The Discarded Image (Part II.)

Chapter 2. Reservations

There is a lot of goodness going on in this chapter and it is difficult to separate my vocational and avocational interests in it!

The stuff about theory and his connection to one of my favorites, Owen Barflield, is really the tops for me. Also, I am not sure (if I may dare to disagree with CSL!) that I entirely agree with his attempt to separate the received cosmos from "legit" Christianity. I am particularly fond of the Christian cosmos and I think that they do fit well together. But I will follow my own rules and pick only one quotation and one point!

"An artist needs some anatomy; he need not go on to physiology, much less to biochemistry." p. 21.

One of Lewis' main points is that the model was pervasive and enduring because a poet may know, for example, all about the influences of the planets without ever having heard of the epicycles and eccentrics well known to a medieval astronomer. Poets need something different than philosophers, and both from craftsmen. And no one is better than the other: don't compare apples and oranges.

At any rate, with regards to the game: this give me some hope! I do not and, in the end, cannot know everything I would like to about the medieval world and our shared common heritage of "fantasy" (what the medievals would have called "romance"). But perhaps I can have that level and type of knowledge appropriate to what I do: game.

Here is where this series of posts begins.

The series continues with the next.