svsmith21 's review for:

The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis

4.0

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Started off a bit slow, but the ending was really great. Puddleglum is wonderful, and I really enjoyed how Lewis developed his character throughout the story. Jill Pole was a nice addition to the story and I thought she was particularly good as a companion to Eustace. I thought this story in particular highlighted the grace of God in spite of our propensity toward forgetfulness and worldliness. Though we may forget God and His instructions for us, He faithfully supplies our every need and helps us to the end. The argument with the witch underground seemed to serve as an interesting proxy for an apologetic argument from aesthetics, and while I can see the appeal of it and some important takeaways, I do not find it altogether satisfying because it is not very Pauline. Living like a Narnian while the underground world is all there is would be most pitiable. All the same, it is valuable to remember the better country we have awaiting us and how it makes our current world filled with the noxious gas of worldliness so hollow by comparison, which Lewis depicts so beautifully in the end with the heavenly scene of Caspian, now alive thanks to being covered by the blood of Aslan.

Also, got some strong "Abolition of Man" vibes with the description of the school "Experiment House," where there seems to be no room for imagination or classical thought, and where ignorance is masked by "expert" practices that have no real basis in sense or reality.