# The Screwtape Letters **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 2, 2007, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511 "2007-06-02T20:27:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/1 "2007-06-02T20:27:34Z")
I just read C.S. Lewis’s _The Screwtape Letters_ for the first time, having heard much of it for years (I believe **DocCathode** was the first to introduce me to the book with his concept of “Screwtape poisoning”). I have an entirely new respect and admiration for Lewis. The religious content doesn’t do much for me as an atheist, but did this guy have human nature down, or what? I’ve seldom read something so perceptive. My neck hurts from excessive nodding. My two favourite passages: > [@](#): > > …you will find that anything or nothing is sufficient to attract his wandering attention. You no longer need a good book, which he really likes, to keep him from his prayers or his work or his sleep; a column of advertisements in yesterday’s paper will do. You can make him waste his time not only in conversations with those he cares nothing about on subjects that bore him. (…) [A]s one of my patients said on his arrival down here, “I now see that I spent most of my life in doing _neither_ what I ought _nor_ what I liked”. Echoes of hours used up doing pretty much nothing, watching sitcom episodes or refreshing the SDMB waiting for someone to post something interesting. We’ve all been there. > [@](#): > > Something quite trivial, like having tea in the garden, is proposed. One member takes care to make it quite clear (though not in so many words) that he would rather not but is, of course, prepared to do so out of “Unselfishness”. The others instantly withdraw their proposal, ostensibly through their “Unselfishness”, but really because they don’t want to be used as a sort of lay figure on which the first speaker practises petty altruisms. But he is not going to be done out of his debauch of Unselfishness either. He insists on doing “what the others want”. They insist on doing what he wants. Passions are roused. Soon someone is saying “Very well then, I won’t have any tea at all!”, and a real quarrel ensues with bitter resentment on both sides. The poison of relationships. God, I’ve done this and had it done to me a zillion times. When I read that paragraph I swore it would never happen again. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/2 "2007-06-02T21:31:39Z")
There have been half a dozen or so “continuations” written by other people of _The Screwtape Letters_. (They mostly don’t use the names from _The Screwtape Letters_, but they are all some sort of reverse advice from a devil.) In general, they stink. They tend to be people spouting off about their favorite political issue which they’re convinced is a necessary matter for any Christian. Lewis did very little of that in _The Screwtape Letters_. Most of his book is ordinary advice and comments about human relationships. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/3 "2007-06-02T23:56:50Z")
I find the book amazing. It’s anti-glurge. You’re aware you’re being preached to and taught a lesson, but the feel of the letters is so entertaining you don’t care. I confess to having started a Screwtape lecture for a class of devils. I also started The Screwtape Letters To Penthouse years ago. My favorite bits from memory ‘The Enemy freely confesses that if we could understand this love, the war would end and we could re-enter Heaven.’ ‘My dear, my very dear, nephew, my poppet, my pigsnie’ Lewis vision of Hell as a bureaucracy grows more frightening and convincing every time I have to deal with government paperwork. There was an episode of Milennium composed of four devils telling how they gained souls. With the large exception that they seemed to have genuine comradery and care for each other, they could be Screwtape’s co-workers. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/4 "2007-06-03T00:08:13Z")
I like the faculty address at the end where Screwtape complains about how the quality of sinners they get nowadays is so bland compared to the old days when sinners sinned boldly. Quite a zinger at mid-20th-Century Christendom. ---
**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:** [June 3, 2007, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/5 "2007-06-03T00:41:39Z")
There’s a really good audio recording of _Screwtape_ narrated by John Cleese. It is, alas, out of print in the US, but it’s available from [audible.com](http://audible.com). ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/6 "2007-06-03T00:43:18Z")
Wow I should re-read that book. Thanks for bringing it up! I used to have tapes of John Cleese reading it and it was just as good as you’d imagine it would be. ETA: Too slow! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/7 "2007-06-03T01:10:39Z")
BrainGlutton writes: \> I like the faculty address at the end where Screwtape complains about how the \> quality of sinners they get nowadays is so bland compared to the old days \> when sinners sinned boldly. Quite a zinger at mid-20th-Century Christendom. This is the essay “Screwtape Proposes a Toast,” which was written quite a while after the book _The Screwtape Letters_. The essay is, I guess, added as a postscript to some editions of the book. I just wanted to note that in case some of you don’t understand why it wasn’t in your copy of the book. ---
**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:** [June 3, 2007, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/8 "2007-06-03T01:40:56Z")
Apparently Lewis (or rather, the British educational system) presaged Deconstructionism by decades: > [@](#): > > “The Historical Point of View, put briefly, means that when a learned man is presented with any statement in an ancient author, the one question he never asks is whether it is true. He asks who influenced the ancient writer, and how far the statement is consistent with what he said in other books, and what phase in the writer’s development, or in the general history of thought, it illustrates, and how it affected later writers, and how often it has been misunderstood (specially by the learned man’s own colleagues) and what the general course of criticism on it has been for the last ten years, and what is the “present state of the question”. To regard the ancient writer as a possible source of knowledge- to anticipate that what he said could possibly modify your thoughts or your behavior- this would be rejected as unutterably simple-minded”. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/9 "2007-06-03T02:55:50Z")
[QUOTE=Lumpy] Apparently Lewis (or rather, the British educational system) presaged Deconstructionism by decades: [/QUOTE] Hmm… Arguably Deconstructionism is an approach toward criticism which _does_ allow its subjects to be treated as sources of wisdom. (Debatable of course. But Deconstructionist readings very often have a philosophical tint to them.) The approach described in the quote from Screwtape describes historical criticism generally, not particularly Deconstructionism. ---
**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/10 "2007-06-03T08:58:47Z")
The whole of "Screwtape’ is about how we (humans) get caught up in trivialities, and “miss” the big picture. The “art” of Screwtape is showing it in such a way that we might glimpse that a big picture exists. (I am not, btw religious in any way, but like to at least feel that there is a bigger picture than the mere human experience) FML ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/11 "2007-06-03T10:48:15Z")
It has been years and years since I have read it. I enjoyed it at the time. I tried to pass it on to a Christian woman I knew and she wrinkled her nose and said: It doesn’t sound like the type of book a Christian should read! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/12 "2007-06-03T13:14:18Z")
_Screwtape_ is superb. If you’ve not already seen it, you may also enjoy _The Great Divorce_, in which various “ghosts” basically argue themselves out of going to Heaven when the opportunity lies plain before them. (But not all. There’s also a lovely scene showing a young man with, almost literally, a monkey on his back… some kind of unstated sexual peccadillo which it seems he will do anything rather than give up. That incident ends very happily with a rather cheering lesson.) ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/13 "2007-06-03T13:15:56Z")
There is actually talk of a movie version (I think from Warner Media), and perhaps even with John Cleese involved. If so, I’m there! ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/14 "2007-06-03T13:17:09Z")
[QUOTE=Khadaji] It has been years and years since I have read it. I enjoyed it at the time. I tried to pass it on to a Christian woman I knew and she wrinkled her nose and said: It doesn’t sound like the type of book a Christian should read! 🙂 [/QUOTE] In my experience, those who would benefit the most from reading Lewis (mostly fundamentalists and non-denominational mega-church “evangelicals”) are also the ones that really hate Lewis. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/15 "2007-06-03T13:27:13Z")
[QUOTE=asterion] In my experience, those who would benefit the most from reading Lewis (mostly fundamentalists and non-denominational mega-church “evangelicals”) are also the ones that really hate Lewis. [/QUOTE] Fundies I can understand, but I’ve seldom met an evangelical who didn’t consider Lewis as one of our own. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/16 "2007-06-03T13:36:58Z")
[QUOTE=asterion] In my experience, those who would benefit the most from reading Lewis (mostly fundamentalists and non-denominational mega-church “evangelicals”) are also the ones that really hate Lewis. [/QUOTE] I think her bigger problem is that she wasn’t too complex and didn’t think too deeply. I’m sure never read Christian literature and only read the parts of the bible that were taught in her church. She was a very sweet woman though and had a good heart. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/17 "2007-06-03T14:37:44Z")
[QUOTE=Lumpy] Apparently Lewis (or rather, the British educational system) presaged Deconstructionism by decades: [/QUOTE] And that passage, my dear friends, is why I don’t have any postgraduate degrees in literature. We disagree about many things, C.S., but at least we both despise Theory! ---
**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:** [June 3, 2007, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/18 "2007-06-03T14:40:58Z")
C. S. Lewis is a really great author. Screwtape is _fantastic_. 'nuff said. ---
**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:** [June 3, 2007, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/19 "2007-06-03T15:46:23Z")
[QUOTE=Sattua] And that passage, my dear friends, is why I don’t have any postgraduate degrees in literature. We disagree about many things, C.S., but at least we both despise Theory! [/QUOTE] You might enjoy his [An Experiment in Criticism](http://www.amazon.com/Experiment-Criticism-Canto-C-Lewis/dp/0521422817/ref=sr_1_1/002-4977424-6220818?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180885340&sr=1-1), one of his more unjustly neglected books. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511/20 "2007-06-03T15:52:33Z")
As I understand it, what Lewis meant in the quotation in Lumpy’s post was not that he completely distrusted any historical analysis or any theory of literature. What he disliked was taking it as the end-all and be-all of the consideration of any statement of fact. I think that he was willing to place things in their historical and theoretical context, but beyond that he wanted to know if those things were true. He may not have liked Theory (although most of what’s meant by that in literary studies today arose after his death), but I don’t think he would have objected to all theories. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-screwtape-letters/406511.md?page=2)