Status Updates From Lilith

He can begin to feel at home but doing something. Until he feels at home, it is hard to get either in or out. This sounds like philosophy. The raven says he’s stumbled in and maybe he can stumble out. When asked if he goes out, the raven says only briefly because their world is smug and childish. The man wonders if man is superior but the raven says he takes man or bird as he finds them. The raven asks who he is.

His mind tells him it’s impossible. He feels like he’s in a dream. It can’t be real but it is. He confused and tells the raven he did not come through a door. The ravens says he’s seen several doors in, but not doors out. This is his first. The more doors he goes out, the further he goes in. The man asks where he is but the raven says he’s can’t do that until he begins to feel at home. Any answer is meaningless.

Ch. 3 He recognizes nothing and wonders if it is all an illusion but he sees, hears, and feels things. He wanders toward the raven but realizes it would be ridiculous to seek counsel from it. He wonders how he went from order to lawlessness. He asks how he got here and the raven tells him through a door (talking animals). He’s terrified that the raven is like a human and he feels despair at seeing the shadowy thing.

Fairyland!!! Heathy and desolate (very gothic). Moorland followed by hills followed by mountain ranges. He looks into the picture to see the texture of a stone in the foreground and is startled to see an actual raven looking for worms. He presses too far into the picture and he is there (Voyage of the Dawn Treader). I’m loving this!!!!

He opens it and finds him in an old room with dust motes floating in a few dark sunbeams. There is a large mirror (POTTER). It is narrow with an ebony frame with an eagle that has a golden chaiin hanging out of its mouth that has a black ball attached to it. That’s foreboding! He notices the mirror does not show a reflection nor anything in the room. He wonders if it’s frame for a picture for he sees a wild country.

Becaue he had only recently taken possession of this estate, he is unfamiliar with all the passages. He follows Mr. Raven through a door and ascends a winding staircase (is he seeking wisdom or a false wisdom). Stairs creak under his feet, but not under those of his guide. At the top, he lost sight of the shadowy figure. He finds himself in a wide, unexplored garrett (Magician’s Nephew). A door is ajar.

Ch. 2 Hello! A mirror! Incident, 3 days, incident, 7 days, incident. Fairy tale numbers! He tries moving the strange book to no avail. He’s sitting in the chair, deciding to overhaul the books, he suddenly rises and sees Mr. Raven. He equivocates in his description because it can’t be real. A thing stooping man with a black cloack, black-stockinged legs, and slipper-like shoes. He follows the shadow out of the room.

Raven encouraged him to read dark, evil books and one day both disappeared. Mr. Raven has been seen occasionally. She thinks Raven is the devil himself. Some say they are dead and some say they live in an alternate world. The butler does not know how the ancient woman knew this but the figure seen by the young man matches her description. He’s only seen meddling with books. They agree to remain silent.

The young man’s dad was eight when this was happening. The butler had never seen the figure but others had. His grandfather, Sir Ralph, sacked anyone who gossiped about the figure and called it a maid’s tale. Everyone shut up but it was not seen anymore. An ancient woman (wise woman?) in town said an old librarian, Mr. Raven (Norse symbol of wisdom), served the man in the portrait Sir Upward.

There is a lot of seeing and not seeing here. That afternoon, he sits there reading in the same part of the house. He looks up to think and sees the same man open the door that the sham shelf sits on and disappear. The sham book is back in its spot. The young man runs to the door to open it and, as always, it’s stuck. He rings for the butler who spills the beans. When he arrived long ago, the dark figure made visits.

He sees a tall dark figure grab a book and vanish. He thinks it’s an optical illusion until he looks for a book and sees that spot empty, only to see the book in its spot in the next morning. THREE days later, in the oldest part of the library, a sham book on a prank shelf is missing but, when I asks his most faithful servant to confirm what he does not see, the servant sees nothing wrong.

He’s drawn to the Bacons, Dante, Boyle, and Ptolemy (the PLANETS) instead of modern scientists. He’s rejecting the Enlightenment! In the evening of a gloomy rainy day, he watches the sun’s red glory splash into a water fountain (wisdom and vitality) and he follows its rays which lights up a picture of an ancestor and he is seeing it with new eyes. Very gothic! The reflection in his eyes makes him turn his head.

An ancient house and what appears to be a dying family. Is this a gothic romance? Only the library of the house matters. Does this mean that his sole focus is the mind and he doesn’t know how to live? He describes it as a moving panorama and he has added books to his taste. It has grown throughout the years and has spilled into other rooms on the ground floor. Is a homeschooler’s dream, a homeschooler’s warning?

Ch. 1 - I read this book over twenty years and all I remember is being very confused. This is a Romance and the hero had a fall in status as a child. Both parents died within a year of each other. He returns from a year at Oxford to manage the estate he inherited. He knows little of his ancestors except that they liked to study as did he. He prefers physical sciences as a way to find metaphysical metaphors.

Preface - I am wondering why he quotes Thoreau. They both cared about nature, and they most likely diverged in thought concerning spirituality and truth. Rather than respond with philosophy or writings from nature, he chose to let Imagintion do its deep magic. Reading The Silver Chair and Princess and the Goblin at the same time is mind-blowing. Now, I am adding Lilith due to the Lit Life podcast.

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Not really tracking here but that’s ok