The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis (3.0)
Why ‘Screwtape’, ‘Wormwood’, ‘Slubgob’ and other odd names
used throughout this book? C. S. Lewis says he brainstormed nasty words such as
tapeworm, scrooge, thumbscrew, slob, etc. and used them to form the names of
his devils. The main devil is Screwtape and the book is comprised of letters he
writes to his nephew, a demon in training. Throughout the story, Screwtape is advising
Wormwood how to capture a soul for their team and not His. Lewis has cleverly
made the Devil a boss micro managing his Dilbert-like nephew as if they were
selling paper in Slough. He set the time during World War II, but advises not
to let their charge die during the war, as he is leaning towards the other team
and they could lose his soul forever. I was most surprised by the prescience of
Lewis with several subjects, such as the Devil’s advice on lowering women’s
self-confidence (one of his many suggestions to Wormwood to turn people to the
dark side). Though published in 1941, he could have been talking about the body
image issues we face with the media and girls today. Given his transition from
atheism to Christianity, some of the devil’s irony and sarcasm were a bit much
for me, but I could understand given the author’s journey. The book is quite
short, but rather difficult to read and digest, mainly due to the language. I
would have given it a ‘4’ had it been more accessible.
