Love and the Reasons Why

SCENE ONE May 7, 1946 [Scene opens with two men and a young woman sitting in a London conference room. World War II is hardly a year in the past, and morality is still low in many places. London has not fully recovered from the damage it faced, and the world as a whole is still facing the pain that comes with the years after a war. A man with an American accent is speaking at the head of the table.] ELIOT: [Having read for several minutes already] Unreal City, / Under the brown fog of a winter dawn (7), / A crowd stands waiting at a great grey wall; / They cry out from both sides with an unheard call. / A wretched wall it is, that divides / A single city once united and grand, / Ruined now by one wretched Man. / Berlin, the Capital of Heartbreak.  [He stops there, then closes the notebook carefully.] That’s everything so far. LEWIS: [Nods, leaning back in his chair.] I think it captures the situation well. It’s very much in the same vein as “The Waste Land,” I’d say, which is excel...

Many artists and authors struggle to take the vision in their head and transfer it onto paper. Either their skill level gets in the way, they can’t quite translate their thoughts to reality, or the creation has a mind of its own and takes an unexpected direction. Likewise, creators struggle to finish their projects when they are unsatisfied with the current state. In his short story “Leaf by Niggle,” J.R.R. Tolkien illustrates this struggle while also adding a greater depth to it. The main character, Niggle, is a painter who has a grand vision for his largest painting but can never seem to finish it to his satisfaction. As a result of his obsession with it, he fails to use his gifts for the benefit of others and forgets to prepare for his quickly approaching “journey.” When he finally takes the long-dreaded journey, however, he finds his vision for his painting fulfilled in reality (109-110). J.R.R. Tolkien’s narrative appeals greatly to creators, and even more so to Christians. Tolk...

  C.S. Lewis is far from being considered a science fiction author. With its author being better known for his fantasy and theological nonfiction, The Space Trilogy is rarely connected with other works such as The Chronicles of Narnia and The Screwtape Letters . Despite its low profile as far as Lewis’ works are concerned, the trilogy is still rich with strong storytelling and a deep underlying connection to Christian faith. In reality, The Space Trilogy is philosophy disguised as science fiction. The first book in the trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, exhibits this disguised philosophy beautifully. One creature that becomes central in the story is the eldil. This being is of a higher existence than the other rational creatures on the planet Malacandra (77). Throughout the book, the creature is described in close connection with light and in many ways resembles what we know as angels. A higher form of the eldil , known on Malacandra as Oyarsa, is also introduced and plays an ...

So many people struggle to understand themselves. One can observe the world around him and begin to understand it, but understanding oneself is a different task entirely. Many people struggle to find an identity for themselves, and those people end up placing so much emphasis on how they are viewed that they slowly begin to fabricate themselves rather than identifying themselves. In his book Notes from Underground , Dostoevksy’s “underground man” is no different. He describes himself as “highly conscious” of both himself and the stupidity of mankind, and yet he finds it impossible to identify himself and make decisions that involve his everyday life. Because of his struggle to understand himself, the underground man struggles to function in the world and believes himself to be unable to accomplish anything. Yet eventually, when he tries to torment a woman for her lifestyle, he accidentally pours his heart out to her and reveals that he’s known how to live well all along. Even so, the ...

  In Voltaire’s satirical novel Candide, the scholar Pangloss professes Earth as the “best of all possible worlds” (2). The statement becomes something of a catchphrase and the center of Pangloss’ philosophy. Candide’s journey, however, reveals a broken and violent world plagued by war and corruption. Candide and his companions meet trouble everywhere they go. Pangloss firmly believes that the world could not possibly be any different, and certainly not any better; he says that everything happens exactly as it is meant to and that changing the course of the world is impossible (12-13). Despite Pangloss’ philosophy, Candide and his valet Cacambo discover a country where war, corruption, and violence seemingly do not exist. Everything that is considered valuable in the rest of the world is mere dust and stone in this hidden country, and its people are perpetually cheerful and welcoming. The city of El Dorado is in many ways a surface parallel to heaven, but beneath that surface par...

  Nothing is ever created for only a single reason. In almost every project or undertaking, the creator or creators have multiple motives. However, most creators also have a single motive that takes precedence over the others. For example, in building a city, one person might build with mainly beauty in mind. Another person might build with functionality as his top priority. A third person might build the city as quickly as he can so that he can start earning income from it. Oftentimes, those goals are most easily achieved when the operation is run by a single person. Occasionally, multiple architects are able to collaborate and create a city just as beautiful as the one that is organized by a single man with a single vision. Most of the time, however, the best cities are created under the thought and direction of one master architect. Cities that are beautiful, functional, and profitable, whether they are designed by one man or many, are almost always created with love and great i...