# The Screwtape Letters - this is great literature? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 19, 2008, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925 "2008-12-19T16:54:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/1 "2008-12-19T16:54:38Z")
I saw this for a dollar yesterday and since I’ve heard nothing but gushing praise for it for years, I couldn’t pass it up. I’ve only read about 4 or 5 letters so far but by god is it awful. It’s the most condescending, self-righteous glurge I’ve read since I quit opening emails from half the senior citizens I know. Even though I am an atheist, I like to think of myself as mature and able to handle a good book / movie / album, etc., even when I don’t agree with the message. I knew this was a Christian work going into it, and that it’s Christian isn’t what bothers me. It’s just so damn _ham-handed_. Who was his audience? If it was Christians, congratulations for preaching to the choir. If it was the non-converted, congratulations for talking down to us and turning this one off to your ideas. You win, big guy. On the off chance . . . is it building towards something? Am I being whooshed so far? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/2 "2008-12-19T17:03:25Z")
It’s supposed to be funny. (IMHO, it _is_ funny.) It’s not supposed to be earthshakingly great. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/3 "2008-12-19T17:15:17Z")
It’s better as the audio version read by John Cleese. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/4 "2008-12-19T17:24:41Z")
_Screwtape_ was one of the worst books I’ve read. It was worse than _The Da Vinci Code_. Like you, I’m baffled by it’s reputation It’s been a couple of decades since I’ve read it, so the details are fuzzy, but my memory is that it takes odd points of existence and erects “Conspiracy Theory” arguments detailing how these things are really fantastically intricate plots by Satan to snare men’s souls. That might be amusing except that the author is famously Christian and presumably trying to teach a serious lesson about the deviousness of dat ole Debbil. It got old really quick. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/5 "2008-12-19T17:26:52Z")
I never enjoyed it at all but I also rarely have heard it called Great Literature. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/6 "2008-12-19T17:30:37Z")
I think of it more as children’s lit. I think it’s good on that level. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/7 "2008-12-19T17:33:53Z")
I thought it was awful, too. We read it in English my senior year (our teachers were enamored of C.S.) and I hated it. I like good satire, but “Isn’t the devil BAD? Look at him trying to put one over on those unsuspecting mortals” does not do it for me. A step up from Jack Chick, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/8 "2008-12-19T18:22:41Z")
I wouldn’t really call it literature; it’s not a story so much as a device to explain the theological points Lewis is trying to get across. I didn’t see it as “everything’s a plot by Satan to tempt you”, but another take on one of Lewis’s favorite themes: that the ordinary selfish blindness of narcissistic people is in the end as damning as overt acts of great evil. Lewis can be ham-fisted in his literature, which I forgive him for, but far worse is his poetry, which is inexcrable. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/9 "2008-12-19T18:27:43Z")
I don’t know that I’d call it great literature. But it’s funny as hell. Well, funny as Heaven, I guess, since in Lewis’s Hell, there are no jokes. Which, I suppose, makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/10 "2008-12-19T19:02:07Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I’ve only read about 4 or 5 letters so far but by god is it awful. It’s the most condescending, self-righteous glurge I’ve read since I quit opening emails from half the senior citizens I know. Take a look at this old thread on [The Screwtape Letters](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=423329). The book has numerous enthusiastic defenders. Post #3 in that thread calls it “anti-glurge.” [QUOTE=Baal Houtham] It’s been a couple of decades since I’ve read it, so the details are fuzzy, but my memory is that it takes odd points of existence and erects “Conspiracy Theory” arguments detailing how these things are really fantastically intricate plots by Satan to snare men’s souls. That might be amusing except that the author is famously Christian and presumably trying to teach a serious lesson about the deviousness of dat ole Debbil. [/QUOTE] I think you misread it (or misremember it) if you think that was Lewis’s aim. The point was not to explain How Devils Work. It’s a fantasy novel or parable of sorts. The devils thing is a literary device used by Lewis to make his points about human nature, theology, and psychology. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/11 "2008-12-19T19:03:40Z")
Atheist here, but I’ve been fond of the book for twenty years. The central point about distraction and self-absorption, which Lewis makes over and over, is a valid observation that applies generally to everyone, with and without regard to religion. And from a literary standpoint, Lewis’ epistolary structure (the whole novel is a series of letters between a senior demon and his inexperienced nephew demon-in-training) and satirical depiction of a decidedly bureaucratic, bumbling, inefficient, and all-too-human Hell are amusing literary hooks that serve his thesis well. And the final letter, from the demon to his hapless and very doomed nephew whom he calls “my poppet, my pigsnie,” is inspirational in another way. I’m allergic to animal dander, but if I was able to accomodate cats and get two of the mischievous furballs at once, it’d be hard to beat “Poppet” and “Pigsnie” for names. On edit: when I became a member of the SD, I seriously considered “Screwtape” for my online ID. I think it was already taken… or maybe I was concerned people in the know would assume I was a devout or fanatical Xian. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/12 "2008-12-19T20:10:21Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > (…) > I think you misread it (or misremember it) if you think that was Lewis’s aim. The point was not to explain How Devils Work. It’s a fantasy novel or parable of sorts. The devils thing is a literary device used by Lewis to make his points about human nature, theology, and psychology. Well, you certainly may be right and my memory is not exceptionally accurate. However, it was a painful enough read that I doubt I’ll ever pick it up again to see if my judgment still stands. I thought that Lewis’s points about “human nature, theology, and psychology” were Lewis’s point about God Is Completely Good and hence anything at all that’s bad is Satan’s work… and here’s how that can be explained. And he means it seriously. I’d like to say that no matter how flavorful the sauce, you can’t make that message palatable, but… it probably can be done. One of my favorite writers, R. A. Lafferty, deals with the same subject in much more indirect fashion. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/13 "2008-12-19T20:47:10Z")
> [@The\_Scrivener](#): > > On edit: when I became a member of the SD, I seriously considered “Screwtape” for my online ID. I think it was already taken… or maybe I was concerned people in the know would assume I was a devout or fanatical Xian. I know what you mean. When I changed my user name, I was concerned people might think I had drifted left. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/14 "2008-12-19T21:01:10Z")
> [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > I thought that Lewis’s points about “human nature, theology, and psychology” were Lewis’s point about God Is Completely Good and hence anything at all that’s bad is Satan’s work… and here’s how that can be explained. > > And he means it seriously. That was my impression, too. It’s a strange, strange mental trick for an intelligent person to achieve – the belief that what I would think is random chance and human nature, is really the work of competing supernatural forces tha balance each other in such a way as to look exactly like random chance and human nature. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/15 "2008-12-19T21:51:41Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > I know what you mean. When I changed my user name, I was concerned people might think I had drifted left. _\_ ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/16 "2008-12-19T22:45:50Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > It’s a strange, strange mental trick for an intelligent person to achieve – the belief that what I would think is random chance and human nature, is really the work of competing supernatural forces tha balance each other in such a way as to look exactly like random chance and human nature. [Satan rubbing hands] Just the way I planned it. [/S r h] ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/17 "2008-12-19T23:03:37Z")
Different strokes for different folks. I’m an atheist, and I liked it. I thought that many of Lewis’s points were useful to anyone trying to lead a more moral life, regardless of their religious beliefs. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/18 "2008-12-20T03:16:47Z")
We had to read it in school. I was underwhelmed. It’s not horrible, but I didn’t think it was great either. Anyway, I always thought Dracula (which was also in the form of letters) was far far FAR better. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/19 "2008-12-20T03:43:03Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > That was my impression, too. It’s a strange, strange mental trick for an intelligent person to achieve – the belief that what I would think is random chance and human nature, is really the work of competing supernatural forces tha balance each other in such a way as to look exactly like random chance and human nature. Actually, the sole thing the demons can do (in Christianity and in _Screwtape Letters_) is try to convince people to do stuff. And that’s all they do in the story. They can’t even see the angels fighting them, and all they get to do is basically whisper in your ear. They _hate_ that, too. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925/20 "2008-12-20T03:44:54Z")
I used a few of the letters to do a dramatic reading for a church talent show once. I thought it worked pretty well for that. Yes, as a Christian speaking to a Christian audience, there was probably some bias. It seemed like a good combination between having some ideas and being accessible. I wouldn’t have said great literature, either, but it rose to the level of “a good read” for me. Also, there is not a lot of Christian theology written with humor, so in that niche it’s not hard to stand out. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters-this-is-great-literature/477925.md?page=2)