Till We Haves Faces Read-Along || Week 4 Recap

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Mountains, Cliff, Steep, Rock Climbing, Nature, Valley

Each breath I drew let into me new terror, joy, overpowering sweetness.

Y'AAALLLLLLL.

I maintain that the last 11+ pages of Till We Have Faces are probably the finest literature I've ever read.  Every time, I'm floored by the brilliance and the heartbreaking humanity.  Talk about a powerful depiction of the age-old conflict between God and man. 

For this last recap, I don't really want to follow the same format as the previous three weeks.  Instead, I want to talk with you all about your thoughts, on the book as a whole and also on this last part specifically.  

It can be a hard book to pinpoint.  Is Ungit real, or is she not?  If she is, in what way is she real?  Is "the god's" relationship with Psyche literal (i.e. sexual)?  Is the religion supposed to mirror the actual way in which God relates to us?  Or is it not?  

Personally, I think Lewis's philosophical intentions are tangled up with his retelling of the traditional pagan myth in a rather complex way, and that's why it's difficult to separate Lewis's message from his storytelling.

Anyway.  What do you think?

Statue, Sculpture, Figure, Face, Angel, Ancient, Stone

Thank you all SO MUCH for participating in this read-along!  It turned out a little differently than I'd expected, on my end, but I'm still glad we did it.  Also, stay tuned for a bonus read-along post later this afternoon. 😉

Comments

  1. Hamlette (Rachel)February 1, 2020 at 6:01 PM

    Okay, so my takeaway from this is that it's an exploration of what it feels like to be an unbeliever who sees a beloved person become a Christian... and does not get it. And even actively fights against their beliefs and tries to sway them back to unbelief because it's so unfathomable to you. And feels so left out, so angry, so... lost and abandoned because you do not see what they see and believe what they believe.

    Anyway, that's what I got from the book as a whole. I'm really glad he had that note at the end about what the original Greek story is like cuz I really liked tracing that back through this story after finishing it.

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    Replies
    1. OliviaFebruary 3, 2020 at 12:30 PM

      Absolutely. And I love how the story strips humanity's common grievances against the Divine down to their essence and in that way makes it easier to work through them.

      Delete
  2. GeorgeFebruary 4, 2020 at 6:41 PM

    Sorry I haven't participated in the discussions, but I appreciated you doing a read through since it gave me a chance to reread the book.

    I agree the last 11 pages are, well, I can't think of enough superlatives for them. I always weep reading those pages. They pierce me to the heart. It is a wonderful and fulfilling example of eucatastrophe.

    From Tolkien's On Fairy Stories:

    "The consolation of fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous 'turn' (for there is no true end to any fairy-tale): this joy, which is one of the things which fairy-stories can produce supremely well, is not essentially 'escapist', nor 'fugitive'. In its fairy-tale—or otherworld—setting, it is a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief."

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    1. OliviaFebruary 10, 2020 at 4:10 PM

      No problem! I'm glad you read along.

      Exactly. I hadn't even made the connection to Tolkien's eucatastrophe, but now I'm going to take it and run with it on every subsequent reread, most likely. XD

      I love Lewis and Tolkien so much.

      Delete
  3. Chloe the MovieCriticFebruary 6, 2020 at 8:06 PM

    Thanks for hosting this Olivia! I am just so stunned by how amazing that last chapter was! I want to reread it soon to understand it all! I can totally tell why it's one of your favorites. My post is a mess of random thoughts here:
    https://moviesmeetmatch.blogspot.com/2020/02/book-review-till-we-have-faces-by-c-s.html

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    Replies
    1. OliviaFebruary 10, 2020 at 4:15 PM

      It definitely takes a few rereads, doesn't it? Thanks so much for participating and for your posts!

      Delete

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