Episode 267: “Best of” Series – An Experiment in Criticism, Ch. 8-9 (Ep. 22)

This week’s episode is a continuation of Cindy Rollins and Angelina Stanford’s discussion of An Experiment in Criticism by C. S. Lewis. They start with an exploration of the difference between loving a book and evaluating a book as a work of art, followed by an explanation of Lewis’ idea that works of art do not teach us. Angelina goes in depth about why it is not our job as readers to find the “nugget of truth” in a book. Cindy brings up Lewis’ point about “using” literature as an academic tool, versus “receiving” literature as a work of art.

In covering chapter 9, Angelina and Cindy dig into the dangers of rushing to express an opinion about what we read, rather than getting ourselves out of the way when approaching a book. Cindy points to the many similarities between what Lewis says in these chapters and what Charlotte Mason says about true education.

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Commonplace Quotes:

But St. Benedict assumes that the whole of the body, and thus the whole of the person, is engaged in the act of reading. Words are tasted to release their full flavor, weighed in order to sound the full depths of their meaning. It is not only that it was customary to pronounce the words with the lips in a low tone, so that they were heard as well as seen. They were also learnt by heart in the full meaning of that phrase, which again we have lost, but which means with the whole being. So the Scriptures are mouthed by the lips, understood by the intelligence, fixed by the memory, and finally the will comes into play and what has been read is also put into practice. The act of reading makes the reader become a different person. Reading cannot be separated from living.

Esther De Waal

[The right way to read is]…the way that conforms to the intentionality of the book itself and to the conventions it assumes and requires.

Northrop Frye

Rose-Cheeked Laura

by Thomas Campion

Rose-cheek’d Laura, come,
Sing thou smoothly with thy beauty’s
Silent music, either other
Sweetly gracing.

Lovely forms do flow
From concent divinely framed;
Heav’n is music, and thy beauty’s
Birth is heavenly.

These dull notes we sing
Discords need for helps to grace them;
Only beauty purely loving
Knows no discord,

But still moves delight,
Like clear springs renew’d by flowing,
Ever perfect, ever in them-
Selves eternal.

Book List:

Seeking God by Esther de Waal

The Great Code by Northrop Frye

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brönte

Til We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

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Connect with Us:

You can find Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/

You can find Cindy Rollins at MorningTimeforMoms.com, over on her podcast The New Mason Jar, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CindyRollinsWriter. You can also check out her Patreon for additional content.

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