#read the Screwtape Letters

[glowing-disciple]

Oh I’d say it’s pretty obvious.

The Devil is a shrewd businessman. He’s not going to waste valuable time corrupting a single person into signing away his or her soul. It’s just not practical anymore.

No no, it’s much more efficient to create an environment where humanity uses its own resources to teach everyone that hedonism is not only the best way to live, but that everyone else is living a godless life and taking advantage of your naïveté.

That way humanity spends its time corrupting itself en masse, and the sweetest, most deliciously corrupt souls can indulge themselves in deeper and more vile sins than ever before.

Somehow this isn't common knowledge but the devil doesn't even accept souls in trade for anything anymore. Yeah everyone seems to think that you could still do that if you wanted to, just sell your soul in exchange for awesome powers or fabulous wealth or being really really really good at playing some specific instrument, but you ever heard of anyone actually doing that these days?

Yeah the market value of a human soul just straight-up collapsed somewhere around the industrial revolution. Yeah the pricing bubble just popped I guess. Nobody really knows why.

[sleepyyghostt]

we should call it "Going on the computer" like with that type of wording again. bring back the fun and novelty of it that i, at least, really felt when i was younger. existing in an online space is the type of thing that can kinda be whatever you want, so u gotta treat it the way that you want it to be :3

I'm going to go on the internet! [implied sense of adventure] see?

[whydousernamesevenexist]

C. S. Lewis: The Screwtape Letters

[thomasstaples]

C.S. Lewis, in a letter to Father Peter Milward, 25th Dec 1959.

[thelingering]

Screwtape Letters dropping the most PERFECT addendum to your conscious in order to bear in mind who God truly is

"Not to what I think Thou art, but to what Thou knowest Thyself to be", addressed, of course, to God

God's not someone anyone can every know, He simply Is attempting to know God fully can be the same as attempting to know another person fully, only an infinitely large amount of times harder

in fact, one of my favourite theories as to Lucifer himself is that he was the most intelligent of the angels, and thus knew theology better than any other one being

...which ended up being his downfall, because when God presented the angels with the choice of Him or not, Lucifer assumed to himself that (this is where my understanding becomes much, much more shaky) since he knew God so well, he didn't necessitate God in his existence, and rejected the thought that God is more than just something you know

[zeldastrife]

Starting the year with C.S. Lewis.

It’s so cool that he dedicated this book to Tolkien.

[fluffypotatey]

i need to work on my superiority complex in my creative writing class

[stephantom]

I feel there’s almost no way that the CS Lewis vs Freud movie can be good in any objective sense, but I also think I have to see it. For old times sake.

(Do you guys know what a CS Lewis person I was? There was a book comparing the worldviews of Freud and Lewis that came out in the early 2000s and I read it over and over as a teenager. I also watched and rewatched the movie Shadowlands starring Anthony Hopkins as Lewis—and he’s going to star in this too but as Freud this time!)

[do-i-even-know-what-im-doing]

okay, so...

I've been thinking that soon - God willing - I won't have much to do (in terms of moving, I'll explain later) so maybe I will do a little sharing of some of my favourite devotions in here but I'd be thrilled if you'd like to join so I'll leave you here with a poll on what you would like to read/focus for this August, tho before starting I'll also ask an opinion on it to my confessor... anyway here's said poll

[sleepyyghostt]

just picked this up at the used book store time to have my entire spiritual world rocked 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[whydousernamesevenexist]

C. S. Lewis: The Screwtape Letters

[youreamonocoque]

Screwtape: Spends 4 letters talking about love and what to do/ how to tempt the man into sin

Wormwood:

[protect-namine]

this reminds me that I told myself in the past that I should read til we have faces one day. mayhaps it's time to look for a copy

[thelingering]

every time i begin to read some sort of well-written philosophical, theological, sociological, or the like of such books, my mind wanders so tantalisingly close to a wondrous conclusion, but just far enough away that the constant strain upon my soul to keep my mind reigned in on focusing on the story at hand is exhausting and repetitive, leading me to never get any sort of reading done after all

[slowtumbling]

Gagdrool Writes to Screwtape

 My dear Screwtape, I am writing you this most urgent message to inform you of a very important occurrence in the plans of the Enemy. It concerns you mostly, but may affect these despicable humans for a long time, perhaps forever. I fear we may have lost many a soul already. But let me tell you of this gross attack that has been wreaked upon our dominions. It is a book, a compilation rather, and…

[eruanna1875]

Ooh, book recs! I'm gonna have to look into some of these. Or perhaps look into rereading some old favourites this time of year...

Also, I did not know that Ray Bradbury loved that cartoon! That's actually really cool, because my siblings and I have watched that a lot, and my sisters have been reading SWTWC this year too. I've got to tell them.

Hi! I was wondering what books I should read to get in the autumn mood and I remembered you talking about Bradbury at one point. I've never read any of his at all and I was wondering what one's you would recommend specifically? Also, what other books do you read during autumn? Thanks!

(slams hands down on the table) Now this is my area!!

The Bradbury Autumn must-read is Something Wicked This Way Comes. My personal tradition is to begin it on October 23rd, which is the date that the events of the story begin to unfold, but I might just break that tradition and read it a little early, just to make Halloween longer.

Other seasonal necessities from Bradbury include:

Farewell Summer, a sequel of sorts to Dandelion Wine which stands on its own. This one’s about the beginning of Autumn rather than about Halloween—a wistful book rather than a creepy one—so it’s a nice change of pace.

Death is a Lonely Business, the strangest noir mystery you will ever meet, set in a dreary, rainy autumn in Venice, California. I still feel the atmosphere of it, the nameless protagonist (an obvious stand-in for Bradbury himself) examining the wrecked attractions of the summer and walking those deserted piers.

The Halloween Tree, much more of a children’s book than the rest of them—a group of trick-or-treaters meet a mysterious character who takes them on a trip through time and shows them the history of Halloween.

From the Dust Returned, which I feel confident recommending even though I haven’t read it because I have read most of the short stories it encompasses. It’s a novel about the Elliott Family, and if you don’t know who they are, let me put it this way: Ray Bradbury and Charles Addams once talked about collaborating on the history of a very strange clan indeed. The project never materialized; Addams went his way and created the Addams Family, and Bradbury made the Elliotts.

The October Country, a collection of unsettling short stories which take place all over the calendar, but I couldn’t resist including it because of the title.

Other reads that give you that elusive Autumnal feeling include:

Coraline by Neil Gaiman. I might mention The Graveyard Book as well, but I didn’t love it quite the same way. I hardly love any book the same way.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I have to put in a plug for that or I’ll lose my Romanticism cred.

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. Any Sherlock Holmes story, really (I recommend “The Speckled Band”).

A Semester in the Life of a Garbage Bag by Gordon Korman. The semester in question is a Fall semester and I credit it with preventing me from a nervous breakdown in sophomore year. It’s just that funny.

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. The original purpose of Halloween was to frighten away the evil spirits. C.S. Lewis submits that we frighten them best by being informed.

This year I’m hoping to read Dracula and The Woman in White, so I’ll tell you how that goes. I’ve begun both books in the past, but never finished them.

If one or two of these won’t do the trick (or possibly the treat), I can’t help you. (By the way, “The Skeleton Dance,” the Disney short that launched a thousand gifs? Ray Bradbury described it as “a five-minute lighting bolt that knocked the soul out of my eight-year-old body and vacuumed it back in.” Typical.)