Does Beauty Matter When Bombs Start Falling

C.S. Lewis, creator of Narnia, almost died in the trench warfare of WW1, was best friends with Tolkien, and sold 100 million+ books. At the start of WW2, he posed a question to Oxford students in a profound lecture: Does beauty matter when bombs start falling? Let's find out👇

Should truth & beauty take a backseat in war? To care about cultural questions as one’s nation fights a war - is this equivalent to “fiddling while Rome burns?” Lewis’ reply: “The war creates no absolutely new situation; it simply aggravates the permanent human situation.”

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.

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.”

Insect life v/s Human Life: “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, and adventure.

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.“

Right on the “front line,” soldiers don’t talk of the “allied cause” or “progress of the campaign.” They’re instead concerned with stories, myths, and fateful open-ended questions. They desire “aesthetic satisfactions.” If they won’t “read good books” they will "read bad ones."

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."

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.”

One of C.S. Lewis' most insightful - and strange - books is The Great Divorce. It's a fable about a bus ride from hell to heaven. Lewis got this story as a theological dream at the end of World War II. Top insights from the book on art, science, and more here!