Letter #22
Things must not be going so well for little Wormwood.
Maybe they were a little rough for Screwtape too?
My dear Wormwood,
So! Your man is in love—… You may be interested to learn that the little misunderstanding with the Secret Police which you tried to raise about some unguarded expressions in one of my letters has been tidied over. … Meanwhile I enclose a little booklet, just issued, on the new House of Correction for Incompetent Tempters. It is profusely illustrated and you will not find a dull page in it.
22.1) So Wormwood tried to get his “affectionate Uncle Screwtape” in trouble.
Contrast this scenario with our relationship with Jesus in terms of
(a) The chances that taking Jesus’ advice would even lead to the need to call the “Secret Police”
(b) When we do something to Jesus – His reaction to us as compared to Screwtape’s reaction to what Wormwood did.
I have looked up this girl’s dossier and am horrified at what I find. … The sort of creature who’d find ME funny! … Why doesn’t the Enemy blast her for it, if He’s so moonstruck by virginity—instead of looking on there, grinning?
22.2) Seeing – but not seeing?
How is it possible to see so clearly what’s going on – and not see it at all?
looks as if she’d faint at the sight of blood and then dies with a smile
The sort of creature who’d find ME funny!
Maybe if Screwtape could actually / thoughtfully answer his own question at the end of this paragraph he would get at least a clue as to what’s going on. But, he can’t – or won’t.
What are some possible reasons why not?
He’s a hedonist at heart. All those fasts and vigils and stakes and crosses are only a façade. … We fight under cruel disadvantages. Nothing is naturally on our side. (Not that that excuses you. I’ll settle with you presently. You have always hated me and been insolent when you dared.
22.3) Screwtape seems to be feeling a little self pity. Still seeing – but not seeing.
First, Screwtape says that God doesn’t understand – Ugh! I don’t think He has the least inkling of that high and austere mystery to which we rise in the Miserific Vision.
And then he goes on to say – Everything has to be twisted before it’s any use to us. We fight under cruel disadvantages. Nothing is naturally on our side.
Following on with the previous question – is there something preventing Screwtape (and us) from seeing the problem here? Given the second statement, should one maybe reconsider which side they’re on when everything is “naturally” against them?
Then, of course, he gets to know this woman’s family and whole circle. Could you not see that the very house she lives in is one that he ought never to have entered? The whole place reeks of that deadly odour. … It bears a sickening resemblance to the description one human writer made of Heaven: ‘the regions where there is only life and therefore all that is not music is silence’.
Music and silence—how I detest them both! … The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down in the end. But I admit we are not yet loud enough, or anything like it. Research is in progress.
22.4) The more Screwtape sees – the less he sees.
Given the responses to questions 2 & 3, talk about how this “Noise” can make those things harder to overcome.
Along with that, consider that once it is overcome, what is the “impenetrable mystery” and how can it help to defend against being tricked by Satan again?
Meanwhile you, disgusting little—
[Here the MS breaks off and is resumed in a different hand.]
In the heat of composition I find that I have inadvertently allowed myself to assume the form of a large centipede. I am accordingly dictating the rest to my secretary. … In my present form I feel even more anxious to see you, to unite you to myself in an indissoluble embrace,
(Signed) TOADPIPE
For his Abysmal Sublimity Under Secretary Screwtape, TE, BS, etc
22.5) Uh Oh!
What just happened here?
What does it have to do with us? Can this happen to you or I?
Vocabulary:
Hedonist- He’s a hedonist at heart. All those fasts and vigils and stakes and crosses are only a façade.
Hedonist- a person whose life is devoted to the pursuit of pleasure and self-gratification.
Austere – Ugh! I don’t think He has the least inkling of that high and austere mystery to which we rise in the Miserific Vision.
Austere – solemn; serious.
Miserific Vision – is a reference to to an earlier book by C. S. Lewis – Perelandra, which is the second book in the Space Trilogy. In Later editions, Perelandra was renamed to Voyage to Venus. The excerpt below explains the meaning.
“As there is one Face above all worlds which merely to see is irrevocable joy, so at the bottom of all worlds that face is waiting whose sight alone is the misery from which none who beholds it can recover. And though there seemed to be, and indeed were, a thousand roads by which a man could walk through the world, there was not a single one which did not lead sooner or later either to the Beatific or the Miserific Vision.”
Dynamisn – Music and silence—how I detest them both! How thankful we should be that ever since Our Father entered Hell—though longer ago than humans, reckoning in light years, could express—no square inch of infernal space and no moment of infernal time has been surrendered to either of those abominable forces, but all has been occupied by Noise—Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile—Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples and impossible desires.
Dynamisn – great energy, force, or power.
What does he mean on the last sentence. In my present form I feel even more anxious to see you, to unite you to myself in an indissoluble embrace,
Hi – Screwtape was turned into a centipede. He hasn’t been happy with Wormwood’s lack progress – and even regress – in getting his “patient” to turn away from God and towards Satan. Now, Screwtape finds out Wormwood’s patient is in love with a devout Christian. Worse yet, either Wormwood didn’t recognize what was going on with that relationship – or he did realize and decided not to tell his uncle. Bad news either way.
But worse news is that Satan does know what’s going on and he’s most unhappy with Screwtape. After all, Screwtape is ultimately responsible for training Wormwood, and that training isn’t going well.
Therefore, we read:
In the heat of composition I find that I have inadvertently allowed myself to assume the form of a large centipede. I am accordingly dictating the rest to my secretary. Now that the transformation is complete I recognise it as a periodical phenomenon. Some rumour of it has reached the humans and a distorted account of it appears in the poet Milton, with the ridiculous addition that such changes of shape are a ‘punishment’ imposed on us by the Enemy. A more modern writer—someone with a name like Pshaw—has, however, grasped the truth. Transformation proceeds from within and is a glorious manifestation of that Life Force which Our Father would worship if he worshipped anything but himself. In my present form I feel even more anxious to see you, to unite you to myself in an indissoluble embrace, (Signed) TOADPIPE For his Abysmal Sublimity Under Secretary Screwtape, TE, BS, etc.
Lewis, C. S.. The Screwtape Letters (pp. 120-122). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
I haven’t read Paradise Lost. I did try various Google searches to try to find out what the reference was to – Screwtape temporarily into a centipede.
Now, the appearance is that Screwtape “turned himself” into a centipede, perhaps because of his extreme anger at Wormwood. Depending on how we view Paradise Lost, it’s also possible that Satan turned Screwtape into a centipede because he (Screwtape) totally lost control of the situation. It’s hard to tell. Although, the reference to someone with a name like Pshaw points to George Bernard Shaw who was an atheist from an early age. Later in life he thought more about the Divine, but maybe C. S. Lewis put in the two men – Milton and “Pshaw” – to give two opposites for us to choose from or combine. I can certainly see Satan punishing and torturing his followers when they mess up and lose someone to God.
I can’t believe I’m going to use something from ChatGPT, but – since I haven’t read Paradise Lost and was unable to keep Google focused enough on the topic to get an answer to what Satan did to punish his fallen angles, I went to ChatGPT. In some prior use to check it out, I found it gives some pretty good answers until I asked for judgment calls, especially relating to moral and religious questions. So I expect the Milton / Paradise Lost answer is probably fairly reasonable. Here it is:
In his epic poem “Paradise Lost,” John Milton portrays Satan as the leader of the fallen angels who rebelled against God and were cast out of heaven. In Book I of the poem, Satan proposes to his fellow fallen angels that they should wage war against God and seek revenge for their punishment:
“Farewell happy Fields
Where Joy forever dwells: Hail horrours, hail
Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell
Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings
A mind not to be chang’d by Place or Time.
The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less then he
Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th’ Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav’n.”
Milton portrays Satan as a rebellious and prideful figure who refuses to accept responsibility for his own actions and instead seeks to blame God for his punishment. While he does not specifically address how Satan punishes the fallen angels, he does depict Satan as a cruel and tyrannical leader who inflicts suffering on his followers and delights in their pain. Ultimately, Milton portrays Satan as a tragic figure who is doomed to fail in his quest for revenge and redemption, and who ultimately brings destruction and misery upon himself and his followers.
Either way – Screwtape doing it to himself or Satan doing it to him, Screwtape has turned into a centipede and can’t wait to take it out on his nephew Wormwood. And those things – the severe punishment, the anger, and the chance to take revenge on his nephew – are totally opposite of Christian patience, love, and forgiveness.
Great question! Sorry for the long answer, but it was interesting so I kept going. Hope you’re getting good stuff from the book – it’s one of my favorites.