{"id":366,"date":"2012-08-09T08:46:35","date_gmt":"2012-08-09T13:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/samuelrainey.com\/blog\/?p=366"},"modified":"2012-08-09T08:46:35","modified_gmt":"2012-08-09T13:46:35","slug":"book-excerpt-the-great-divorce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samuelrainey.com\/blog\/2012\/08\/book-excerpt-the-great-divorce\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Excerpt: The Great Divorce"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editors note: I read this book in college, but have recently been reminded of one particular story that seems\u00a0apropos for modern day life. CS Lewis wrote this book describing the differences between Heaven and Hell. It’s a story of people visiting both places, and as they near Heaven they appear as ghosts. The below excerpt is a poignant example of how difficult it is to let go of things in our life, especially the harmful things. In short, we cannot live fully if we resist the pain associated with change.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

I saw coming towards us a Ghost who carried something on his shoulder. Like all the Ghosts, he was unsubstantial, but they differed from one another as smokes differ. Some had been whitish; this one was dark and oily. What sat on his shoulder was a little red lizard, and it was twitching its tail like a whip and whispering things in his ear. As we caught sight of him he turned his head to the reptile with a snarl of impatience. \u201cShut up, I tell you!\u201d he said. It wagged its tail and continued to whisper to him. He ceased snarling, and presently began to smile. Then be turned and started to limp westward, away from the mountains.<\/p>\n

\u201cOff so soon?\u201d said a voice.<\/p>\n

The speaker was more or less human in shape but larger than a man, and so bright that I could hardly look at him. His presence smote on my eyes and on my body too (for there was heat coming from him as well as light) like the morning sun at the beginning of a tyrannous summer day.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. I\u2019m off,\u201d said the Ghost. \u201cThanks for all your hospitality. But it\u2019s no good, you see. I told this little chap,\u201d (here he indicated the lizard), \u201cthat he\u2019d have to be quiet if he came -which he insisted on doing. Of course his stuff won\u2019t do here: I realise that. But he won\u2019t stop. I shall just have to go home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Would you like me to make him quiet?\u201d said the flaming Spirit\u2014an angel, as I now understood.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I would,\u201d said the Ghost.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I will kill him,\u201d said the Angel, taking a step forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh\u2014ah\u2014look out! You\u2019re burning me. Keep away,\u201d said the Ghost, retreating.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t you want him killed?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t say anything about killing him at first. I hardly meant to bother you with anything so drastic as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the only way,\u201d said the Angel, whose burning hands were now very close to the lizard. \u201cShall I kill it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, that\u2019s a further question. I\u2019m quite open to consider it, but it\u2019s a new point, isn\u2019t it? I mean, for the moment I was only thinking about silencing it because up here\u2014well, it\u2019s so damned embarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMay I kill it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, there\u2019s time to discuss that later.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no time. May I kill it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease, I never meant to be such a nuisance. Please\u2014really\u2014don\u2019t bother. Look! It\u2019s gone to sleep of its own accord. I\u2019m sure it\u2019ll be all right now. Thanks ever so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMay I kill it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s the slightest necessity for that. I\u2019m sure I shall be able to keep it in order now. I think the gradual process would be far better than killing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gradual process is of no use at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t you think so? Well, I\u2019ll think over what you\u2019ve said very carefully. I honestly will. In fact I\u2019d let you kill it now, but as a matter of fact I\u2019m not feeling frightfully well today. It would be silly to do it now. I\u2019d need to be in good health for the operation. Some other day, perhaps.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no other day. All days are present now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGet back! You\u2019re burning me. How can I tell you to kill it? You\u2019d kill me if you did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy, you\u2019re hurting me now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI never said it wouldn\u2019t hurt you. I said it wouldn\u2019t kill you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I know. You think I\u2019m a coward. But it isn\u2019t that. Really it isn\u2019t. I say! Let me run back by tonight\u2019s bus and get an opinion from my own doctor. I\u2019ll come again the first moment I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis moment contains all moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are you torturing me? You are jeering at me. How can I let you tear me to pieces? If you wanted to help me, why didn\u2019t you kill the damned thing without asking me\u2014before I knew? It would be all over by now if you had.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot kill it against your will. It is impossible. Have I your permission?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Angel\u2019s hands were almost closed on the Lizard, but not quite. Then the Lizard began chattering to the Ghost so loud that even I could hear what it was saying.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe careful,\u201d it said. \u201cHe can do what he says. He can kill me. One fatal word from you and he will! Then you\u2019ll be without me for ever and ever. It\u2019s not natural. How could you live? You\u2019d be only a sort of ghost, not a real man as you are now. He doesn\u2019t understand. He\u2019s only a cold, bloodless abstract thing. It may be natural for him, but it isn\u2019t for us. Yes, yes. I know there are no real pleasures now, only dreams. But aren\u2019t they better than nothing? And I\u2019ll be so good. I admit I\u2019ve sometimes gone too far in the past, but I promise I won\u2019t do it again. I\u2019ll give you nothing but really nice dreams\u2014all sweet and fresh and almost innocent. You might say, quite innocent \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHave I your permission?\u201d said the Angel to the Ghost.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it will kill me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt won\u2019t. But supposing it did?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re right. It would be better to be dead than to live with this creature.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I may?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDamn and blast you! Go on can\u2019t you? Get it over. Do what you like,\u201d bellowed the Ghost: but ended, whimpering, \u201cGod help me. God help me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next moment the Ghost gave a scream of agony such as I never heard on Earth. The Burning One closed his crimson grip on the reptile: twisted it, while it bit and writhed, and then flung it, broken backed, on the turf.<\/p>\n

\u201cOw! That\u2019s done for me,\u201d gasped the Ghost, reeling backwards.<\/p>\n

For a moment I could make out nothing distinctly. Then I saw, between me and the nearest bush, unmistakably solid but growing every moment solider, the upper arm and the shoulder of a man. Then, brighter still and stronger, the legs and hands. The neck and golden head materialised while I watched, and if my attention had not wavered I should have seen the actual completing of a man\u2014an immense man, naked, not much smaller than the Angel. What distracted me was the fact that at the same moment something seemed to be happening to the Lizard. At first I thought the operation had failed. So far from dying, the creature was still struggling and even growing bigger as it struggled. And as it grew it changed. Its hinder parts grew rounder. The tail, still flickering, became a tail of hair that flickered between huge and glossy buttocks. Suddenly I started back, rubbing my eyes. What stood before me was the greatest stallion I have ever seen, silvery white but with mane and tail of gold. It was smooth and shining, rippled with swells of flesh and muscle, whinneying and stamping with its hoofs. At each stamp the land shook and the trees dindled.<\/p>\n

The new-made man turned and clapped the new horse\u2019s neck. It nosed his bright body. Horse and master breathed each into the other\u2019s nostrils. The man turned from it, flung himself at the feet of the Burning One, and embraced them. When he rose I thought his face shone with tears, but it may have been only the liquid love and brightness (one cannot distinguish them in that country) which flowed from him. I had not long to think about it. In joyous haste the young man leaped upon the horse\u2019s back. Turning in his seat he waved a farewell, then nudged the stallion with his heels. They were off before I well knew what was happening. There was riding if you like! I came out as quickly as I could from among the bushes to follow them with my eyes; but already they were only like a shooting star far off on the green plain, and soon among the foothills of the mountains. Then, still like a star, I saw them winding up, scaling what seemed impossible steeps, and quicker every moment, till near the dim brow of the landscape, so high that I must strain my neck to see them, they vanished, bright themselves, into the rose-brightness of that everlasting morning\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cDo ye understand all this, my Son?\u201d said my Teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know about\u00a0all,<\/em>\u00a0Sir,\u201d said I. \u201cAm I right in thinking that the lizard really did turn into a Horse?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAye. But it was killed first. Ye\u2019ll not forget that part of the story?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll try not to, Sir. But does it mean that everything\u2014everything\u2014that is in us can go to the Mountains?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing, even the best and noblest, can go on as it now is. Nothing, not even what is lowest and most bestial, will not be raised again if it submits to death. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. Flesh and blood cannot come to the Mountains. Not because they are too rank, but because they are too weak. What is a Lizard compared to a stallion? Lust is a poor, weak, whimpering, whispering thing compared with that richness and energy of desire which will arise when lust has been killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

—\u00a0Quoted from\u00a0The Great Divorce<\/em>\u00a0(1946), New York: The Macmillan Company, pp. 98-106.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editors note: I read this book in college, but have recently been reminded of one particular story that seems\u00a0apropos for modern day life. CS Lewis wrote this book describing the differences between Heaven and Hell. It’s a story of people visiting both places, and as they near Heaven they appear as ghosts. 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