Information From the Introduction

Currently there is a one-man play based very closely on The Screwtape Letters that is touring the country after a very successful off-Broadway run.   It stars Max McLean as His Abysmal Sublimity Screwtape and has received very good reviews wherever it has played.

Here is a link to a short video excerpt from the play.  You can also see the play’s schedule and buy tickets at the link, of course.

http://www.screwtapeonstage.com

The C S Lewis Society in conjunction with Grey House Productions will produce a film called “Jacks Life – the C S Lewis Story”.  I have no information on when it is to be released or who is cast in it             but  they do have a website up and are on Facebook.  Here’s the link to their website.

http://www.cslewisthemovie.com

Additional Notes:

This book was written early on in WW II, and published in 1941 in an English weekly called “The Guardian”.  The essay that is printed in the Appendix, Screwtape Proposes a Toast, was written and published in 1959 in “The Saturday Evening Post”.

One of the most chilling aspects of Jack’s conception of the devils and their relationship with us is that they can in a sense “devour” or “consume” us, or at least feed off of our rage, hatred, and pain.  One thing we did not cover in the podcast is that they can also (apparently) feed off of each other.  Both Screwtape and Wormwood are competing for each other, and – in the end – Screwtape is the stronger and is permitted to devour Wormwood.  (See the last letter).

Names

Jack loved the sound of words and assigned some very picturesque names to his devils.  We have

• Wormwood and Screwtape, of course
• Slubgob, head of the Tempters College
• Glubsose, the devil assigned to the patient’s mother
• Toadpipe, Screwtape’s administrative assistant
• Slumtrimpet, the tempter assigned to the patient’s fiance