/lit/ - Literature

If your patient is already quite proud, you may be able to convince him that only certain books are worthy of his time. The high-minded reader of fantasy, for instance, can be quickly converted to read only classics, particularly if he has absorbed the delicious elitism of /lit/. This is a dangerous game, because there is always a chance he will actually enjoy the classics, but if you are careful there is no cause for concern. The point, as with directing him towards a Purpose, is to keep all pleasure out of reading. Why should he enjoy himself reading Tolkien and Martin when we might make him miserable reading Alexander Pope? To make reading a duty, one that he does with less and less relish each time he sits down to do it, that should be your goal. Not only does this open up the possibility that he will simply quit, it will make him dull and insensitive to the works he is reading. They may be foul and steeped in the Enemy’s nonsense, but if he barely pays attention, then there is no harm. You may even be able to make everything about the Enemy repellent to him, just by the constant connection between the feeling of boredom, which he will come to associate with reading, and the ideas in the classics themselves. This would be a true triumph, and one that would turn the Enemy’s natural advantage in literature to the side of Our Father Below.

But you must never forget that you are working on the Enemy’s ground, even when there is a great deal of room for you to maneuver. Of course, you know that it is very difficult (but by no means impossible! Pride is a marvelous tool.) to turn his Scriptures against him, but many young tempters foolishly think that other works are different. Do not make the all-too-common mistake of believing that the books of the twentieth-century atheists, let alone the old pagan epics, are anything but fundamentally on the Enemy’s side. In all of them, there are traces of his hated Spirit, even those that seem most amenable to our noble cause. I do not need to tell you that there are no libraries in Our Father’s House.

The other profitable avenue is turning his literary interests from reading to writing. It is not difficult to see why this approach may be successful. Reading is by nature dangerous to our efforts: it binds men to one another across time and space, humbles their hearts and minds, and breaks them out of their own skulls, if only for a few hours. Writing, while not without its own risks, does the opposite. It tends to focus a man in upon himself, feed his pride, and reinforce his own sense of self-importance. If you can convince your patient to write, he will likely begin to suspect he is quite good at it. He will come to believe his thoughts are profound; do not be surprised if he extends this new high-opinion of himself to the other aspects of his life. He will wallow in self-pity or rage at not receiving the success and accolades he believes are his due. He will grow envious of other writers, whom he will begin to suspect are not nearly as talented as he is. He may even give up hope, which is most delicious of all. But do not allow these tasty morsels to distract you from your higher purpose. These things should have the more important effects of keeping him from reading (because he believes his own works are superior), from relationships with other human beings (because they cannot, or will not, appreciate his talent), and most of all from the Enemy (because the man of genius has no use for him). In this way, Wormwood, you may see your patient come, as so many artists have come before him, to dwell in Our Father’s House.

The risks of writing are easy enough to manage, so long as you remain vigilant. If you begin to notice ideas about love or truth creeping in, for instance, remind him that those kind of things are old-fashioned, and that real literature does not deal with them, at least not without irony (here again you are fortunate that he posts on /lit/). It also cannot hurt to encourage his vanity. Let him develop a romantic idea of the author as a mysterious hero (I say a romantic idea, but here you must be very careful; nothing is so dangerous to your goal as real Romance) and convince him to devote time to consciously acting more and more like the moody, ironic, smoking picture he has in his head. In this way, he can be led away from dangerous creativity and towards a kind of dutifully rebellious conventionality. Above all, just as he must never read for pleasure, never let your patient write merely for its own sake. One slack evening on your part may see his pen wander off and get captured by the Enemy, and then all your efforts will be for nothing. Even worse, his book may be published, and then imagine how many men will read it and be lost forever! I do not need to tell you what punishments would be yours if you let such a thing happen.

Still, these risks are well-worth the delightful reward. I look forward to learning more of your patient’s development.

Your affectionate uncle,
Screwtape

>>11793519
>>11793525
>>11793527
I like it

Impressive once again man

>>11793519
>>11793786
I hope to see more of these. I'm equally as impressed as I am inspired. Thank you for sharing.

Now this is a thread.
Take notes lads!

>>11793865
*takes notes*

>>11793519
The Screwtape Letters suck. Awful book, Lewis at his most obnoxious and didactic

>>11793865
Take notes on such Mike Bowls

>>11794188
Thank you for your expository post. OP had me fooled as a talent, not a plagiarist.

>>11793525
Pope is dope. Apologize.

Where are the jpgs between screwtape_1 through _4?

>>11793786
I'm savin' it!

>>11794188
It’s interesting that Lewis himself describes the process of writing the Letters as extremely unpleasant.

>>11796458
I also like the fact that he felt completely unable to imagine the creation of the opposite, of angels seeking to save. He felt that his limited humanness couldn't rise to those heights, where to write like a devil was to merely fall but a bit.

That was an enjoyable read.

>>11793519
Until seeing >>11794188
I though that this is OC and that the Enemy was actually Satan, that all libraries are the Enemy's ground.

It was a lot more interesting this way

>>11793519
>>11793525
>>11793527
very impressive work, this is the kind of content that lit desperately needs

>>11798031
And yet, it's festering at the bottom of the catalog.

>>11793519
>>11793525
>>11793527
Good thread, OP.
Put a smile on my face.

>>11796841
Sounds pretentious

Bump

>>11795564
Pope’s overrated and you know it