WET AND WINDY NIGHT 

Overview Question

This is another whirlwind chapter with numerous sub-plots moving around each other: Jane, Dimble, and Arthur are still out searching for the elusive Merlin. Wither has his own people searching as well, but they are on a false trail. Meanwhile, Frost is trying to train Mark in the ambitions of the NICE but Mark is changing inside and only feigns his full devotion. At the same time, the people back at St. Anne’s have a conversation with MacPhee and Dr. Ransom about the nature of their animals (Mr. Bultitude and the cat) in contrast to the emotions and virtues that shape a human life. And back at Belbury, the leaders are welcoming the tramp (thinking they have captured the real Merlin) while Mark barely escapes another demonic attack of vanity by engaging in a kind of desperate elementary prayer. So much going on; but is there a thread that ties it all together?   

For me, the clue comes with the different images and ideas set forth in this chapter about what it means to be human, especially regarding the role of emotion and virtue in the constitution of a truly human life. On the one hand, we have Frost’s insistence to Mark (echoing closely the first principles of the modern worldview) that the “objectivity” of the NICE requires ridding oneself of all emotional (that is “merely chemical”) attachments that might keep one from pursuing a line of experiment no matter where it leads. And, on the other, we have Ransom’s insistence, in the discussion about Mr. Bultitude, that what makes a human being fully and truly human is precisely the emotional capacities (virtues) for intentional friendship that lead ultimately to Love (charity, agape).

These two opposing visions of the place of emotion and virtue in human life clearly represent the two worldviews (modern and traditional) with which we have been working from the beginning. And they lead to our Overview Question for this week:

What are the two views of emotion and virtue that are expressed by Frost and Ransom, and how does this contrast help to clarify what is at stake in practical terms by choosing to commit one’s mind and heart to one vision or the other?

As you think about this question, it may also be helpful to remember Lewis’s statement (in the Preface of THS) that his modern fairytale has behind it the same point he was trying to make in The Abolition of Man: The modern conception of “objectivity” (which defines poetry and emotion as purely “subjective”) has created “men without chests,” that is, men whose hearts and minds are no longer shaped by the virtues and emotions that arise from the biblical story and worldview. As Lewis also knew, he was affirming the traditional view of the passions (the evil thoughts/demons of pride, vanity, greed, impurity, etc.) which impair human reason and cut us off from a true perception of reality and nature. See also, John MacMurray, Reason and Emotion, and Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue, which also examine the importance of emotion and virtue for the formation of human nature, freedom, and reason.

DEEPER-DIVE QUESTIONS

1. Frost’s modern view of “objectivity” (stripped of all traditional emotional values) is directly counter to the biblical and classical view which claims that the virtuous life—far from interfering with reason, or objectivity, or the accurate perception of nature—actually connects us to them. Frost’s account of reason and objectivity, note well (and by his own reckoning) readily leads to the most horrific experiments and treatment of other human beings that would formerly (under the traditional worldview) have been considered unthinkable (e.g., genocide). Where in the world of contemporary “politicized” science are we seeing a similar break with the traditional values of religion and virtue combined with an anti-nature” or “anti-reality” agenda?

2. In his conversation with MacPhee about the difference between animals and humans, Dr. Ransom alludes to the biblical and traditional hierarchy of being: mineral, vegetable, animal, human, and angelic. Furthermore, in keeping with his sources (Genesis 1 and classical cosmology, see Lewis’s The Discarded Image) Ransom locates our human calling specifically between the animal and the angelic. Like the animals, we have sensation (the sensitive soul), but like the angels we also have understanding and reason (the rational soul). Thus, according to Ransom, human beings are created and called to embody not only appetites and sensations (like animals) but also intentional virtues such as friendship and charity. To be truly human, then, contrary to Frost’s vision of technocratic man, is precisely to embrace a certain shaping of our emotional life centered in Christ and rejecting the evil passions.  How does this conversation bring out the very different conception of human nature, reason, and emotion in the traditional worldview at St. Anne’s? And how does Mrs. Dimble’s self-discipline to control her own anxieties, earlier in this section, demonstrate the task?    

3. In Part 6, Wither and Frost welcome to Belbury the tramp, whom they suppose to be the real Merlin.  There is a great irony at work here in Lewis’s portrayal of Wither and Frost (the enlightened elite) being strung along by an ordinary and unsophisticated vagrant who is himself driven by little more than his sensate (animal) appetites. But this is, perhaps, part of Lewis’s hidden point. For this downtrodden human being has a kind of natural shrewdness that neither Wither nor Frost can penetrate. For all of their pretense to elite knowledge about the technocratic “man” of the future, they are completely duped by their present quarry. How does the tramp, in this regard, register points for the traditional view of nature and human nature over against the modern?

4. In the 7th and final Part of Chapter 12, Mark goes through a terrible gauntlet of temptation and resistance. He has discovered how evil are the leaders at Belbury, and he wants to escape their clutches. And yet, God help him, he cannot stop himself from feeling pulled again and again by the fallen power of his own vanity, his desire to be someone important in the inner ring of NICE. This terrible juggernaut culminates in Mark’s brief but earnest prayer, “Oh don’t, don’t let me go back into it.” After which, the room is suddenly cleansed and he simply goes to sleep. How does all of this illustrate the role of human emotion and the human will in response to God’s provision to which Ransom has earlier alluded?