Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Been reading C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters. I began to realise many things that I have never realised about temptation. But there is something that I don't understand. I've typed it out below for all to try and figure it out.
Background: Screwtape, a master tempter, is teaching his nephew Wormwood how to tempt someone (Wormwood's "patient") into sin. Here Screwtape is talking about the various causes of human laughter, one of which is called the Joke Proper. (split into smaller paragraphs for readers' ease)
The Joke Proper, which turns on sudden perception of incongruity[what in the world does this mean?], is a much more promising field. I am not thinking primarily of indecent or bawdy humour, which, though much relied upon by second-rate tempters, is often disappointing in results.
The truth is that humans are pretty clearly divided into two classes. There are some to whom "no passion is as serious as lust" and for whome an indecent story ceases to produce lasciviousness[strong sexual desire] precisely in so far as it becomes funny: there are others in whome laugter and lust are excited at the same moment and by the same things.
The first sort joke about sex because it gives rise to many incongruities: the second cultivate incongruities because they afford a pretext for talking about sex.
If your man is of the first type, bawdy humour will not help you--I shall never forget the hours which I waste with one of my early patients in bars and smoking-rooms before I learnt this rule. Find out which group the patient belongs to--and see that he does not find out.
I especially don't understand the part about incongruities. Anyone who has a better understanding?
Finished a book called "The Secret Life of Bees" already. One of the discussion questions ask about whether we were rooting for Lily and Zach. Yes I certainly am! I clearly remember the part as follows:
He moved like a person with a genuine love of bees. I could not believe how gentle and softhearted he could be. One of the frames he lifted out leaked honey the colour of plums.
"It's purple!" I said.
"When the weather turns hot and the flowers dry up, the bees strat sucking elderberry. It makes a purple honey. People will pay two dollars for a jar of purple honey.."
He dipped his finger into the comb and, lifting my veil, brought it close to my lips. I opened my mouth, let his finger slide in, sucking it clean. The sheerest smile brushed his lips, and heat rushed up my body. He bent towards me. I wanted him to lift back my veil and kiss me, and I knew he wanted to do it, too, by the way he fixed his eyes on mine. We stayed like that while bees swirled around our heads with a sound like sizzling bacon, a sound that no longer registered as danger. Danger, I realised, was a thing you got used to.
Of course, they didn't kiss; they were of different races in the 1964 Southern society of America. Besides, they were supposed to be working.
Background: Screwtape, a master tempter, is teaching his nephew Wormwood how to tempt someone (Wormwood's "patient") into sin. Here Screwtape is talking about the various causes of human laughter, one of which is called the Joke Proper. (split into smaller paragraphs for readers' ease)
The Joke Proper, which turns on sudden perception of incongruity[what in the world does this mean?], is a much more promising field. I am not thinking primarily of indecent or bawdy humour, which, though much relied upon by second-rate tempters, is often disappointing in results.
The truth is that humans are pretty clearly divided into two classes. There are some to whom "no passion is as serious as lust" and for whome an indecent story ceases to produce lasciviousness[strong sexual desire] precisely in so far as it becomes funny: there are others in whome laugter and lust are excited at the same moment and by the same things.
The first sort joke about sex because it gives rise to many incongruities: the second cultivate incongruities because they afford a pretext for talking about sex.
If your man is of the first type, bawdy humour will not help you--I shall never forget the hours which I waste with one of my early patients in bars and smoking-rooms before I learnt this rule. Find out which group the patient belongs to--and see that he does not find out.
I especially don't understand the part about incongruities. Anyone who has a better understanding?
Finished a book called "The Secret Life of Bees" already. One of the discussion questions ask about whether we were rooting for Lily and Zach. Yes I certainly am! I clearly remember the part as follows:
He moved like a person with a genuine love of bees. I could not believe how gentle and softhearted he could be. One of the frames he lifted out leaked honey the colour of plums.
"It's purple!" I said.
"When the weather turns hot and the flowers dry up, the bees strat sucking elderberry. It makes a purple honey. People will pay two dollars for a jar of purple honey.."
He dipped his finger into the comb and, lifting my veil, brought it close to my lips. I opened my mouth, let his finger slide in, sucking it clean. The sheerest smile brushed his lips, and heat rushed up my body. He bent towards me. I wanted him to lift back my veil and kiss me, and I knew he wanted to do it, too, by the way he fixed his eyes on mine. We stayed like that while bees swirled around our heads with a sound like sizzling bacon, a sound that no longer registered as danger. Danger, I realised, was a thing you got used to.
Of course, they didn't kiss; they were of different races in the 1964 Southern society of America. Besides, they were supposed to be working.
