The Inklings Variety Hour

C.S. Lewis' Nightmares

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Dr. Luke Mills joins me to talk about his article "His Dark Materials," as well as C.S. Lewis' nightmare imagery across his fiction. Among other things, we discuss:

  • [2:08] – Welcome & guest introduction: Dr. Luke Mills, Associate Professor of English at Wingate University
  • [2:57] – Dr. Mills's article: "His Dark Materials: C.S. Lewis's Nightmares as Inspiration"
  • [4:10] – What drew Mills to the topic: Lewis's dreams of lions and the writing of Narnia
  • [5:09] – Lewis's diary (All My Road Before Me) and the wolf-and-sheep nightmare (April 27, 1923)
  • [6:13] – Reading of the wolf-and-sheep nightmare
  • [7:07] – Lewis as an author of both heavenly beauty and horror
  • [7:41] – The Unman in Perelandra and Lewis's vivid portrayal of evil
  • [8:39] – How common were nightmares for Lewis? Insects, specters, and a lifelong pattern
  • [10:29] – Lewis near death: vivid dreams and beautiful visions
  • [11:38] – Etymology of "dream" and "nightmare" (Old English roots)
  • [12:07] – Did Lewis think his dreams were spiritually significant?
  • [12:46] – The Dark Tower and J.W. Dunne's Experiment with Time: precognitive dreams
  • [15:21] – Lewis, Tolkien, and their shared interest in time and dreams
  • [16:29] – Lewis's belief in precognitive dreams and his complicated relationship with Dunne's theories
  • [17:22] – The Dark Tower: the chronoscope and alternate timelines
  • [20:01] – Dreams as portals to other realities; Lewis's strong belief in the supernatural
  • [22:07] – Lewis's imaginative receptivity; running toward and away from something
  • [24:09] – Preface to Paradise Lost, letting the "leash slip," and Lewis's portrayal of evil
  • [26:13] – Other nightmare imagery in Lewis: The Last Battle, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength
  • [27:31] – Ransom's strange dream in Perelandra; the Unman as absurdist horror
  • [30:17] – Lewis and the word "un-man": dreams about his dead father and Perelandra's antagonist
  • [32:24] – Lewis's horror of corpses; childhood trauma of seeing his mother's body
  • [34:10] – Zombie squirrels and a digression to Grove City College
  • [37:11] – Are Lewis's nightmares demonic? Dreams of lions before Narnia
  • [38:24] – Lewis, modernism, surrealism, and the via negativa
  • [40:21] – Till We Have Faces: modernist technique and divinely sent nightmares
  • [43:03] – Aslan as terrifying: the scratch in The Horse and His Boy
  • [46:09] – Mark in the Objective Room at N.I.C.E.: nightmarish images turning him toward the good
  • [47:12] – Closing thoughts; terror and the uncanny as paths toward the good
  • [50:07] – Where to follow Dr. Mills; current research on Lewis's library at UNC (including Lewis's marginalia)

    • As always, if you want to get in touch, email me at [email protected]

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