Jash Dholani Profile picture
Mar 16 13 tweets 6 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
C.S. Lewis almost died in the trench warfare of WW-I

Became best friends with Tolkien

Sold 100 million books

On the cusp of WW-II, he gave an iconic lecture at Oxford University (1939)

His question:

Does beauty matter when bombs start falling?

THIS is his profound answer👇🏻 Image
1/ The permanent human situation is endless strife, chaos and pain

C.S. Lewis:

“Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself”

Yet culture breaks out Image
2/ If we waited for peace to create art the first cave painting would still not be made

Always some “imminent danger” looking more important than culture

Lewis: “If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure, the search would never have begun” Image
3/ Insect life v/s Human Life

CS Lewis:

“The insects have chosen a different line: they have sought first the material welfare and security of the hive, and presumably they have their reward. Men are different”

We demand not just mere continuity but variety, growth, adventure ImageImage
4/ C.S. Lewis on why humans are a truly unique species:

"Men propound mathematical theorems in beleaguered cities, conduct metaphysical arguments in condemned cells, make jokes on scaffolds, and comb their hair at Thermopylae. This is not panache; it is our nature." ImageImage
5/ Right on the “front line,” soldiers don’t talk of the “allied cause” or the “progress of the campaign”

They’re instead concerned with stories, myths, fateful open-ended questions

They desire “aesthetic satisfactions”

If they wont “read good books” they will "read bad ones” Image
6/ CS Lewis on good ideas:

“Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered. The cool intellect must work not only against cool intellect on the other side, but against the muddy heathen mysticisms which deny intellect altogether”
7/ The soul feeds on truth and beauty like the body feeds on food:

“God makes no appetite in vain. We can therefore pursue knowledge and beauty in the sure confidence that by so doing we are either advancing to the vision of God ourselves or indirectly helping others to do so” Image
8/ C.S. Lewis on why we must study the past:

“Not that the past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet need something to set against the present, to remind us that the basic assumptions have been quite different in different periods” ImageImage
9/ Past as immunity from new-age BS:

“A man who has lived in many places is not likely to be deceived by the local errors of his village; the scholar has lived in many times and is therefore…immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press of his own age.” Image
10/ Don’t wait for spare time to know what you want to know and to chase what you want to chase

C.S. Lewis: “The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.” Image
C.S. Lewis was a brilliant thinker

Always rewarding to read

I've been reading his classic books along with his obscure lectures, and collecting the insights in one place: memod.com/jashdholani/bo…

Find inside:

• The nature of hell
• Wisdom v/s Science

And more!
Thank you for reading fren!

I appreciate your time

If you enjoyed this thread

Do RT👇🏻

And C.S. Lewis-Pill your TL!

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Jash Dholani

Jash Dholani Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @oldbooksguy

Sep 19
Rochefoucauld was considered the ideal aristocrat for centuries

Left a lasting impact on Nietzsche

Wrote one-liners denser and more insightful than most books...

Discover his 10 best aphorisms on charisma, love, Thinkers v/s Doers, and more👇🏻 Image
1/ Charisma = being comfortable in your own skin

How to be irresistible:

"There is an air which belongs to the figure and talents of each individual. We should try to find out what air is natural to us and never abandon it, but make it as perfect as we can"

Authenticity is hot Image
2/ Lethargy and cowardice are vices that know how to look like virtues:

"We are held to our duty by laziness and timidity, but often our virtue gets all the credit"

Some people rebrand their inertia as consistency

Others rebrand their cowardice as a stoic control over emotions Image
Read 13 tweets
Sep 14
Edmund Burke is the father of Right-Wing Thought

He wrote a philosophical masterpiece at just 27:

The Sublime and Beautiful (1757)

This book touches on issues that haunt us till date:

• How are women different than men?
• Why does beauty matter?

And more

THREAD👇🏻 Image
1/ What is beautiful?

For Burke, the beautiful is small, delicate, smooth, and has "graduation variation"

Small babies and little kittens are beautiful - and easy to love

Also note that people in love give each other "diminutive epithets"

They call each other baby and darling
Image
Image
2/ Beauty is deeply relaxing

But notice how compared to total stillness, we find "a gentle oscillatory motion" MORE relaxing

From beach waves to musical notes

Infants appreciate the "rising and falling" sensation too:

"Rocking sets children to sleep better than absolute rest"
Read 16 tweets
Sep 11
The nobles had their heads chopped off in the French Revolution

But Napoleon said they would've lived with 1 skill:

Writing

Stories control the world

And writers control the story

9 tips to write better from the highest-selling writing guide ever, Elements of Style (1918)👇🏻 Image
1/ Make clear assertions:

The Elements Of Style: “Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, non-committal language.”

Be direct, bold, and concise

Give the reader a shapely idea he can grip - not an amorphous blob that slips away from his hands
2/ Don’t just negate - affirm:

“Consciously or unconsciously, the reader is dissatisfied with being told only what is not; he wishes to be told what is”

Strunk says it’s “better to express a negative in a positive form”

Example:

Don’t say “Not important” - say trifling
Read 12 tweets
Sep 9
Forget Pearl and Andrew Tate

The best attack on feminism was written in 1910...

The book:

What's Wrong With The World by G.K. Chesterton

He showed why tradition served women better

And how feminism made the feminine world narrower, soul-less, and LESS free

A thread👇🏻 Image
1/ Men are specialists; women universalists

Tradition told men to be “monomaniacs” so women can be generalists

A man would repeat one thing all day: hammer nails, lay bricks, fill accounting columns

A woman would “cook, clean, tell tales to children, illuminate and ventilate” Image
2/ Tradition shielded women from “harassing industrial demands”

Tradition was interested in protecting women from the “direct cruelty of competitive" or "bureaucratic toil”

Women need their mental bandwidth for wide-ranging - and creative! - duties at home
Read 12 tweets
Sep 7
The most canceled woman in the world: Camille Paglia

In her controversial book Sexual Personae, she attacks liberalism, feminism, & nature worship like no other writer before or since

Discover her big insights on why beauty is a weapon, how civilization is masculine, and more👇🏻 Image
1/ Liberalism's great paradox

Paglia: "Liberalism defines government as tyrant father but demands it behave as nurturant mother"

Feminism wants the tyrant father to solve all grievances (mean words on twitter) while being an all-permissive mother otherwise

A big contradiction
Image
Image
2/ Man chants a hymn, sketches a painting, & erects a city wall for the same reason: to buffer against, AND impose his vision, on nature

For Paglia, art, religion, and civilization are man's half-solutions to the eternally chaotic nature: "Religion, ritual, and art began as one"
Read 13 tweets
Sep 4
Oswald Spengler Thread🧵

In 1931, Spengler published one of the most idea-dense books of all time:

Man and Technics

It packs hundreds of interesting ideas in 52 pages

Top 13 insights👇🏻 Image
1/ Materialists vs Aesthetes

Materialists only care for technological advancement and prosperity

Aesthetes judge societies by “the number of the pictures and books” it produces

Aesthetes lack a "sense of reality," the materialists suffer from "devastating shallowness"
2/ Triangulating from above, Spengler's ideal man is a realist poet

He has a firm grip on the world

BUT never so tight that all magic and nobility is squeezed out
Read 16 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(