Wednesday, February 01, 2006

An Agenda Observed

So, I got into this novel writing workshop in Brooklyn that starts in a week. I am pretty excited. I intend to work on a storyline that involves grieving, and so I thought I would buy a C.S. Lewis' essay, A Grief Observed . It's a beautiful little book about his wife's death and his own resulting crisis of faith. I went to my trusty Barnes and Noble in Union Square (the same Barnes and Noble where I once wandered through a James Frey "Million Little Pieces" reading by accident). After looking all around for the Lewis essay, I finally broke down and asked the customer service desk people where it was. They directed me to "Christianity" on the 4th Floor. "That's sort of weird" I thought, but, whatever. Then I got there. Between Islam and Astrology was this GHETTO little shelf called Christianity. They didn't have AGO or any of his other jillion books and essays. What the ? I wondered. Then I saw a sub-sub Ghetto section behind it called "Christian Inspiration" and bingo, there, right under a book titled "He-motions; Even Strong Men Struggle were the collected essays and novels of this great, great mind of the twentieth century. Certainly they also have a Narnia display in the kids' section; but they also had all the Narnia books here, along with the Screwtape Letters and 2 dozen other titles. I know that Jack felt inadequate in life compared to Tolkien; could he even imagine the indignity of his legacy living among the Left Behind series, right under He-Motions?

1 comment:

Molly Neuman said...

GOD DAMN. BACK IN ACTION!