I am roaming the stacks at the Marion E. Wade Center in Wheaton, IL. This is the premium North American archive for C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and others in the 20th c. Christian literary movement in and around Oxford. There is a lifetime of reading behind these glass doors, and many lifetimes of work to do in the archives. The Wade is very much a place I love.
I have just stumbled across a book I had only heard of: Ryder W. Miller, From Narnia to A Space Odyssey: The War of Ideas Between Arthur C. Clarke and C.S. Lewis (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003). Readers of a Pilgrim in Narnia will know that I did a little Clarke & Lewis interplay back in the winter (see here and here). Miller’s book takes this interplay up to a new level, allowing Clarke and Lewis to speak to one another with their own words, from their own books.
The dialogue is worthwhile, for the men did not see eye to eye. Lewis thought that real space travel would spoil SF, while Clarke longed to see the outer realms (see below). Lewis used science as a rough framework for credibility, while Clarke worked intensely to ensure that he was as accurate as one could be while still peaking ahead. Lewis was an orthodox Anglican, while Clarke was a logical positivist. Actually, he later described himself as a hidden Buddhist: he was occupied by God and religion in his works, but he did not see Buddhism as a religion.
The two men had much to talk about when they met, and they corresponded briefly. Lewis loved some of Clarke’s work, and Clarke wrote of Lewis in his 1953 essay, “Science Fiction: Preparation for the Age of Space,” and in his 1969 essay, “Space and the Spirit of Man.” For all they shared, they were light years apart in key areas. “Needless to say,” Clarke writes, “neither side converted the other, and we [at the British Interplanetary Society] refused to abandon our diabolical schemes of interplanetary conquest.”
From Narnia to A Space Odyssey includes a preface by Arthur C. Clarke. This little note talks about his fondness for Joy Davidman–“one of the most charming and intelligent people I’ve ever known” (34)–who was a member of the science fiction writers group that housed up in London taverns in the 1950s. Lewis had read and loved Childhood’s End, and here Clarke admits that he twisted Joy’s arm to send it to Lewis in the first place. As SF readers today we may remember Clarke and forget Lewis, but Lewis was important in that classic SciFi period. Clarke also admits that he never had the heart to read Lewis’ A Grief Observed–a book I avoided for some time until I snatched it from the shelf one day and fell in love with it. Later I was able to return to it for comfort.
One of the neat things about this book is that it includes a letter that Clarke wrote to the long dead C.S. Lewis (on p. 175). It is worth a read for a little chuckle, and to see how senior authors can be mentors to the emerging superstars. After all, they are never superstars while they are still emerging!
Dear CSL
wherever you are….
I’ve just recalled a memory of our last (only?) meeting. It was with other Interplanetarians, and you commented on our hopes of space exploration–“I’m sure you’re very wicked people–but wouldn’t the world be dull if everyone was good?”
You had a friend with you whose name I discovered later was Tolkein or Tolkien. Wonder what happened to him?
Best Wishes
Arthur Clarke
17 July 03
So interesting! I love to think of these two sharing a pint and having a discussion – and wouldn’t i love to be a fly on the wall when they did!
Oh, me too! Thought I bet space travelers are a noisy crowd!
Wow – fascinating: thank you! Clarke would have been an interesting speaker to debate with at the Socratic Club! (I wonder if anyone ever pit out feelers in that direction?) I ran into a 1997 BBC programme about him called “The Man Who Saw the Future”, the other day (in One of the Usual Places), but have not tried it, yet. (I was bewildered by 2001 until a read an article about it, years later – it was vivid enough in my memory to see the sense in retrospect… Someone got me to read Childhood’s End – I can’t remember if it was Lewis, or a college friend with whom I discussed it.)
He really was a great. I reread Childhood’s End recently and was quite blown away!
Did George Grant talk at Socratic Club?
Not formally that I know of – probably joining in the discussions (an interesting question: I wonder if there are any discernible ‘traces’?).
The problem with the edition of the Lewis and Clarke letters is that the editor couldn’t read Lewis’s handwriting and there are horrible guesses at what Lewis said. The editor just wasn’t as interested in Lewis as in Clarke.
Thanks for the heads-up! Having read your comment, I went looking at the reviews under various entries on the U.S. Amazon site, and whew! Someone said there were only 17 pages of letters (out of 176 pages of book), lots of critique of copy-editing (including by the late Bruce Edwards) and transcription, with an unimpressive defense by the editor among the comments – all very curious: have the Lewis letters ever been re-transcribed and reprinted elsewhere (and where are the originals)?
Not that I am not delighted to know of its existence and grateful to Brenton for telling us so attractively, but I’ll sure wait till I run into a library that purchased it…
I should’ve checked the UK Amazon before posting my comment: a reviewer on one entry there notes “We are shown one of the letters as it was written” – and corrects four mis-transcriptions on its basis. Another notes, ” On comparing the transcriptions of Lewis’s letters in Miller’s book and in Hooper’s recent edition of C.S.Lewis’s Collected Letters (vols. 2 and 3) I discovered the Miller transcriptions to be garbled and in not a few places sheer nonsense whereas Hooper’s transcriptions gave excellent sense.” So, I can read them better-transcribed (though presumably without the Clarke ones).
Pingback: The Words C.S. Lewis Made Up: Aristocratophobia and Lowerarchy | A Pilgrim in Narnia
Pingback: A Weekend of Reading to Change Your Literary Life | A Pilgrim in Narnia
Pingback: Sarcastabots, The Wall-E Effect, and Finding the Human in Martha Wells’ Network Effect (Blogging the Hugos 2021) | A Pilgrim in Narnia
Pingback: Thoughts on Classic and Contemporary SF vs. Fantasy Hugo Best Novel Award Winners while Failing to Write a Review of a Great Book that was not Nominated | A Pilgrim in Narnia
Pingback: Writers, AI & C.S. Lewis – Mere Inkling Press