Ubicación: Argentina
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| Publicado: Sab Jul 05, 2008 12:20 pm Asunto: El Lado Oscuro de Narnia, por Philip Pullman |
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El Lado Oscuro de Narnia, por Philip Pullman
http://www.cairparavel.cl/foro/viewtopic.php?t=769
| Cita: | Comenzando a recuperar cosas interesantes. Primero en inglés, luego en español.
Sé que ya se comentó al respecto, pero sirve para los nuevos que vayan llegando o por si en algún momento quieren releerlo.
The Guardian
October 1, 1998
"The Darkside of Narnia"
Philip Pullman
Why are we marking the centenary of CS Lewis's birth with parties and competitions? His books were reactionary and dishonest, says Philip Pullman
The centenary of C S Lewis's birth on November 29 is being celebrated with all manner of hoopla, much of it connected in one way or another with the Narnia books. There will be an adaptation of The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company, a 100th birthday party at the toy shop Hamleys, a competition for children to draw greetings cards based on the Narnia stories, and fresh editions of the seven books, with newly coloured illustrations.
As if that wasn't enough, The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe was recently named their favourite story by such celebrities as Geri Halliwell, Liam Gallagher and Peter Mandelson, and the same book starred in a recent range of pictorial stamps.
So Narnia sells by the lorry-load. But other aspects of Lewis's life and work have never been neglected. He and his coterie, the Inklings, have been the subject of biographical attention for some time: Humphrey Carpenter and A N Wilson have both written about him, and two years ago, in plenty of time for the centenary, HarperCollins brought out the massive C S Lewis: A Companion And Guide, by Walter Hooper. Then there was the Richard Attenborough film Shadowlands, and only the other day I saw a theatre poster saying that Joss Ackland was to play C S Lewis in a dance spectacular... No, I must have dreamt that.
The interesting question is why. What is there in this tweedy medievalist that attracts such devoted (and growing) attention, not only to the works but to the life? Acolytes know all the facts: how he and his brother Warnie made up stories during their Ulster boyhood; how he promised a soldier friend in the first world war trenches that he'd look after the friend's mother, and maintained a curious relationship with her for years thereafter; how as an unbeliever he wrestled with belief and gave in one famous night after a long conversation with his friends Hugo Dyson and J R R Tolkien, coming to the conclusion that the story of the Gospels was a myth like those he already cherished, 'but one with this tremendous difference that it really happened'; how he went on to write all the books, and how late in life he married Joy Gresham, who soon afterwards died.
All this is already nearly myth on its own account. In a bookshop recently I heard a customer ask where she could find C S Lewis's Shadowlands. Perhaps she was ignorant of the fact that Shadowlands is about him, not by him; and perhaps it didn't matter, because she'd find it in the same part of the shop as his works anyway; but I felt (not for the first time) as if Lewis was beyond the reach of ordinary criticism, because the facts are becoming less important than the legend, and the legend, as we know, is what gets printed.
To be sure, there is something to be said for him. The literary criticism is, at the very least, effortlessly readable; even a critic such as Stanley Fish, whom one would not imagine to have much sympathy for Lewis in (say) political terms, acknowledges his rhetorical influence. The psychology in The Screwtape Letters is subtle and acute. He said some things about myth and fairy tale and writing for children which are both true and interesting.
But there is no doubt in the public mind that what matters is the Narnia cycle, and that is where the puzzle comes, because there is no doubt in my mind that it is one of the most ugly and poisonous things I've ever read.
Why the Narnia books are popular with children is not difficult to see. In a superficial and bustling way, Lewis could tell a story, and when he cheats, as he frequently does, the momentum carries you over the bumps and the potholes. But there have always been adults who suspected what he was up to. His friend Tolkien took a dim view of The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, particularly disliking Lewis's slapdash way with mythology: 'It really won't do, you know!' And the American critic John Goldthwaite, in his powerful and original study of children's literature The Natural History Of Make-Believe (OUP, 1996), lays bare the misogyny, the racism, the sado-masochistic relish for violence that permeates the whole cycle.
For an open-eyed reading of the books reveals some hair-raising stuff. One of the most vile moments in the whole of children's literature, to my mind, occurs at the end of The Last Battle, when Aslan reveals to the children that "The term is over: the holidays have begun" because "There was a real railway accident. Your father and mother and all of you are - as you used to call it in the Shadowlands - dead." To solve a narrative problem by killing one of your characters is something many authors have done at one time or another. To slaughter the lot of them, and then claim they're better off, is not honest storytelling: it's propaganda in the service of a life-hating ideology. But that's par for the course. Death is better than life; boys are better than girls; light-coloured people are better than dark-coloured people; and so on. There is no shortage of such nauseating drivel in Narnia, if you can face it.
There is the loathsome glee with which the children from the co-educational school are routed, in The Silver Chair: "with the strength of Aslan in them, Jill plied her crop on the girls and Caspian and Eustace plied the flats of their swords so well that in two minutes all the bullies were running away like mad, crying out, 'Murder! Fascists! Lions! It isn't fair.' And then the Head [who was, by the way, a woman] came running out to see what was happening." There is the colossal impertinence, to put it mildly, of hijacking the emotions that are evoked by the story of the Crucifixion and Resurrection in order to boost the reader's concern about Aslan in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe.
And in The Last Battle, notoriously, there's the turning away of Susan from the Stable (which stands for salvation) because "She's interested in nothing nowadays except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up." In other words, Susan, like Cinderella, is undergoing a transition from one phase of her life to another. Lewis didn't approve of that. He didn't like women in general, or sexuality at all, at least at the stage in his life when he wrote the Narnia books. He was frightened and appalled at the notion of wanting to grow up. Susan, who did want to grow up, and who might have been the most interesting character in the whole cycle if she'd been allowed to, is a Cinderella in a story where the Ugly Sisters win.
Walter Hooper's attitude to the Susan passage, in his Companion And Guide, is forthright: it has "a terrible beauty that makes the heart ache, and which is perhaps only matched by Dante's Paradiso". But Hooper is a devotee, if that word expresses a fervent enough passion. His book is almost a thousand pages long, but it's not as wide-ranging as it seems. He finds room for several paragraphs about the footling and an irrelevant question of whether a female (a distant connection of Lewis's) could succeed to a baronetcy, but none for a single mention of (say) Victor Watson's or David Holbrook's less-than-favourable views of the Narnia cycle. More seriously, A N Wilson's excellent biography (Collins, 1990) might as well not exist at all.
But Wilson made the mistake of being fair about Lewis, not partial, and being fair about saints is doing the Devil's work. I haven't the slightest doubt that the man will be sainted in due course: the legend is too potent. However, when that happens, those of us who detest the supernaturalism, the reactionary sneering, the misogyny, the racism, and the sheer dishonesty of his narrative method will still be arguing against him.
Philip Pullman is a leading children's author and won the Carnegie Medal in 1996 for his novel Northern Lights. The sequel, The Subtle Knife, is published in paperback this month (Scholastic, £5.99)'); |
Traduccion:
Click aqui para ver el texto completo
| Cita: |
The Guardian
1° de Octubre de 1998
“El Lado Oscuro de Narnia”
Philip Pullman
¿Por qué se está promocionando el centenario del nacimiento de CS Lewis con fiestas y competencias? Sus libros fueron reaccionarios y deshonestos, dice Philip Pullman.
El centenario del nacimiento de CS Lewis el 29 de Noviembre está siendo celebrado con todo tipo de jolgorio, en gran parte conectado de una manera u otra con los libros de Narnia. Habrá una adaptación de El León, La Bruja y el Ropero presentada por la Royal Shakespeare Company, una fiesta del cumpleaños número 100 en la tienda Hamleys, una competencia para niños de dibujo de tarjetas de saludos basadas en Narnia, y nuevas ediciones de los siete libros, con nuevas ilustraciones a color.
Como si fuera poco, El León, La Bruja y el Ropero fue nombrado recientemente como su historia favorita por celebridades como Geri Halliwell, Liam Gallagher y Peter Mandelson, y el mismo libro apareció en una edición reciente de estampillas pictóricas.
Así que Narnia vende hasta por los codos. Pero hay otros aspectos en la vida y trabajo de Lewis que han sido obviados. Él y su grupo, los Inklings, han sido sujetos de atención biográfica desde hace algún tiempo: Humphrey Carpenter y A N Wilson han escrito sobre él, y hace dos años, en tiempo para el centenario, HarperCollins compró C S Lewis: Un Compañero y Guía, por Walter Hooper. Luego está la película Tierra de Sombras, de Richard Attenborough, y el otro día vi un poster diciendo que Joss Ackland iba a interpretar a C S Lewis en una danza espectacular… No, debo haber soñado eso.
La pregunta interesante es ¿por qué? ¿Qué hay en este medievalista informal que atrae a tanta atención devota (y creciente), no solo sobre su trabajo sino sobre su vida? Los acólitos saben todos los hechos: como él y su hermano Warnie inventaban historias durante su infancia en Ulster; como le prometió a un amigo soldado en las trincheras de la primera guerra que cuidaría de su madre, y mantuvo una curiosa relación con ella por los años siguientes; como de un no creyente luchó con las creencias y se rindió en una famosa noche luego de una larga conversación con sus amigos Hugo Dyson y J R R Tolkien, llegando a la conclusión que la historia de los Evangelios era mito como los que él ya apreciaba, “pero uno con esta tremenda diferencia de que pasó realmente”; como fue a escribir todos los libros, y como luego en su vida se casó con Joy Gresham, quién murió pronto.
Todo esto es ya casi un mito por su propia cuenta. En una librería escuché recientemente a un cliente preguntar donde podría encontrar Tierra de Sombras de CS Lewis. Quizás ella era ignorante del hecho que Tierra de Sombras es sobre él, no de él; o quizás no importaba, porque la encontraría en la misma parte de la tienda de todos modos; pero me sentí (no por primera vez) como si Lewis estuviera más allá del alcance de la crítica ordinaria, porque los hechos se están convirtiendo en algo menos importante que le leyenda, y la leyenda, como sabemos, es lo que se imprime.
Hay que asegurar, hay algo que decir de él. La crítica literaria es, por lo menos, legible sin esfuerzo; incluso un crítico como Stanley Fish, a quien uno no imaginaría tener tanta simpatía por Lewin en (digamos) términos políticos, reconoce su influencia retórica. La psicología de Las Cartas del Diablo a Su Sobrino es sutil y acertada. Dijo cosas sobre mitos y cuentos de hadas y escribir para niños que son tanto verdad como interesantes.
Pero no hay duda en la mente pública que lo que importa es el ciclo de Narnia, y ahí es cuando comienza el acertijo, porque no hay duda en mi mente que es una de las cosas más feas y envenenadas que he leído.
Porqué los libros de Narnia son populares con niños no es difícil de ver. En una manera superficial y activa, Lewis podía contar una historia, y cuando hace trampa, como lo hace frecuentemente, el momentum te lleva sobre los saltos y baches. Pero siempre ha habido adultos que sospechaban que se traía entre manos. Su amigo Tolkien tomó una oscura visión en El León, La Bruja y el Ropero, particularmente desagradado por la forma chapucera de tratar la mitología: “Realmente no va a funcionar, sabes”. Y el crítico americano John Goldthwaite, es un poderoso y original estudio de la literatura infantil The Natural History Of Make-Believe (OUP, 1996), muestra abiertamente la misoginia, el racismo, el gusto sadomasoquista por la violencia que se escurre por todo el ciclo.
Para un lector de ojos abiertos los libros revelan cosas escalofriantes. Uno de los momentos más viles en toda la literatura infantil, para mí, ocurre al final de La Última Batalla, cuando Aslan le revela a los niños que “Las clases han terminado: han comenzado las vacaciones” porque “Hubo realmente un accidente de trenes. Tu
padre y tu madre y todos ustedes están..., como solían decirlo en las Tierras
Irreales..., muertos.” Resolver un problema narrativo matando a alguno de sus personajes es algo que muchos autores han hecho en alguna ocasión. Masacrar a muchos de ellos, y luego decir que están mejor, no es narración honesta: es propaganda en servicio de una ideología que odia la vida. Pero eso es a la par con lo que sigue. La muerte es mejor que la vida; los niños son mejores que las niñas; la gente de colores claros es mejor que la de colores oscuros; y así. No hay falta de estos sinsentidos repulsivos en Narnia, si puedes enfrentarlos.
Está la despreciable alegría con la que los niños del colegio experimental son perseguidos, en La Silla de Plata: “con la fuerza que Aslan puso en ellos, Jill golpeaba con su fusta a las niñas, y Caspian y Eustaquio con el lado romo de sus espadas a los niños, tanto que en dos minutos los matones corrían como locos, clamando: “¡Asesinos! ¡Fascistas! ¡Leones! ¡No hay derecho!”. Y entonces el Director (que, a propósito, era
mujer) acudió apresuradamente a ver qué sucedía.” Está la colosal impertinencia, por ponerlo suave, de capturar las emociones que son evocadas por la historia de la Crucifixión y Resurrección para impulsar la preocupación del lector por Aslan en El León, La Bruja y el Ropero.
Y en La Última Batalla, notoriamente, hay un alejamiento de Susana del Establo (que representa la salvación) porque “(ella) sólo se interesa actualmente en medias de nylon y lápices de labios y en invitaciones. Siempre estuvo un poquito impaciente por llegar a ser persona grande.” En otras palabras, Susana, como la Cenicienta, está pasando por una transición de una fase de su vida hacia otra. Lewis no aprobaba esto. No le gustaban las mujeres en general, o sexualmente para nada, al menos en la etapa de su vida en que escribió los libros de Narnia. Estaba temeroso y disgustado con la idea de querer crecer. Susan, que sí quería crecer, y quién podría haber sido el personaje más interesante en todo el ciclo si se le hubiese permitido, es una Cenicienta en una historia donde las Hermanas Feas ganan.
La actitud de Walter Hooper al pasaje de Susana, en su Compañero y Guía, es directa: tiene “una terrible belleza que hace doler el corazón, y que quizás es solo igualada por el Paraíso de Dante”. Pero Hooper es un devoto, si esa palabra expresa suficiente pasión. Su libro es casi de mil páginas, pero no abarca tanto como parece. Encuentra espacio para muchos párrafos sobre la fútil e irrelevante pregunta si una mujer (una conexión distante con Lewis) podría tener éxito como baronesa, pero no hay ninguna mención a las visiones menos favorables de Narnia de Victor Watson o David Holbrook. Más seriamente, la excelente biografía de A N Wilson (Collins, 1990) podría perfectamente no existir para nada.
Pero Wilson cometió el error de ser justo con Lewis, no parcial, y ser justo con santos es hacer el trabajo del Diablo. No tengo la más mínima duda que el hombre será santificado a su debido tiempo: la leyenda es demasiado potente. Sin embargo, cuando esto pase, aquellos de nosotros que detestamos el supernaturalismo, la crítica reaccionaria, la misoginia, el racismo, y la completa deshonestidad de su método narrativo seguiremos argumentando contra él.
Philip Pullman es un autor infantil líder que ganó la Medalla Carnegie en 1996 por su novela Luces del Norte. La Secuela, La Daga, se publica este mes en edición de bolsillo.')
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_________________ 変わる時代の中で変わらない夢を掴もう - Kawaru jidai no naka de kawaranai yume wo tsukamou - Incluso en tiempos cambiantes, alcanza ese sueño constante,
激しい雨に打たれても現実に流されない…君でいるために - Hageshii ame ni utarete mo genjitsu ni nagasarenai. Kimi de iru tame ni - Incluso si llueve fuertemente, no escapes de la realidad, ya que eres el que eres
My dream will never change. - Mi sueño jamas cambiara (BOY - The Alfee)
del.icio.us Last.Fm
Instrucciones para soñar
Massugu Go! Mas Adentro, Mas Adelante, Manabichan lo sabia, Lewis Tambien.
http://www.agustinbosso.com |
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rachel
Hidalgo
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| Publicado: Sab Jul 05, 2008 3:09 pm Asunto: |
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Quiero hacer un aporte.
Este texto nos fue muy útil para redactar la biografía de Gresham. Y creo que es muy interesante para conocer un poco más de la vida de Jack, por eso lo agrego.
| Cita: | In Lenten Lands
Douglas Gresham, the stepson of Christian author C.S. Lewis, has lived an eccentric life worthy of such a father.
by Tom Neven
He invariably wears his trousers tucked into his knee- high leather boots. He’s rarely without his navy-blue seaman’s turtleneck sweater with a large silver cross hanging around his neck. A Greek-fisherman’s hat tops his head. And while he might strike some as eccentric, he has in fact lived an eccentric life during his 56 years: gadabout, sheep farmer in Tasmania, radio DJ in the Australian outback and now abortion and grief counselor. But perhaps he’s best known for being the son of Joy Davidman, the woman who captured the heart of C.S. Lewis, one of the 20th century’s great Christian writers and apologists.
Douglas Gresham was born in New York City in November 1945 to William and Helen Joy Gresham. William Gresham was a fairly successful writer in his own right, with his novel Nightmare Alley being turned into a movie with the lead played by Tyrone Power. The money from this allowed the family to live comfortably in upstate New York, until tax troubles began to intrude. Douglas’ father was also a heavy drinker and violent drunk, once smashing a guitar into kindling when he couldn’t master a certain musical piece on it. Add to that his view of sexual morality—he saw nothing wrong with marital infidelity—and the marriage was bound to fall apart. Joy and William eventually divorced.
A long road
In the meantime a friend of Joy’s, an Episcopal priest, introduced her to the works of an English writer who was becoming known as a great explainer of the Christian faith. With questions piqued by Lewis’ writings, Joy wrote to Jack, as Lewis was known to his friends, and struck up a pen friendship.
"She found for the first time in her life, as also did Jack, someone of the opposite sex with whom she could have a conversation on even terms," Douglas said.
And so the daughter of atheistic Jews who was raised in the Bronx came to know Christ as a result of Jack’s writings. Their pen friendship eventually led her to England to meet Jack at his home in Oxfordshire in 1952.
Joy moved to England with her sons, Douglas and David, in 1953. By then, Douglas had fallen in love with Jack’s works of fantasy and allegory, such as "The Chronicles of Narnia."
"They were magic," Douglas said. "They arrested me altogether, always have and still do. They’re something outside of the normal literature."
But meeting the great writer for the first time was not the experience Douglas expected.
"I was disappointed," he said. "It sounds strange, but here I was, 8 years old, straight out of America, going to meet the man who was on speaking terms with King Peter and Aslan the great lion of Narnia. At that age, I was immersed in Narnia emotionally. King Peter obviously wore silver chain mail and carried a sword and so on. I sort of expected Jack to be a stalwart, tall figure, possibly dressed in armor and carrying a sword. And of course, Jack was nothing like that at all. He was a stooped, balding, professorial gentleman, with very strutty clothes and nicotine-stained teeth.
"But," he adds, "interestingly enough, even within the first hours of meeting him, the enormous vibrancy and vitality and charm and humor of his personality completely expunged any physical deficiencies that I might have seen in him.
"He was a very humorous man. That is what is missed in most people’s impressions of Jack. If Jack was in a room, there was laughter. If he was sitting by the bedside of someone dying of cancer, there was laughter. If he was talking to his colleagues, his peers, there was laughter."
It was also immediately clear that Jack and Joy had developed a love for one another. Joy, in the meantime, started to complain of pain in her left hip, and during the ensuing illness Jack took in Joy and her family at his home near Oxford, The Kilns.
Douglas, who was very close to his mother, despaired of losing her. He went to a small churchyard near The Kilns and, in a faltering way, asked God to save his mother. As he related it, it was the first time he ever felt the presence of God.
"I’m emotionally face to face with the presence of Jesus Christ," he said, remembering that visit. "But that didn’t make me a Christian, because, although I believed in God and I believed in Jesus, I didn’t want to submit to His authority."
True love
Joy recovered from her illness. But to compound matters, the British government was threatening to revoke Joy’s resident visa. So, according to some, Jack and Joy made a "marriage of convenience" in March 1956 so that Joy and family could stay in England. But Douglas knew Jack had been contemplating marriage to Joy years before the visa problems arose.
Jack and Joy were made for each other, and they lived a happy life at The Kilns. But illness continued to shadow Joy. Douglas was away at Lapley Grange, a boarding school in Wales, when on June 20, 1959, he was summoned home because his mother was deathly ill. Again, he went to the small churchyard.
"I had begged God for [my mother’s recovery], and He had given it to me," Douglas said. "I also had the strangest feeling to ask for the miracle twice. It’s kind of presumptuous. And I’m not sure I was doing that entirely for the right motives. I felt at the time that, to be honest with myself, I really could exist without my mother. I was 14 years old. I just said, ‘Thy will be done’ and handed it over to Jesus. I think to be rudely honest with myself now, I guess by that stage I was almost waiting for her to die, almost hoping that she would. Because when you’ve spent four years living in constant terror and fear of something, you begin to wish that it would happen so that the fear would be over."
Joy fought the illness for several months, but on July 14, 1961, she succumbed to cancer.
Cut loose
Douglas went on with his life, having middling success at school and sent by Jack, against his will, to work on a farm in Somerset owned by Sir Edward Malet. Douglas was, by his own description, "a typically self-oriented, self-opinionated, boorish young fool."
There Douglas learned farming and shepherding skills, but most important, he met Merrie, Sir Edward’s niece from Australia. They were married Feb. 2, 1967, and moved to Tasmania, where Douglas took up dairy farming.
"Things were pretty primitive," he said. "We loved doing everything for ourselves. We loved being self-sufficient, growing all our own vegetables, killing our own meat, making our own bacon, all of those things. We were there for several years, and then we decided to have a little bit of rest in Australia. So we worked our way across Australia complete with children and dog with everything in the car and a caravan [house trailer]. We spent eight or nine years in western Australia, where I was soon established as a broadcaster and television and radio personality."
Still, Douglas had not given his life to the Lord. "I put my wife through a lot of trouble," he said. "I was a fairly unfaithful husband."
His marriage troubles forced him to take a long look at himself. "Quite frankly, I was disgusted with what I discovered, which was that I was living my life based in arrogance and conceited pride. I wound up going to the local archdeacon of the Anglican Church and telling him that I needed to talk. Merrie had already become a Christian several years earlier. I committed my life to Christ right then and there. My whole life went through a 180-degree turn, changed radically and completely, and I’ve been living a different life ever since."
A new ministry
Today, Douglas lives with his family near Dublin, Ireland, in an old manor house. He founded Rathvinden Ministries, named after the estate, where he has affiliated himself with the International Institute of Pregnancy Loss and Child Abuse Research and Recovery. "It is basically a group-therapy situation for people who specialize in patients whose problems are the result of either having been abused as children or from having lost pregnancies.
"We also provide a place for people who are in active ministry. People who work for the Lord usually work very hard for very little financial recompense and cannot afford to take a vacation. So priests and ministers and pastors who come to us with their families have a cost-free vacation at Rathvinden House in Ireland."
Douglas has had no contact with his older brother in years. "David and I are about as different as two human beings can be and still belong to the same race. We were never close even as children. He became an orthodox Jew by persuasion as a teenager. He had already dabbled in Buddhism and Islam before that. And I have since become a committed Christian."
Reflecting on his life, Douglas said, "My lifetime is kind of unique in that my upbringing spans two centuries and is now moving into a third. I was brought up by people who were stuck, if you like, in the 19th century. The people who had the most influence on me were all 19th century minds, 19th century habits. Then, of course, I was born into the 20th century and now, of course, I’m heading into the 21st. Really mind-blowing, in a way."
Still strongly influenced by his mother, Douglas opens his autobiography, Lenten Lands, with the epitaph on her headstone:
Here the whole world
(stars, water, air,
And field, and forest, as they were
Reflected in a single mind)
Like cast off clothes was left behind
In ashes, yet with hopes that she,
Re-born from holy poverty,
In lenten lands, hereafter may
Resume them on her Easter Day |
Leer texto completo en Focus on the family
(NO escribo la traducción porque la he leído con la mala traducción de google...  )_________________ 
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“Si encuentro en mi deseos que nada en esta tierra puede satisfacer, la única explicación lógica es que fui hecho para otro mundo”. C.S.Lewis |
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rachel
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| Publicado: Sab Jul 05, 2008 7:12 pm Asunto: |
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Quisiera agregar un texto más. Este que traigo a colación rescata lo narrado por Gresham en Lenten Lands sobre su vida y relación con Jack:
| Cita: |
El silencioso aliado de C.S. Lewis
Por: Soledad Escudero
Una de las imágenes más conmovedoras de la película "Tierra de sombras" es cuando Douglas, un niño interpretado magistralmente por Joseph Mazzello, está solo en la buhardilla de su casa y se lamenta por la muerte de su madre. En un momento, se acerca su padrastro, el escritor C.S. Lewis (Anthony Hopkins), y se sienta a su lado. El niño, hecho un mar de lágrimas, le dice: "Quiero volver a verla". Ambos se abrazan y lloran desconsoladamente. A sollozos. Como si, por un instante, no sólo compartieran el amor por esa mujer, sino también la misma edad.
Hoy, C.S. Lewis ya está muerto. Douglas Gresham no. El niño retratado en esa cinta tiene 60 años y recuerda perfecto su infancia en Oxford junto a su madre -Joy Davidman- y al autor de "Las crónicas de Narnia". De hecho, fue su buena memoria la que ayudó a cumplir con fidelidad lo que el escritor habría esperado para que una de estas crónicas, "El León, la Bruja y el Ropero", llegara a la pantalla grande. La cinta se estrena este 5 de enero en todo el mundo, y en ella Gresham ofició de coproductor, en su calidad de director artístico y creativo de la C.S. Lewis Company, dueña de los derechos de la obra. Una buena excusa no sólo para experimentar otra vez la sensación que le produjo leer ese libro a los 8 años, sino también para recordar a Lewis. "Nos convertimos en amigos cercanos a lo largo de los años, lo que creció más aún después de la muerte de mi madre", recuerda en entrevista con Qué Pasa.
Del dolor a la magia
De niño, el refugio favorito de Douglas era su cama. No por comodidad, precisamente. Sino porque debajo de las colchas se sentía a salvo cuando su padre, William Lindsay Gresham, llegaba ebrio a casa. La familia vivía en una granja en Staatsburg, a 120 kilómetros de Nueva York, y la vida era cada vez más difícil. Al alcoholismo del progenitor se sumaban sus infidelidades y los problemas económicos. Además, William se sentía cada vez más disminuido: él y su mujer eran escritores, pero Joy lo hacía mucho mejor. La envidia se hacía sentir a golpes. No sólo contra ella, sino también contra Douglas y su hermano mayor, David.
Joy Davidman era poetisa. Y admiradora absoluta de C.S. Lewis, un escritor inglés de novelas fantásticas. Se escribían cartas y la retroalimentación entre ambos tuvo consecuencias: la mujer, una atea consumada, terminó convirtiéndose al cristianismo, pues la literatura de Lewis tenía una fuerte carga cristiana. Muy luego, ella tomó sus maletas y cruzó el Atlántico para conocer a su ídolo. Dejó a los niños en la granja, al cuidado de una prima.
Al regreso, la prima y su marido eran pareja. Entonces, Joy tomó a sus dos hijos y se fue de nuevo a Inglaterra. Mientras navegaban, Douglas cumplió ocho años. En tierra firme, vivieron un tiempo en New Rochelle y después en Londres. En diciembre de ese año, 1953, tomaron un tren a Oxford: a la casa de C.S. Lewis, un empedernido soltero, quien los había invitado a pasar cuatro días con él. Douglas recuerda perfecto su primera impresión al conocer al escritor, un hombre encorvado y lleno de cenizas que le derrumbó la imagen que él tenía en su mente. "Creo que escondí mi rostro en la falda de mamá, pues sufrí una gran desilusión. Aquí estaba el hombre que hablaba con el rey Pedro y con el Gran León, el propio Aslan. Aquí estaba el que había ido a Narnia. ¿Era ésta la figura heroica de la cual tanto hablaba mamá? Bueno, no hay que confiar en las imágenes poéticas", escribió Gresham en su libro "Lenten Lands". Pero el lugar lo dejó encantado. Lo recorrió con Jack (como le decían a C.S. Lewis), quien le mostró con calma los bosques y el lago cercanos.
En Londres, los niños entraron a estudiar en un internado. Lewis les regaló los uniformes. Douglas, sin embargo, no lo pasaba bien. Se sentía discriminado por ser estadounidense. Pero supo librarse de ello de una manera original: inventaba cuentos a sus compañeros. Llegó incluso a hacer vergonzosas versiones de "El León, la Bruja y el Ropero" para simpatizar a los demás. Muchos años después, se tomaría el tema más en serio. Porque la idea de llevar esta historia al cine ha sido una de sus obsesiones. No por nada, él mismo ha reconocido que la idea le empezó a dar vueltas en la cabeza hace ya 25 años. Hasta que se contactó con la productora Walden Media, la cual finalmente lo llevó a Disney.
El padrastro oficial
En el verano de 1955, Joy y sus hijos se fueron a vivir a una casa a poco más de un kilómetro de la de C.S. Lewis -llamada The Kilns-, quien los visitaba casi a diario durante las vacaciones que le daba la Universidad de Cambridge. El menor de los Gresham estaba encantado con su nueva vida. Paseaba por el lugar y, de vez en cuando, el escritor le mostraba el avance de sus novelas para que le diera su opinión. Para él, reconoce, era como un sueño.
Joy y Lewis se sentían atraídos, pero fue la burocracia quien apuró las cosas. Sólo cuando a ella le negaron renovarle la visa, él tuvo que acceder a la petición de la poetisa: casarse por el civil. "Jack no quería que nos fuéramos, pues había llegado a amar profundamente a mamá y también, creo, a los dos pequeños y activos satélites que revoloteaban alrededor de ella" escribió Gresham en su libro.
Los niños volvieron al internado londinense. Fue allí donde Douglas recibió una llamada de su casa, que cambiaría los planes. "Me dijeron que podía irme del colegio a vivir a The Kilns, porque mi madre estaba en un hospital con una pierna rota. Estaba maravillado, porque The Kilns era un lugar delicioso para un niño. No fue hasta después que supe que, en realidad, mi madre estaba muriendo", cuenta Douglas. Joy tenía cáncer terminal. Y fue Lewis el encargado de decírselo a sus hijos.
Luego de visitarla, Douglas se dirigió a la iglesia cercana a la casa del escritor. Hasta ese momento no creía en Dios, pero le rogó que su madre se salvara. La curiosidad por la fe se la había despertado Lewis, a quien el joven había visto rezar a diario en cualquier parte de la casa y leyendo algún capítulo de la Biblia. "El cristianismo de Jack influyó lo suficiente en mí como para decir que soy un hombre que ha comprometido su vida a Jesús y a su servicio", reconoce Gresham. Tanto, que hoy está a la cabeza de un centro para misioneros y trabajadores cristianos en Irlanda.
Mientras estaba hospitalizada, el escritor le pidió a Joy que se casaran por la Iglesia. Lo hicieron en la pieza de la clínica, mientras la salud de la poetisa empeoraba. Sin nada más que hacer, la mandaron a casa. Nadie sabe cómo, la mujer experimentó una mejoría sorprendente. Douglas recuerda las interesantes conversaciones entre todos en las comidas y, sobre todo, la nobleza del escritor. Le impactaba la bondad de Jack. En una ocasión, por ejemplo, el joven andaba en su kayac en el lago de The Kilns y Lewis le pidió que lo llevara a dar una vuelta. Se subió con gran dificultad, pues ya era mayor. Pero a él no le importó: sabía que con ello hacía feliz a Douglas y a Joy.
Compartir la pena
Eran tiempos de calma. El cáncer de Joy estaba detenido y cada cual armaba sus rutinas. Douglas mataba las horas conversando con el jardinero, un "pesimista siempre contento", como lo describe él, y en quien está inspirado "Barroquejón", el personaje de "La silla de plata". El cariño hacia su padrastro era cada vez mayor. "Nos convertimos en una familia. Esto no sucedió de golpe, estábamos construyendo, paso a paso, una especie de relación. Junto con esto, comencé a comprenderlo un poco y a apreciar su enorme nobleza de corazón", relata Gresham en "Lenten Lands". Douglas veía cómo todos los días, después del té, Lewis se sentaba a escribir. Y cómo después de comida, podía sentarse con él a conversar o a jugar, hasta que se retiraba a dormir, cerca de la medianoche. Esta buena comunicación entre ambos fue crucial para lo que se venía.
La enfermedad de su madre volvió a aparecer. Fulminante. Joy murió el 14 de julio de 1959. Douglas lo supo estando en el colegio. Cuando llegó a casa, vio a Lewis sentado al lado de la chimenea. Se acercó y estalló en llanto. El inglés se apuró en abrazarlo. Ambos lloraron. "Con la muerte de mi madre estuvimos muy juntos y compartimos nuestra pena. Con mi padrastro era más cercano que a nadie", dice Gresham. Y es cierto. C.S. Lewis le permitía, incluso, observar desde un rincón las conversaciones de los Inklings, un grupo de escritores que se juntaba a debatir sobre sus próximas creaciones. Entre ellos estaba J.R.R. Tolkien, eterno detractor de "El León, la Bruja y el Ropero". De hecho, fue Tolkien quien reconoció a Douglas en la clínica, cuando a C.S. Lewis le dio un ataque al corazón. El mismo que le quitó la vida dos años después de la muerte de Joy.
Douglas se fue a vivir a la casa de Jane Wakeman, antigua amiga de Joy, quien le hizo contactos para que trabajara de agricultor. Después estudió Agronomía, carrera que no terminó, y a los 21 años se casó con Merrie. La muerte de Lewis aún le dolía. "Afortunadamente conocí a mi esposa muy poco tiempo después de la muerte de Jack, y mi amor por ella me dio algo nuevo por lo cual vivir", señala. Con su mujer, Douglas recorrió Tasmania y Australia en una casa rodante. Y tuvo cinco hijos, a quienes desde niños les habló de Lewis. "Cuando eran pequeños les leía 'Las crónicas de Narnia' y ellos ahora se las leen a sus propios hijos", dice. De seguro, entonces, que sus nietos ya saben que el tomo tres, "El caballo y el muchacho", está inspirado en los dos niños que llenaron la vida del autor: su abuelo Douglas y su hermano David.
Todo bajo control
"Cuando hoy vuelvo a leer 'Las crónicas de Narnia' siento la misma excitación y placer que he sentido siempre, pero en estos días también está teñido con amor y un grado de pena, como si escuchara la voz de mi padrastro en las palabras. Y lo extraño un poco", dice Douglas Gresham. Por eso, para él es tan importante que el legado de su padrastro sea bien utilizado. Por eso, también, no dudó en convertirse coproductor de la película "El León, la Bruja y el Ropero", primera adaptación de los cuentos infantiles del autor británico.
Se lo tomó muy en serio. En tres oportunidades, Douglas viajó desde Irlanda -donde vive- a Nueva Zelanda y la República Checa para supervisar las grabaciones de la cinta. En algunas ocasiones, incluso, llevó a sus nietos. En los estudios, Gresham daba su opinión para que la historia y escenografía no se alejaran de lo que su padrastro había imaginado al escribir "Las crónicas de Narnia". Tanto, que el vicepresidente de Disney, Rick Dempsey, ha dicho en varias ocasiones que "en el set nadie estornudaba sin el permiso de Gresham".
Pese a que C.S. Lewis no quería que sus novelas se llevaran a la pantalla grande, Douglas defiende la decisión de la compañía de vender los derechos a Disney. Y es más: no duda en decir que Lewis estaría orgulloso. "Jack no quería que Narnia se filmara en 1959 con la tecnología disponible en ese año y yo tampoco la habría hecho. Sin embargo, hoy hay un escenario muy diferente y creo que Jack estaría emocionado con lo que hemos hecho", explica. Autoridad tiene para decir eso. Porque conoce bien las obras de C.S. Lewis, desde la trastienda. Como testigo silencioso. Sacar "Las crónicas de Narnia" del ropero era, entonces, más que una obligación. |
Publicada en Revista QuéPasa.
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“Si encuentro en mi deseos que nada en esta tierra puede satisfacer, la única explicación lógica es que fui hecho para otro mundo”. C.S.Lewis |
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rachel
Hidalgo
Reputacion: 32
Registrado: 15 Abr 2006
Ultima Visita: 01 Feb 2010
Mensajes: 3746
Ubicación: argentina
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| Publicado: Lun Ago 18, 2008 6:21 pm Asunto: |
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Hola narnianos!
Encontré este comentario periodístico, basado en el libro escrito por Humphrey Carpenter y publicado en 1978: "The Inklings: C. S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and Their Friends. "
Me pareció muy interesante para compartirlo con ustedes, espero que disfruten de su lectura como yo, descubriendo un poco más como era el mundo de los Inklings. XD
| Cita: | Noche de jueves en Oxford a finales de los años cuarenta. Habitaciones del profesor de Literatura C. S. Lewis, en el Magdalen College. Una docena de escritores y docentes sentados en unos sofás raídos y sucios leen como cada semana algunos textos que han escrito, para someterlos al juicio del grupo. Hoy, es el propio Lewis quien empieza, mientras sus colegas beben cerveza -ya no hay problemas de abastecimiento, como en años anteriores- y saborean las viandas que un admirador del titular del apartamento les ha enviado: «Había una vez cuatro niños que se llamaban Peter, Susan, Edmund y Lucy, y esta historia cuenta algo que les sucedió cuando los enviaron lejos de Londres durante la guerra, debido a los ataques aéreos». Hugo Dyson, James Dundas-Grant, Roger Lancelyn Green, Nevill Coghill, Owen Barfield y algunos más, entre ellos Warren Lewis, el hermano mayor del autor que pasa el examen, hacen gestos de aprobación. En un ángulo de la sala, otro de los contertulios sonríe al comprobar la diferencia entre el texto de Lewis y la larga historia que él está escribiendo y que también lee periódicamente en esas mismas reuniones, aunque ambas discurran por el camino de la fantasía y el mito. Su nombre es J.R.R. Tolkien y quedará escrito con letras de oro en la historia de la literatura del siglo XX junto al de su amigo.
'Las crónicas de Narnia' y 'El Señor de los Anillos' son en gran medida fruto de aquellas reuniones semanales en Oxford. No todos los contertulios disfrutaron de tanto éxito literario, pero la literatura fantástica reciente no se entendería sin la influencia mutua de un grupo de chalados con gran talento que se autodenominaron los 'Inklings' (intuiciones). Ahora, la publicación en español de un libro del biógrafo británico Humphrey Carpenter titulado así, 'Los Inklings' (Ed. Homolegens), permite reconstruir la vida cotidiana de aquellos intelectuales conservadores en lo político, defensores a ultranza de la amistad, levemente misóginos e inadaptados a los cambios sociales que se dieron tras la guerra.
El encuentro
Lewis y Tolkien se conocieron en marzo de 1926, cuando ambos llevaban medio año impartiendo clases de materias afines (Lengua y Literatura Inglesa) en Oxford. El primero tenía 28 años y había obtenido el empleo tras haber hecho algunas sustituciones. El segundo, de 34, tenía ya experiencia docente en la Universidad de Leeds. Tolkien estaba casado. Lewis convivía con una mujer con edad de ser su madre. Una extraña relación que el escritor se negó a explicar y sobre la que mantuvieron silencio tanto la hija de ella como el hermano de él, que vivieron muchos años bajo el mismo techo.
Tolkien era una de esas personalidades capaces de arrastrar tras de sí a cuantos se encontraran en su órbita. Poco después de conocer a Lewis creó uno de esos clubes tan frecuentes en aquella Universidad. Sólo que en el caso de los 'Coalbiters', como se autodenominaban, el eje de las reuniones era poco habitual: los mitos islandeses. Los integrantes del club tenían como tarea traducir textos originales de la literatura islandesa. A Tolkien, que había aprendido la lengua en su infancia, sin ayuda de profesor, no le resultaba costoso, pero para Lewis y otros debía de ser algo parecido a una tortura, porque apenas eran capaces de poner en inglés un solo párrafo cada tarde.
Durante años, los 'Coalbiters' se reunieron con regularidad. El grupo fue creciendo y uno de sus miembros más activos pronto fue Warren Lewis, hermano mayor del creador de Narnia. Historiador y escritor también él, Warnie, como lo llamaban todos, ha dejado testimonio de aquellas reuniones, abundantes en cerveza y licor, no exentas de chistes verdes (Tolkien los contaba en islandés, Lewis insistía en que no se llegara a la pornografía) y vetadas a las mujeres. Ahora puede parecer extraño pero no lo era tanto desde la mentalidad de aquel momento. De hecho, hasta 1870 los profesores de Oxford no podían casarse.
Charlas y paseos
Fueron años felices. El grupo era un verdadero submundo dentro de la Universidad y su amistad llenaba el abundante tiempo libre de sus miembros. Con frecuencia, C. S. Lewis organizaba grandes caminatas, con paradas en posadas para cumplir el ritual de las comidas, las cervezas y el té. A Tolkien le gustaba detenerse a contemplar plantas y aves, y se quejaba de las largas rutas -de 30 kilómetros diarios y a veces más- que planificaban los hermanos Lewis.
Los 'Inklings' nacieron en 1933 con objeto de reunirse para leer en voz alta textos inéditos de los integrantes del grupo. Lewis pronto asumió el liderazgo del mismo hasta el punto de que las reuniones se celebraban en sus habitaciones en el Magdalen College, un edificio hermoso pero no tan céntrico como el Exeter, donde enseñaba Tolkien, o el Merton, donde impartían clase otros componentes del grupo. Al acabar una de las primeras reuniones, Tolkien dejó a Lewis un texto sin corregir e inacabado, escrito con la única pretensión de entretener a sus hijos. Ignoraba que iba a convertirse en un clásico. Su título: 'El Hobbit'.
Los integrantes de los 'Inklings' discutían sus obras y se apoyaban mutuamente. Lewis, que ya era un crítico reputado, escribió una reseña muy elogiosa de 'El Hobbit' en el 'Times'. Poco después, Tolkien le ayudaría a publicar 'Más allá del planeta silencioso', acudiendo a sus contactos entre los editores.
El club no tenía reglas escritas ni normas de aceptación de nuevos miembros. Pero Lewis era quien, de facto, decidía dónde se reunían y dónde acababan las tertulias (en el hotel situado frente al Magdalen; en un pub junto a la Biblioteca Bodleian, su lugar de trabajo; es decir, siempre en su entorno más inmediato) y quién formaba parte y quién no. Y fue él quien se empeñó, ante la tibieza de Tolkien y algunos otros, en admitir en 1939 a Charles Williams, un escritor prolífico (su obra más conocida es 'Guerra en el cielo'), creador de una 'teología romántica' y capaz de meter en una misma novela a un brujo africano y una flota de submarinos. Además de su afición por los mitos, tenía también en común con Tolkien y Lewis un sólido cristianismo.
Los oxonienses sufrieron poco durante la guerra. Pese a que la ciudad está a 80 kilómetros de Londres, parecía como si los bombardeos fueran cosa de otro mundo y sólo la escasez de algunos víveres les recordaba el conflicto bélico. Cuando éste se encontraba ya en su recta final, el grupo se comprometió a celebrar la paz, cuando llegara, muy en su estilo: con una estancia de una semana en una posada campestre, charlando de todo lo divino y lo humano y bebiendo cerveza sin parar.
El éxito
A mediados de los cincuenta, Lewis y Tolkien alcanzaron la fama con la publicación de sus títulos fundamentales. El primero había escrito su ciclo de siete relatos a la carrera, sin importarle un cierto desaliño estilístico ni que quedaran cabos sueltos en sus cuentos. El segundo, en un trabajo de muchos años, cuidando cada detalle (sus contertulios le advirtieron de que Sauron podía ser identificado con Stalin) y creando cada aspecto de los mitos narrados.
En 1954, Lewis consiguió por fin una cátedra, pero en Cambridge. Y aunque en la práctica vivía más tiempo en Oxford, las reuniones del grupo se fueron distanciando. Williams había muerto. Barfield estaba en Londres y a Tolkien no le gustaba la nueva vida que llevaba Lewis, casado con una joven escritora (la mujer con la que había vivido una extraña relación materno-marital había muerto en 1951). Al creador de Narnia tampoco le sentó bien Cambridge. Ya había dado lo mejor de sí mismo y ni siquiera le gustó el trato recibido en los aspectos más domésticos: «Se queja porque en Oxford le servían tres copas de oporto después de la cena y en Cambridge sólo le dan una», escribió divertida Joy Gresham, su esposa.
C.S. Lewis murió el 22 de noviembre de 1963 (el día que dispararon sobre Kennedy en Dallas). Los demás 'Inklings' trataron de continuar las reuniones pero el club se disolvió enseguida. Warnie Lewis, sin la sombra protectora de su hermano, vagó desnortado durante años, abusando del alcohol. Tolkien apenas publicó nada interesante. En las habitaciones del Magdalen College había ya otros inquilinos. |
El artículo ha sido publicado en El correo digital por el periodista César Coca_________________
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“Si encuentro en mi deseos que nada en esta tierra puede satisfacer, la única explicación lógica es que fui hecho para otro mundo”. C.S.Lewis |
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