Kat Forbes: Outside Reading #4 (Entry 14)

Entry # 14 (Outside reading # 4) Lewis and Friendship

Katherine Forbes

 

            The Inklings as a group of friends are an easily romanticized notion because friendship is such a beloved and romantic phenomenon in itself.  We delight in friendships between unlikely characters, such as between a dog and an elephant, or a child and an animal, and we hold the qualities essential to friendship in high esteem.  Friendship between great and admirable men is therefore expected to be a friendship of admirable proportions.  Based on Humphrey Carpenter’s account and our class discussions, it would seem the friendships between Lewis and his friends were as admirable as we would expect.  Tolkien said of his friendship with Lewis that “we owed each a great debt to the other” a tie that begot a deep and lasting affection.  Lewis’s friendship with Tolkien was based upon mutual interests in literature and philosophical debates, and of course, a mutual affection for walking.  Tolkien also emphasized the fact that without Lewis’s support, he would have had a difficult time maintaining enthusiasm for his Lord of the Rings project. 

            Lewis’s friendship with Charles Williams was born out of mutual respect for each other’s literature and blossomed into a mutual admiration.  In fact, it would seem the Lewis had a bit of a tendency to start friendships via correspondence.  During WWII he corresponded with Joy, his future wife, via post and their discussions became physical conversations, those conversations became a friendship, and eventually the two fell in love.  Owen Barfield was another individual whose writings captured Lewis’ attention and a friendship followed forthwith.  Barfield never became the steady companion that Williams did, but Lewis’ respect for him, and incorporation onto the inklings formed the foundation of their relationship

            In fact, one of the most interesting things about Lewis, I think, is the fact that he was always writing and corresponding with people, whether he had met the individual in person or not.  People are not nearly so bold today to engage in written conversations with total strangers via the post.  Yet Lewis was one of those people who reached out to form friendships and I think whom people reached out to.  The Inklings, plus Joy, were surely what Aristotle described as one’s truest friends, those with whom one can share knowledge and enjoy the sharing of each others’ thoughts … which to me begs the question of how Lewis and Tolkien were so deep in each others’ debt to inspire life-long affection.  Does not Aristotle indicate that friendship between philosophers is the only which does not incur debt between parties?