Lewis, Clive S. The Great Divorce. London, William Collins, 2012.
Have you ever imagined life after the here and now? Heaven or hell? Here is one book filled with fictitious contemplations on life outside of space and time.
Written in the first-person narrative, The Great Divorce is a record of a dream (a vision, if you please); of a journey on a bus ride from Hell to Heaven. It starts in a city where the people were waiting for a bus ride which travels to and from Heaven. The narrator joined a long queue—the wait for the bus. The narrator would occupy the spaces of several folks who left for other affairs which mattered more to them than the bus which seem to take forever to arrive for the journey.
After a long wait, the driver came. He was adorned in glorious regalia which made it look as if he was not a bit concerned about the long wait of the people. Some grumbled at his cheerful countenance and gracious ride, interpreting it as a mockery of their fate.
On the bus, the narrator met different folks; a teenager, an educated fellow, and a well-cultured personality among several others. With the three mentioned he engaged in thoughtful conversations about the city they left behind for the ride and the city they were headed. Shortly on the ride, the bus ascended against gravity and rode in the clouds, arriving at its destination.
Some folks would leave immediately, for the city they imagined was not what they saw. A few others remained including the narrator. The rest of the story takes most of the book from around the fourth chapter. The narrator would meet with a man he’d address as his teacher. His name was George Macdonald. According to the narrator, he was fond of the man and his works, writings and expositions. For some reason, he disliked the notion put forth by his teacher, while in the city behind; that the source of his great works is due to divine intervention.
Ignorant and perplexed by the experiences he witnessed, the narrator relied on his teacher for a better understanding of all that transpired before their very eyes. He wondered why some of the arrivals preferred to return to the city they had left after coming to such a glorious place. He also wondered why some of the Spirits in the country would not resort to returning with the Ghosts of their loved ones. Everything about the city marvelled him; from the heavy and immovable flowers and leaves to the hard water bodies like rocks which caused bruises even. Nothing in that country was like the city he had left behind. He had all his questions addressed by his teacher. Sufficing in all the experiences described and the conversation between the narrator and his teacher were two major themes which were determinants of if the travellers got to the high country, remained, or returned. The themes: Self and Love. Those who were too concerned about themselves found the high country so uncomfortable. While those who were overcome by love to the extent which they forgot themselves found the city more enriching than the one which they left behind.
Reading through the pages of the classical piece, originally published near the mid-twentieth century, you’d wish you were on the next bus ride to the high country. The fault in the book is that it doesn’t tell you if there are such existing bus stations in other nations in the world. Well, the station where the bus took up from on the ride wasn’t even mentioned. The only thing the reader learns is that you could tag along on the next ride while in your study, perhaps creating your portal by a mere prolonged thought of such a great transition.
As imaginative a tale that this story is, it is rich in deep truths and realities of the human experience.
Here is a choice quote from the book:
‘Time is the very lens through which ye see—small and clear, as men see through the wrong end of a telescope—something that would otherwise be too big for ye to see at all. That thing is Freedom: the gift whereby ye most resemble your Maker and are yourselves parts of eternal reality. But ye can only see it through the lens of Time, in a little clear picture, through the inverted telescope’ __George Macdonald in “The Great Divorce”.
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