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fantasy: the view from 1942
Aug. 15th, 2013 08:13 amTolkien scholar John D. Rateliff has already posted this intriguing little discovery on his blog, but I want to expand on the point.
When C.S. Lewis discovered E.R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros at the end of 1942, he was so enthusiastic that he wrote Eddison a fan letter - not the only time he'd write such a letter before even finishing reading the book, nor the only time he'd do so in a pastiche of the author's own prose. Eddison wrote the Worm in a style containing elements of a resurrected 16th century English, and Lewis went whole hog on that in his letter. (He had reason to: he'd already begun systematically reading through the entire 16th-century English literary corpus for his eventual volume on it for the Oxford History of English Literature.) The two of them conducted almost their entire correspondence in this style, and one wonders how they talked when they finally met.
Anyway, in the letter Lewis describes how he found out about Eddison's novel. He had found it mentioned in
Actually, Lewis's intent was to criticize this particular book and not to disparage all women in scholarship, though, as when he belittled Jane Studdock's thesis work in That Hideous Strength, he fails to make the distinction clear - and, especially in this case, emphasizing the author's being a woman (he'd hardly criticize a man in the same terms) is what makes it so noxious. ( Shall we go on? )
When C.S. Lewis discovered E.R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros at the end of 1942, he was so enthusiastic that he wrote Eddison a fan letter - not the only time he'd write such a letter before even finishing reading the book, nor the only time he'd do so in a pastiche of the author's own prose. Eddison wrote the Worm in a style containing elements of a resurrected 16th century English, and Lewis went whole hog on that in his letter. (He had reason to: he'd already begun systematically reading through the entire 16th-century English literary corpus for his eventual volume on it for the Oxford History of English Literature.) The two of them conducted almost their entire correspondence in this style, and one wonders how they talked when they finally met.
Anyway, in the letter Lewis describes how he found out about Eddison's novel. He had found it mentioned in
a foolish book (on the novello) that came late to my hands, made by som poore seely wench that seeketh a B.Litt or a D.Phil, when God knows shad a better bestowed her tyme makynge sport for some goodman in his bed and bearing children for the stablishment of this reaulme or else to be at her beads in a religious house.To which one can only say, wow, how misogynistic can you get? It's possible that Lewis was merely trying to ape the 16th-century attitude (really, cloistered nuns? though such still existed, and Lewis had just dedicated his novel Perelandra to some whom he'd been in correspondence with), but the fact that he turned to such language and found it appropriate speaks unfortunate volumes.
Actually, Lewis's intent was to criticize this particular book and not to disparage all women in scholarship, though, as when he belittled Jane Studdock's thesis work in That Hideous Strength, he fails to make the distinction clear - and, especially in this case, emphasizing the author's being a woman (he'd hardly criticize a man in the same terms) is what makes it so noxious. ( Shall we go on? )
