The Great Divorce is a story about souls afforded a chance to embark on a journey to heaven, where they are presented with the chance to repent and seek God. Who Goes Home? was the original title and I like that title a lot better. In the end, almost everyone does go home. Home, to the ghosts of the grey town, is the hell from which their bus embarked and to where they will return after being unable to accept forgiveness from those they have wronged on earth. I like to think of the The Great Divorce as Lewis talking himself out of a sort of universal calvinistic predestination. I am not a theologian, but for that matter Lewis wasn’t, either.
In the first few pages, we meet the Big Man, prone to fits of violence, in the line to the bus from the grey town to heaven, coming to blows with a man who has slighted him. When on the path to heaven he is greeted by a former employee who murdered a coworker.
Upon being met with grace and forgiveness by his murderous underling, a full-fledged resident of heaven, the big man reflects:
So that’s the trick, is it?’ shouted the Ghost, outwardly bitter, and yet I thought there was a kind of triumph in its voice. It had been entreated: it could make a refusal: and this seemed to it a kind of advantage. ‘I thought there’d be some damned nonsense. It’s all a clique, all a bloody clique. Tell them I’m not coming, see? I’d rather be damned than go along with you. I came here to get my rights, see? Not to go snivelling along on charity tied onto your apron-strings. If they’re too fine to have me without you, I’ll go home.’ It was almost happy now that it could, in a sense, threaten. ‘That’s what I’ll do,’ it repeated, ‘I’ll go home. I didn’t come here to be treated like a dog. I’ll go home. That’s what I’ll do.
Just a few minutes ago, I finished reading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader to my kids. It was more disjointed then the epic adventure I remembered from my childhood, and is more a collection of parables. The most interesting thing about it, to me, is the way tge book sort of twists the classic quest tale of a hero going on a journey for riches and finding himself along the way. Caspian arrives on the scene, already bound and committed by duty, searching not for treasure but for the Lords and for exploration. By the end, he is ready to give up his station for a chance at early entry to Aslan’s Land. But, as he is quickly reminded by his shipmates, that is not why he came nor what his station would permit.
The most striking parable in the Dawn Treador is Eustace’s conversion experience, after having is outer appearance transformed to match his comportment. A radical encounter with a savior is what it takes for Eustace’s rescue.
And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off … and there it was, lying on the grass, only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me…and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again.
No one in The Great Divorce is afforded that privilege. If they were, I think Lewis knew that none would be able to refuse. This is what I mean by Lewis talking himself out of universalism. All the ghosts did make the decision to get on the bus. Edmund made the decision to get in the water. But I guess that’s not enough. The ghosts were not grabbed ahold of and rendered clean by a lion who wouldn’t leave them as they were.
LINKS
📓 This week’s just trust me
🎧 Fred again..’s tiny desk concert
💻 Robin Sloan’s blog which really jumpstarted any intentions I had of getting this off the ground.