The Space Trilogy (and semi-related ranting)

I'm currently reading C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy. I just started the third book, That Hideous Strength, which is commonly considered the best. It easily has the coolest title. The first book was good, and the second was excellent. I'm pretty excited about getting into the meat of the third.

I appreciate Travis Abraham allowing me to borrow his set. I'm always nervous about borrowing books. I'm afraid of ruining them. I think that it would be worth it to buy Travis a new set if that happens. I have similar feelings about caravaning. I don't like to lead cars because I'm afraid of losing them or driving poorly with someone watching closely, and I don't like to follow cars because I'm afraid of going too slowly or getting stuck at a red light. There's a lot of fear of failure involved.

Anyway, Lewis uses fantasy to explore the possibilities of different outcomes, such as if the Fall in the Garden of Eden had been averted. He tells the stories in such a way that they aren't beyond comprehension, and they are easy to get pulled into. There are some lines that stick with you, such as when the Eve-like character in the second book realizes that she has always had free will. She hadn't even realized it because she never wanted anything other than what God had wanted from her. There seemed to be no choice, simply because the answers were so obvious.

I enjoy a good "what if...?" scenario, which is the main reason I so enjoyed Sliders, at least for the first couple of seasons. Sliders, for those of you who aren't up to speed on weird mid-90's television, was a fantasy show where the character "slid" from universe to universe, each one with a different history. The interesting part of the show was to see how things could be totally different due to one change in history. If you have Netflix, you can watch it online for free. Don't waste your time on the third, fourth, or fifth seasons.

Well, if you are looking for fiction that may just prove to have some value, I recommend the Space Trilogy. It's hard to go wrong with C.S. Lewis. I like his work so much that I almost wanted to name Ella (had she been a boy) after him. Then I discovered why he shortened his name to initials. Why would anyone name their child Clive Staples? That has to cause emotional trauma.