C. S. Lewis

[7_Sorrows]

Out of curiosity I went looking for the term “Mohammedism”, since its not in vogue these days.

At the following site, I noticed a comment about “Usage Notes”

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Mohammedanism

CS Lewis died in 1963, so much of his apologetic writing would have been done in the 1950’s. So I would say he was simply using the common term of the time. Now it may be considered offensive, but that’s the case with a lot of words. Their meanings change.

If I’d said about some ebullient, humorous bloke in the 1950’s that he was a gay fellow, everybody would have agreed. But if I made the same comment today, I’d need to be pretty sure of my reasons.

Another example might be the term Oriental that is rarely used anymore to identify someone of Asian descent or even the word Negro.
Of course, those are not used with any religion, but they have gone out of style and some may be offended by their use. Anyhow, glad to know C. S. Lewis was not using those words in a derogatory manner.

 

[Bob_Crowley]

Another example might be the term Oriental that is rarely used anymore to identify someone of Asian descent or even the word Negro.
Of course, those are not used with any religion, but they have gone out of style and some may be offended by their use. Anyhow, glad to know C. S. Lewis was not using those words in a derogatory manner.

On the issue of the word “Negro”, we had a prime example of cultural differences on TV here some years ago - quite a few years ago now.

An Australian TV personality named Bert Newton was interviewing Mohammed Ali (Cassius Clay) on TV. Bert tries to be light hearted, and made a comment, “This boy is really going places” or something like that.

He’d forgotten the word “Boy” has a completely different connotation to African Americans compared to everyday usage in Australia. There is absolutely no racist element in Australian usage.

I sure he didn’t say it deliberately, but it was just a slip of the tongue.

But it really riled Mohammed Ali. I think Bert Newton was lucky he didn’t get his block knocked off on prime time TV.

 

[Contarini]

If I’d said about some ebullient, humorous bloke in the 1950’s that he was a gay fellow, everybody would have agreed. But if I made the same comment today, I’d need to be pretty sure of my reasons.

And in fact, Lewis does refer to Reepicheep in Prince Caspian as “a gay and martial mouse.”

Probably there’s some room here for a thesis called “Queering Narnia.” After all, I don’t recall Reepicheep being described as married or having any relationships with female mice at all. . . .

Edwin