cintinative Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 Normally I just lead a Socratic discussion of books I read aloud but I feel like I might need a little more help with this one. Can someone make a suggestion of a good one they referenced? I wasn't planning on having the kids do any written work, but I did see 7sisters homeschool produces a type of study guide. If that is worth paying for even without using most of it, I would appreciate that input. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue plaid Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 Not sure if this will suit at all, but I found that the long list of essay questions included here provided insight and lots of interesting topics for discussion: https://www.rcwalton.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Out-of-the-Silent-Planet.pdf 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 7 Sisters is the only complete one I turned up. A few places had only the first two. The 7 Sisters samples look okay and the set is inexpensive. I'm likely to get this one just because I can't find anything I like better. 🤷♀️ We'd do the questions as discussion rather than written work, probably skipping all the basic comprehension questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 4 minutes ago, blue plaid said: Not sure if this will suit at all, but I found that the long list of essay questions included here provided insight and lots of interesting topics for discussion: https://www.rcwalton.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Out-of-the-Silent-Planet.pdf Oooh he has all three of the Space Trilogy; scroll down to Lewis. https://www.rcwalton.com/notes-on-classic-literature/pdf-classic-literature-notes-by-author/ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted October 14, 2020 Author Share Posted October 14, 2020 57 minutes ago, SilverMoon said: 7 Sisters is the only complete one I turned up. A few places had only the first two. The 7 Sisters samples look okay and the set is inexpensive. I'm likely to get this one just because I can't find anything I like better. 🤷♀️ We'd do the questions as discussion rather than written work, probably skipping all the basic comprehension questions. Same here. Usually when I do a read aloud, we just have a Socratic discussion and I write down some notes on our story chart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 (edited) Progeny Press has a guide for those first 2 of the 3 space trilogy books, but they seemed very weak and not very helpful to me. We never ended up using them, or even any parts of them. Cory Olson of Mythgard (who has done great audio lectures on The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and others), started a podcast series on Out of the Silent Planet this past January. See those discussions here. Not questions, but these three long analysis essays are meaty, and might act as a springboard for your discussions: Chronicles of Heaven Unshackled (Peter Lowman) - Out of the Silent Planet - Voyage to Venus (Perelandra) - That Hideous Strength ________________ ETA: And totally beyond the scope of what you're looking for, but I enjoyed the book Planet Narnia (Ward), in which the author argues that Lewis had a medieval cosmology view (certain planets representing certain traits/personalities) embedded in his works, that comes out overtly but imperfectly in the space trilogy, and is hidden subtly and perfectly in the Chronicles of Narnia. Edited October 14, 2020 by Lori D. 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted December 18, 2020 Author Share Posted December 18, 2020 Me again. I was going to stop after the 2nd book but my oldest wanted me to continue. There are so many allusions in Chapter 2 that I don't know enough about to understand. Does anyone have a useful spark notes type thing for this book? It's This Hideous Strength. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted December 19, 2020 Author Share Posted December 19, 2020 I found this which might be helpful: https://mrbultitudesmusings.wordpress.com/page/4/?s=That+Hideous+strength Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted December 19, 2020 Share Posted December 19, 2020 (edited) 17 hours ago, cintinative said: Me again. I was going to stop after the 2nd book but my oldest wanted me to continue. There are so many allusions in Chapter 2 that I don't know enough about to understand. Does anyone have a useful spark notes type thing for this book? It's This Hideous Strength. Maybe this?"Quotations & Allusions in C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength" -- and here is the same thing as a pdf Edited December 19, 2020 by Lori D. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted December 19, 2020 Author Share Posted December 19, 2020 14 hours ago, Lori D. said: Maybe this?"Quotations & Allusions in C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength" -- and here is the same thing as a pdf Thank you so much! Maybe I can figure this thing out! 😃 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted December 19, 2020 Share Posted December 19, 2020 7 minutes ago, cintinative said: Thank you so much! Maybe I can figure this thing out! 😃 I wish I was in the right place time-wise to "book club" this one with you, as it is very dense. I did this the space trilogy with my DSs when they were in late high school, and this 3rd book had a LOT of "mom-stop-and-explain" to it. 😉 However, once you get about 100 pages or so into it, the tension of the plot sort of takes over, and the confusions fade to the background. Lewis' portrayal of evil in the last part of the book is so (appropriately) nasty and repulsive -- it really drives home that evil IS evil. The only other thing I've read that reveals evil AS really repulsively evil has been in some of the Charles Williams' novels. Williams was briefly part of the CS Lewis/JRR Tolkien + others "Inklings" group, and Lewis was very admiring of Williams' work. I see some strong influences from Williams on Lewis in That Hideous Strength. Williams is even MORE dense with allusions, but several of his "Christian supernatural thriller" novels are really worthwhile -- Descent into Hell is amazing. And All Hallow's Eve is also really well-done. War in Heaven is probably the easiest to "get". His other 4 novels -- while each has a moment or two that is an amazing "ripping away the veil between the natural and spiritual worlds"-- are weak and have some icky racial stereotypes, so I don't tend to recommend those. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted December 19, 2020 Author Share Posted December 19, 2020 @Lori D.to be honest I wanted to wait for this third book and cover it later in high school. My youngest is only in 8th grade. But my oldest really wanted me to keep going. I wish we could do it as a book club with you! 😃 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted December 19, 2020 Share Posted December 19, 2020 50 minutes ago, cintinative said: @Lori D.to be honest I wanted to wait for this third book and cover it later in high school. My youngest is only in 8th grade. But my oldest really wanted me to keep going. I wish we could do it as a book club with you! 😃 Hope you guys enjoy it! Hang in there -- I do think it picks up and gets easier after awhile. 😉 And -- I would love doing a book club with you guys! Maybe a future year... 😄 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 Roman Roads has a new study guide to the space trilogy. It's called Deeper Heaven, I think. Comes with a cool postcard map of Lewis' cosmos. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 (edited) I have a really old OOP book on the triliogy. It isn't a perfect resource, but it does give background info on cosmology and Arthurian legend that influenced Lewis that I did not understand and would have missed. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102552.A_Guide_Through_C_S_Lewis_Space_Trilogy Edited December 20, 2020 by 8filltheheart 1 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 On 12/19/2020 at 12:12 PM, Lori D. said: Hope you guys enjoy it! Hang in there -- I do think it picks up and gets easier after awhile. 😉 And -- I would love doing a book club with you guys! Maybe a future year... 😄 I want to do this too, Lori D! A WTM group would be SO fun! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 7 hours ago, ScoutTN said: A WTM group would be SO fun! What a great idea! 😄 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostintheCosmos Posted December 27, 2020 Share Posted December 27, 2020 (edited) The Discarded Image is C.S. Lewis's own guide to the cosmology he plays with in the space trilogy, and, as a bonus, it would set you up really well to tackle Dante in another year or two! 😉 Edited December 27, 2020 by LostCove 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy M Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 On 12/20/2020 at 4:44 AM, ScoutTN said: Roman Roads has a new study guide to the space trilogy. It's called Deeper Heaven, I think. Comes with a cool postcard map of Lewis' cosmos. I was coming on here to mention this. It looks really good. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawneinfl Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 I just found this thread on a search for literature guides. I was wondering if any of you followed through with these ideas and what your final thoughts were. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted June 4, 2021 Author Share Posted June 4, 2021 Just now, Shawneinfl said: I just found this thread on a search for literature guides. I was wondering if any of you followed through with these ideas and what your final thoughts were. I ended up using a mix of various commentaries including the RC Walton referenced above. The nice thing about that one (RC Walton) is that the questions explore the links between the books. Some of the questions were good for discussion. Others we had to skip because we had not read the other works he was citing. I think it possibly would have been nice to use the Roman Roads guides but by the time those were out, we had already read the first two books. Based on my prior exposure to Progeny Press' stuff, that would not have been a good fit for our family. Since we weren't doing this "for credit," I was not concerned about output. I was mainly looking to gauge understanding of the books and the ideas Lewis was presenting. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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