XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis   
   From: Gotta_lose@this_spam.com   
      
   Bree wrote:   
      
   > Certainly that view was popular soon after WWII ended.   
      
   Was it? I don't know. Has the popular view changed since then?   
      
   >>There was no   
   >>getting past it. The propensity of the world to endeavor to   
   >>put it off or, perhaps, cancel it altogether only succeeded   
   >>in pushing it to the point that it became the world's greatest   
   >>nightmare.   
   >   
   > The view I remember was, that inaction and appeasement had encouraged   
   > Germany and others to keep pushing, till it became a big conflict, and we   
   > should have fought it got big.  Lewis seems to take this for granted in MC,   
   > applying that as a metaphor to the religious topics.   
      
   'Appeasement'!!! Thank you. I struggled and struggled to find   
   that word but my brain just wouldn't let me have it. I finally   
   settled on that silly sentence quoted above.   
      
   The Germans would have kept pushing no matter what happened.   
   Hitler wanted a war. He was furious over the weak-kneed   
   capitulation by his enemies at Munich. He wanted to win   
   Czechoslovakia in a fight. In one of his books (probably   
   the Rise and Fall) Shirer tells about how this terrified   
   his generals.   
      
   > Or a chance for some action.... There was a bit of that sort of attitude,   
   > which I think wouldn't have been so acceptable later.   
      
   Yeah, not quite so glamorous after you've lived through it   
   I expect.   
      
   > What do you think Lewis's opinion was? The references to war that I recall   
   > are all hard-line, anti-appeasement sort of things. In PRINCE CASPIAN the   
   > wise centaur pushes Caspian and some others to start a real war. PERELANDRA   
   > is individual, but  the right thing is for Ransome to do some plain   
   > physical fighting. (ISTR some remark of Sayers about shopkeepers not liking   
   > war because it interferes with business -- as tho this were a failing of   
   > theirs, silly Philstines....)   
      
   I really don't know. The quote was posted by Ann and it comes   
   from a book that I haven't read. The attitudes I was talking   
   about originally come from little bits and pieces and have more   
   to do with consideration of individual instances of cowardice.   
   He didn't like 'stay at homes' very much and he spoke (what   
   seemed to me as) bitterly about cowardice in the face of fire.   
   I get the impression that he had witnessed that sort of thing   
   during his army service.   
      
   I'm not sure if it's possible to glean very much from books like   
   Perelandra and Prince Caspian. They are fantasies after all.   
      
   I guess I like Steve Haynes comments in his post to Ann. If you   
   want to push the envelope and start calling CSL a militarist   
   then you might want to check out 'The Great Divorce' before   
   you start proclaiming it far and wide. He didn't paint a very   
   flattering picture of Napoleon in that book. On the other hand,   
   The Great Divorce was a fantasy as well.   
      
   Yours in Christ   
      
   John   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)