The following passage, from one of the fundamentalist essays on Lewis, is hilarous.
"In the book A Severe Mercy by Sheldon VanAuken a personal letter is reproduced on page 191 in which Lewis suggests to VanAuken that upon his next visit to England that the two of them “must have some good, long talks together and perhaps we shall both get high.” In light of this, it is interesting that in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lewis’s fantasy children’s tale, a hero named Edmund meets a magical witch who conjures up for him a box of Turkish Delight, which Edmund devours and begs for more. Turkish Delight is a name for hashish."
Of course the Turkish Delight was a candy used by the evil White Witch to entice Edmund to betray his brother and sisters. But let's not allow facts to get in the way of a really good piece of slander.
"I tried it but I didn't inhale." - Bill Clinton
6 comments:
hey and what about "getting high" ? is it truth or a slander?
In the 1940s to get "high" had no connotation with the use of marijuana, a usage that originated in America in the 60s, but would in this context refer to the state of intellectual excitement experience in vigorous dialectic. It is foolish to attribute modern jargonistic meanings to the word usage of people who wrote in a different idiom in a different era. Lewis never smoked anything other than tobacco.
This is so lame. I read through the entire website you referenced in the original entry. It just made me sick and angry how they thoroughly slandered and defamed the name of a good man.
Anyway, on the topic of Turkish Delight--I've eaten it many times and it most definitely does not contain hashish. Wishful thinking on the part of the fundies, I guess.
For what it's worth, I'm a devout Christian, but I completely reject hurtful and slanderous rhetoric such as that which fills the website I mentioned above.
Personally, I don't mind if C.S. Lewis makes a veiled reference to hashish in one of his books. It's not like he's telling little children to go get high--quite the opposite.
Anyway, I wouldn't call the metaphor particularly far-fetched. As an intellectual and artist, he probably was exposed on numerous occasions to marijuana.
Cannabis is an aid that many--even the intelligent, moral, and artistic--use for inspiration. You say "crutch," I say "stepladder."
It isn't slander to suggest that C.S. Lewis might have gotten "high"; it's speculation. Granted, it shouldn't be presented as factual, but let's not go jumping to conclusions like that his career would be nullified if he had used. Many Christians do, and historically there have been churches who treat cannabis as a sacrament--kinda like how wine (alcohol) plays a role in the Holy Eucharist.
Anyway, if Jesus condones drunkenness on special occasions like the wedding of Cana (surely they didn't run out of wine because they'd been spilling it on the ground--though I guess that's possible, but a footnote might have done well, in that case), then I'd wager my soul on his approval of a safer, less addictive, less intoxicating substance for those who prefer it.
This is just me talking, though. I'm sure a couple of priests would disagree. They're allowed.
I have to say that I'm surprised about how people work with the marijuana legalizing issue. Marijuana should be legal and I will tell you why: cigarettes are full of chemicals and they also contain nicotine which is an addictive DRUG. Marijuana doesn't contain chemicals unless the grower puts additives in the soil to make it grow faster and it is not addictive if you don't smoke like crazy... Now you tell me: should I smoke cigarettes or marijuana?
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