C. S. Lewis's final novel Till We Have Faces is a novelization and adaptation of the Roman myth "Cupid and Psyche." Rather than tell the story from Psyche's perspective, Lewis tells it from her sister's, a character with no name in the original myth. In this multi-layered and very difficult novel, the main character hears a strange pronouncement about her fate from the god of love. "You are also Psyche."
This short sentence is one of several short pronouncements that acts like keys to unlocking the layers of meaning of the novel, which sometimes are multiple layers deep. I couldn't understand it for a long time. But then it hit me.
Till We Have Faces is a novel about becoming truly human. Its answer to the "how" of that proposition is shocking, even provocative. But it is ultimately a hopeful one because it is the resolution of every journey, both of the hero and the heroine.
Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Introductory Music
00:00:07 - Till We Have Faces
00:02:05 - A Cultural Phenomenon
00:06:00 - The Hero's Journey
00:10:56 - Till We Have Faces
00:16:02 - What It Means to Become Human
00:19:40 - Hero's Journey of Orual
00:25:44 - Heroine's Journey of Psyche
00:29:07 - Commonalities of Both Journeys
00:30:39 - The Profound Effect of Stories
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis (www.amazon.com/Till-We-Have-F...)
A Conversation with Marlon James (lithub.com/how-an-argument-ov...)
Emma by Jane Austen (www.amazon.com/Emma-Wordswort...)
Gail Carriger's The Heroine's Journey (www.amazon.com/Heroines-Journ...)
Stories That Unite in Dark Times (nicholaskotar.com/storiesthatu...)
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ABOUT ME:
I’m Nicholas Kotar. I write epic fantasy and science fiction inspired by Slavic fairy tales. My publishing house, Waystone Press, publishes several authors, all of whom believe in the power of stories to transform readers, giving joy to their lives through an experience of beauty.
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#mythology #cslewis #storytelling