Kira Nelson: Askesis

C.S. Lewis in his essay On Three Ways of Writing for Children discusses askesis, which he defines as a kind of longing that is a spiritual exercise (Lewis, 39). He writes of how fairy stories stir and trouble the child, giving rise to this kind of longing, though the child does not know what it is for which he longs.This stirring in him gives his actual world a “new dimension of depth” (Lewis, 38). “He does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: the reading makes all real woods a little enchanted” (Lewis, 38). His happiness is not dependent on the things he longs for being realized in his own life; rather, he is happy just to desire them. This is because this king of longing, askesis, is not one in which one focuses on oneself (Lewis, 38). This kind of longing can also be seen in Lewis’ narrative series The Chronicles of Narnia. In those books the Fauns, Satyrs, Talking Beasts, and nearly all of Narnia yearn for the return of Aslan to Narnia, and with it the end of the Witch’s winter and the coming of spring. The reader also finds this longing in the valiant Mouse Reepicheep whose heart is fixed on reaching and remaining in Aslan’s country at the eastern end of the world. The seven friends of Narnia, too, experience this kind of longing for Narnia, more so for Aslan, and eagerly await their return and reunion with the one they love.

While Lewis writes of a child experiencing askesis while reading fairy story, I myself have experienced it when reading Lewis’ books. Everytime my eyes traversed those pages, I found myself yearning for such a land and such an adventure. I longed to smell the Narnian air, hear the mermaids’ songs, see the landscapes from the deck of the Dawn Treader, engage the Talking Beasts in conversation and hear their laughs, run my hands through Aslan’s golden mane and hear the sound of his voice. It is a longing that is good for the soul, one that breathes life into it and fills it with expectancy. Far from making our actual world more ordinary and uninteresting, I find that it has rather been saturated with greater life and color and imbued with a more profound beauty and deeper significance.