courage – Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher

Out of the night that covers me,
      Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
      For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
      I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
      My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
      Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
      Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
      How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
      I am the captain of my soul.

Phil’s note: This is one of my favorite poems of all time. Incredibly powerful. It’s said that Nelson Mandela used to recite it to other prisoners when he was incarcerated at Robben Island to give them strength.

William Ernest Henley (23 August 1849 – 11 July 1903) was an English poet, writer, critic and editor. Though he wrote several books of poetry, Henley is remembered most often for his 1875 poem “Invictus“. A fixture in London literary circles, the one-legged Henley might have been the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson‘s character Long John Silver (Treasure Island, 1883), while his young daughter Margaret Henley inspired J. M. Barrie‘s choice of the name Wendy for the heroine of his play Peter Pan (1904).^[1][2]… [from Wikipedia]

Here is a particularly interesting snippet from the Wikipedia article: “From the age of 12, Henley had tuberculosis of the bone that resulted in the amputation of his left leg below the knee in 1868–69.^{[4]: 35 [1][7]} The early years of Henley’s life were punctuated by periods of extreme pain due to the draining of his tuberculosis abscesses. However, Henley’s younger brother Joseph recalled how after draining his joints the young Henley would “Hop about the room, laughing loudly and playing with zest to pretend he was beyond the reach of pain”.^[8] According to Robert Louis Stevenson‘s letters, the idea for the character of Long John Silver was inspired by Stevenson’s real-life friend Henley.^[3] In a letter to Henley after the publication of Treasure Island (1883), Stevenson wrote, “I will now make a confession: It was the sight of your maimed strength and masterfulness that begot Long John Silver … the idea of the maimed man, ruling and dreaded by the sound, was entirely taken from you.”^[9] Stevenson’s stepson, Lloyd Osbourne, described Henley as “… a great, glowing, massive-shouldered fellow with a big red beard and a crutch; jovial, astoundingly clever, and with a laugh that rolled like music; he had an unimaginable fire and vitality; he swept one off one’s feet.”^[10]:

The C.S. Lewis you never knew – CNN Belief Blog – CNN.com Blogs.

This post has nothing to do with horror and only a bit to do with writing, but this is a fascinating article and I wanted to post it because it has something to say about authors in general and about the public’s perception of them.

Many of my more religious friends may consider the article above, to which I have provided a link, close to blasphemy for soiling the socially-accepted image of one of the most beloved Christian authors of all time. However, for me this article makes him all the more real, because it shows him fighting the demons of his own nature, with which many authors have had to contend since the invention of writing (Poe and Fitzgerald immediately spring to mind).

I am sure that the immediate, knee-jerk reaction reaction of many readers of this article will be to instantly brand Lewis a hypocrite for not living up the to the Christian ideals he espoused or to brand me as the lowest and most scurrilous form of iconoclast. To this I will of course respond with John 8:7: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone…”

I cannot say whether Lewis was a hypocrite. I did not know the man personally and I have read very little about him outside this article. I have read none of his works and know him only from reputation. I know from my own limited experience as a writer however, that often I write about lives I wish I could lead or about ideals that lie beyond my grasp. Perhaps it was the same with Lewis. Perhaps he wrote about the standards he wished that he could maintain in his personal life, but of which he often fell short. I feel that is many times the case with authors, and therefore I am always leery of labeling someone a hypocrite until I know the person and his/her story in considerable depth. Striving toward an ideal for one’s life that one cannot achieve is not hypocritical. To some it may be courageous while to others it may be foolish, but it is not hypocritical.

Another possibility that is worth bearing in mind is that perhaps the public image of Lewis is off-base. Perhaps the public, in idealizing an author is seeking an ideal for itself that it cannot maintain. This is the case with presidents who he public demands to have an ideal, squeaky-clean image, but when they fall short and show themselves as human as any member of that public, public opinion turns against them suddenly with an unrelenting vengeance. The public tends to forget, once it has formulated an ideal, that the object of its ideal is as human as it is, with the character flaws, weaknesses, and innate demons that make fictional characters so fascinating for that same public. Lewis would be one such character, if he were not as real as you or I.

Reading this article makes me idealize Lewis in my own way, because I see him now as someone fighting his inner demons in a struggle to reach an ideal he could never achieve. For me, now, he becomes more of a character out of Greek tragedy or from the depths of Dante’s Inferno. Lewis’s story is a bit of everyday horror that we see around us constantly, but to which we never give any thought until an article such as this (the one on CNN and not my humble post) appears and causes us to reflect momentarily on someone we thought we knew, but whom we never knew at all. I wish I could write a character with as intriguing a backstory as Lewis had. I shall now have to amend my reading list and to it insert, The Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and a biography or two of Lewis.

I think it is important for writers to know the biographies and the stories behind other writers (even those outside a reader’s preferred genre) for a variety of reasons. First, of course, is so that we do not repeat their errors. Secondly, if you are a writer suffering or starving for your art, seeing another’s triumphs over personal demons and over the world in general may give you the hope you need to continue striving toward your goal. Thirdly, empathizing or sympathizing with another author’s plight may give you some measure of relief or solace. Fourth, if nothing else, reading another’s biography may give you ideas as to how to pursue your career. Finally, reading someone else’s biography may at least give you some entertainment for a little while and thus help ease the burdens of your own life.

For these reasons, I read this article on Lewis and for these reasons I am presenting the fascinating life of this non-horror author to an audience of writers of horror.

Thoughts? Comments?