The Faun's Bookshelf: C. S. Lewis on Why Myth Matters

by Starr

While visiting with Mr. Tumnus in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe , Lucy Pevensie notices a bookshelf filled with such titles as Nymphs and Their Ways and Is Man a Myth? Be- ginning with these imaginary texts, Charlie W. Starr offers a comprehensive study of C. S. Lewis’s theory of myth, including his views on Greek and Norse mythology, the origins of myth, and the implications of myth on thought, art, gender, theology, and literary and linguistic theory. For Lewis, myth represents an ancient mode of thought focused in the imagination―a mode that became the key that ultimately brought Lewis to his belief in Jesus Christ as the myth become fact. Beginning with a f The Faun’s Bookshelf goes on to discuss the many books Lewis imagined throughout his writings―books whose titles he made up but never wrote. It also presents the sylvan myths central to the first two book titles in Mr. Tumnus’s library, including explorations of the relation- ship between myth and reality, the spiritual significance of natural conservation, and the spiritual and incarnational qualities of gender. Starr then turns to the definition of myth, the literary qualities of myth, the mythic nature inherent in divine glory, humanity’s destiny to embrace (or reject) that glory, and a deeper exploration of the epistemological ramifications of myth in relation to meaning, imagination, reason, and truth.

Genres: Nonfiction, Mythology

128 pages, Paperback

Published July 10, 2018

Reviews

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

As there's no synopsis for this book on Goodreads, I'll let Starr speak for himself:
"What began with a casual perusal of the nonexistent works on a fictional faun's bookshelf ends with what I hope is a thorough vision of C. S. Lewis's theory of myth."

Starr uses the titles on Tumnus's bookshelf in LWW to open a conversation about myth, both in our world and in Narnia. It all culminates in really fantastic exploration of the features and facets of myth-making in Lewis's writing. Starr unpacks the definitions of myth, truth, imagination, reality, and fact, and how they interplay with one another.

There's extensive endnotes, bibliography, and indexing at the back. He mentions all the basic myth-oriented texts you'd expect to see in this kind of work. Though, side note -- Starr doesn't directly mention Lewis's concept of looking at vs. along a beam of light ("Meditation in a Toolshed"), which felt strangely missing in a book on myth. But Starr basically gets very close to this idea in other ways.

I really enjoyed Starr's voice, and after reading this, I'd put Starr up there with the great Lewisian scholars like Shakel, Ford, Jacobs, McGrath, and Ward. Highly recommended.

I want to read Starr's other book on Lewis:
Light: C.S. Lewis's First and Final Short Story

For similar myth-oriented scholarship on Lewis, see:
--The Surprising Imagination of C. S. Lewis: An Introduction
--Imagination and the Arts in C. S. Lewis: Journeying to Narnia and Other Worlds
--True Myth: C. S. Lewis and Joseph Campbell on the Veracity of Christianity

[Brenton · Rating 4 out of 5]

review to follow

[Joel Zartman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ingenious idea for this book comes from four books the fictional Lucy Pevensie finds on a shelf in the mythical Mr. Tumnus's abode when she first visits. These structure the approach Starr uses to stage his explanation. It is an enjoyable book and makes clear not only what C.S. Lewis thought about myth but also its importance. One wonders why there has not been a whole book about it before.

Besides being enjoyable, the book is deeply grounded in the writings of C.S. Lewis—Starr is an expert in Lewis's handwriting. The primary sources are thoroughly exploited, and I am happy to say the secondary sources are not overly relied upon. This makes the research fresh and untangled.

The book is also lucid. Starr builds up to a chapter on epistemology in which he explains that the imagination is the organ of meaning. This must be distinguished from reason, the faculty that further evaluates whether the meaning the imagination apprehends is true or false. He also explains that myth is a way of apprehending meaning without using language. He associates Lewis's concept of Joy with the apprehension of glory and myth as the way to communicate the truth of that meaning. There are things that language cannot handle, but myth can, apprehending by way of imagined experience something that can be presented to reason to evaluate in terms of true or false.

Owen Barfield's thought is used to elucidate the chapter on epistemology, since it informed Lewis's ideas. I will conclude with a Barfieldian conclusion Starr draws near the end of the book: “In short, myth represents a way of thinking, a mode of knowing, a method of languaging that may be closer to the way humanity thought, knew, and spoke before the Fall and for some centuries thereafter. Perhaps myth even shows us a glimpse of the kind of knowledge and communication we will have and do in heaven” (124).

[Collin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Admittedly the first half didn't grab me. It felt more like a creative essay attempt, prolonged over too many chapters. But in Parts 3 and 4, we finally get into the meat of how Lewis thought about knowledge, perception, imagination, and myth. As dense as the subject matter is, Starr does a great job of condensing and simplifying it. It's no less nuanced, but it does become more accessible to the average reader.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Charlie W. Starr is a scholar in his own right, and his cleaver mechanism for exploring C.S. Lewis’s theory on mythology is engaging and enriching. For students of Lewis, philosophy, literature, or theology, I would highly recommend this book. Starr is approachable in his writing style. A touch of humor graces these pages as Starr unpacks a dense and weighty topic. My only regret is it took me five years to finally dive into this book.

[Jamie]

DNF
I just couldn’t get into it. I might try again another time.

[Jared Abbott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a delight to read. There is no fluff or filler; Starr gets right to the points, which are meticulously footnoted. I especially enjoyed chapter 10, "Mythic Knowing." This will be reread.