Here is a list of Japanese translations of C.S. Lewis’ books in the Tezukayama University library. It’s a PDF file and should open automatically. Unfortunately, only the first of the science fiction trilogy is listed.
List of C.S. Lewis books in Japanese in Tezukayama university library
Posted in Announcement on 08/30/2010 08:37 pm by Marc SheffnerSession #30: September 8th, 2010
Posted in Announcement on 08/26/2010 08:42 am by Marc Sheffner
Our next session will be September 8th, 3-5 pm. We will discuss “Out of the Silent Planet” and go over the answers to the questions.
What shall we read next? I propose the next book in Lewis’ trilogy: “Perelandra”. But I am open to any other suggestions. If you have other ideas, please bring them to the next session and/or email me.
金星への旅 (1979年)
ヴィーナスへの旅―ペレランドラ 金星編 (別世界物語) [単行本]
Mid-August post
Posted in English fiction, science fiction on 08/11/2010 01:08 pm by Marc Sheffner
- Image by dibytes via Flickr
It’s over 30 degrees every day, but it’s even hotter in Moscow! And floods in Pakistan.
I hope you are all well and managing to stay cool (but not chilled) in these hot summer days.
It has been about a month since our last session, and our next session will be in about a month’s time. How are you getting on with “Out of the Silent Planet”? Post your thoughts, reactions, comments, questions, etc., here, in either English or Japanese.
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Session #29: July 14th, 2010
Posted in English fiction, science fiction on 07/14/2010 07:14 pm by Marc Sheffner
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Today is France’s Independence Day! Thank you to all of you who braved the pouring rain to attend today’s session, the last session before the summer “vacation”.
Today, we quickly read through chapters 3-6 and discussed some of the worksheet questions.
In particular, we discussed about Ransom’s and Weston’s philosophies of life, and their differences.
We also talked about how human beings are always trying to understand their world, partly out of curiosity and partly to escape from fear and anxiety; thus, Weston’s explanations help ease Ransom’s fears.
Another topic was rights: the fundamental right is the right to life, because while humans can take life away, they cannot give life. Related to this is “the non-aggression principle“.
We also talked on some completely different topics: TOC, kanban, Ohno Taichi, and JiT (Just in Time). Because JiT and the kanban system were designed by Japanese, it is perhaps tempting to think that these systems are peculiarly Japanese, developed by and for the particular Japanese aesthetic. However, the truth is perhaps more prosaic: these systems are highly developed rational and logical systems and are dependent on an application of scientific methods.
I came across TOC quite by accident, while searching for examples of syllogisms online. What I discovered was this and his recommended reading list. (Here is the first TOC novel, The Goal, in Japanese).
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Session #27: June 9th, 2010
Posted in English fiction, science fiction on 06/25/2010 08:15 pm by Marc Sheffner
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First of all, a very big thank you to all of you who attended today. I know some members have suffered personal bereavements, and for that reason some were unable to attend today. My thoughts go to them.
Today, we read almost all of chapter 1 of C.S. Lewis‘ science-fiction story Out of the Silent Planet. It is a more challenging story than The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It is aimed at adults. However, I hope for these reasons it will also prove to be a more satisfying read.
The homework is to finish reading chapter 1, and also read chapters 2 and 3 before the next session, June 23rd. I would prefer not to spend much time actually reading the text in future sessions, and instead to spend more time talking about questions that you have and discussing the themes of the story. The questions and difficulties that you have about the text always surprise me. That is one reason I enjoy our sessions together.
Feel free to write comments here about chapter 1-3 even before next session.
Session #28: June 23rd, 2010
Posted in English fiction, science fiction on 06/23/2010 09:13 pm by Marc Sheffner
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We had a good turnout today, despite the heavy rain in the morning. A big thank-you to all of you who attended today.
First, we discussed about the definition of science fiction, and the difference between science fiction and fantasy. We also talked about Lewis’ own ideas on science fiction. You can read more about his ideas in the essay “On Science Fiction” in “Of Other Worlds“. (I also recommend the first essay, “On Stories”.)
Then we discussed chapters 1-3.
- What do we learn about Ransom’s character?
- What do we learn about Devine and Weston?
- What is “social Darwinism“?
- What does Weston think of Harry and why?
- Why does Ransom ignore Weston’s “barefaced lie”?
- Why does C.S. Lewis put Ransom out in space?
The next session will be July 14th, and that will be our last session before the summer. There will be no sessions in August. We will meet again in September.
Finally, here’s C.S. Lewis writing about fairy tales, but I think what he says is also relevant to science fiction ( I posted this earlier, too):
“It goes beyond the expression of things we have already felt. It arouses in us sensations we have never had before, never anticipated having, as though we had broken out of our normal mode of consciousness and “possessed joys not promised to our birth.” It gets under our skin, hits us at a level deeper than our thoughts or even our passions, troubles oldest certainties till all questions are reopened, and in general shocks us more fully awake that we are for most of our lives.”
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Session #27: June 9th, 2010
Posted in English fiction on 06/06/2010 09:50 pm by Marc Sheffner
- Cover of Space Trilogy
In this session we will start to read the first book of C.S. Lewis‘ science fiction trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet. I shall bring photocopies of the first chapter, just in case. The Japanese translation is titled 沈黙の惑星を離れて―マラカンドラ 火星編 (別世界物語.
I am now reading a biography of C.S. Lewis. Lewis was an Oxford professor, later also a professor at Cambridge. He was not known outside of university until he wrote a book called The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition (translated into Japanese as 愛とアレゴリー―ヨーロッパ中世文学の伝統 (1972年) (筑摩叢書)
Meanwhile, here are a few sentences from the autobiography:
When Lewis began to write fiction, much of the inspiration was set moving by the academic studies on which he was engaged or which were still fresh in his mind. Perelandra [(#2 in the Space Trilogy, in Japanese 沈黙の惑星を離れて―マラカンドラ 火星編 (別世界物語)
] was obviously the result of his concentration on Paradise Lost [Preface to Paradise Lost
]between 1939 and 1942 [in Japanese 『失楽園』序説]; the spark that set Out of the Silent Planet [in Japanese 沈黙の惑星を離れて―マラカンドラ 火星編 (別世界物語)
Tezukayama University library has several books by C.S. Lewis in English and in Japanese. Check it out here (just type “C.S. Lewis” into the search box).
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Session #26 (May 26th) report. Sessions 27 and 28
Posted in English fiction, children's literature on 05/28/2010 12:30 am by Marc Sheffner
Yesterday’s session (#26) was the last one on C.S. Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. At the end of the session, I proposed our next book: C.S. Lewis’ science fiction story for adults, “Out of the Silent Planet”. This is not a long book, but it is more challenging.
At the end of yesterday’s session, we received a visit from a number of interested people. Perhaps some of them will join us for the next session.
If you did not attend recent sessions of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, you are warmly welcome to re-join us for the new book (if this book does not interest you, why not send me an email with your requests). It is quite ok to “drop out” when we are reading a book you are not interested in, and to “drop back in” later.
There is no homework for the next session. We will begin reading the book in the next session. After that, I will follow the same pattern as before: homework will be reading a few chapters, and in the sessions we will discuss the meaning, ask questions, and talk about what interests us about the book.
The next sessions in June will be:
June 9th,
June 23rd.
We had an interesting discussion about fairy-stories compared with myths and traditional tales. Thank you very much to all of you who attended.
I mentioned a seminal essay by Lewis’ close friend and fellow-Oxford don, J.R.R. Tolkien, titled On Fairy Stories. Yoko Okuda told me the Japanese title, and using Google I found this Japanese article about it. If you are interested and have time to read it, please give me your opinion. I’m looking for online resources related to C.S. Lewis and fairy-tales to suggest to my students as secondary reading materials. Is this suitable/interesting/useful for university students (English majors), do you think?
(It includes several links for further reading, all in Japanese)
Here is Lewis talking about the fairy-tale. He is writing about some fairy-tales that he had read (written by George MacDonald), but I think he is also describing an effect he wished to create in the readers of his own stories:
“It goes beyond the expression of things we have already felt. It arouses in us sensations we have never had before, never anticipated having, as though we had broken out of our normal mode of consciousness and “possessed joys not promised to our birth.” It gets under our skin, hits us at a level deeper than our thoughts or even our passions, troubles oldest certainties till all questions are reopened, and in general shocks us more fully awake that we are for most of our lives.”
Now that you have finished the book, how about taking an online quiz, to test your knowledge!
Here is a quiz I found:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/lion/quiz.html
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Session 26: May 26th, 2010 – Chps 14-17 of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Posted in Announcement, English fiction, children's literature on 05/13/2010 12:05 am by Marc SheffnerThe next session will be on Wednesday, May 26th. We will discuss the last few chapters of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, and also discuss the book as a whole. What whall we read next?
To prepare for this session, please answer the following questions:
- Why do you read?
- Which parts (episodes, phrases, words, etc) of this book did you like or remember best? Were there any particular words or phrases that you found memorable?
- Why did Lewis write this story?
- Lewis said that LWW was a fairy-tale. However, there are no fairies in this story! Is it a fairy-tale? What is a fairy-tale? How is a fairy-tale different from a myth, legend, folk-tale or science fiction?
BBC dramatization of Narnia story
Posted in Announcement on 04/30/2010 04:19 pm by Marc SheffnerI just discovered a video I have of a BBC dramatization of the “Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe” story, made perhaps 15 years ago. I shall try to remember to bring the video next time, in case anyone wants to see it. It is in English, of course, and with no subtitles; but of course you don’t need the subtitles, do you!