Thank you, C. S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis has become a significant influence for me rather quickly. This has happened in perhaps a rather unusual way, since it started with his books on literary criticism rather than, say, the Chronicles of Narnia or Mere Christianity (for whatever odd reason, I find Mere Christianity really hard to read - I've been sitting at half-way through for the longest time...). Most recently I've been reading his collection of essays "On Stories". In one of the early essays he talks about the difference between his style of reading and that of a former pupil of his. Whereas the pupil enjoyed suspense and danger for their own sake, Lewis enjoyed them in so far as they were extraordinary. It was not enough for a person to be faced with death by freezing - they had to be faced with death by freezing *on the moon*. It was not enough for an enemy French ship to be sighted on the horizon - it had to be a *pirate* ship.

This last comment led me to re-read Treasure Island, which I hadn't read since...1992? (I think we lived on Cypress Lane when I read it.) Treasure Island was the first book that I remember really getting into and really enjoying, so perhaps it was fitting that it was also the first book that I have ever read a second time (not counting pieces like Othello that I read more than once in school). And it was fun. :-) I had forgotten almost everything in the plot, beyond the basic outline (boy gets hold of map, goes to island, faces off with Long John Silver, makes it home safe and sound), but as I read I remembered more and more about what was about to happen. I think the biggest surprise was the fate of Silver. My (also dim) memories of the movie interfered here and led me to expect young Hawkins to help Silver push out to see in a little rowboat. I must say, the book's version is much more satisfying.

I also found some recordings of C. S. Lewis' BBC broadcasts and found that his voice and accent are not at all like I had imagined!