#joy gresham

[oakashandwillow]

[twostarsinonesphere]

what she says: i'm fine

what she means: in a grief observed, c.s. lewis ralks about how god spoke to him through joy gresham, saying "she was my priest and prophetess", and this is a pre-echo of hozier's "if the heavens ever did speak, she's the last true mouthpiece". c.s. lewis and joy gresham's romance was the most pure and beautiful thing that i've read about. (i.e. "she was my lover in body and soul, heart and mind. through her i truly know what oneness means") and i am crying.

[theinquisitxor]

Reading a CS Lewis biography for research, and while Joy Gresham was dying Lewis said to her, “If you can- if it is allowed- come to me when I too am on my death bed.” 

To which Joy responded, 

“Allowed! Heaven would have a job to hold me; and as for hell, I’d break it into bits.” 

I just love these two so much and if that isn’t such a typical Jack/Joy relationship dynamic I don’t know what is. (these lines are also really sad since they deserved to much more time with each other)

[elizascharlesdanceblog]

Shadowlands by William Nicholson, directed by Michael Barker-Craven. With Charles Dance as CS Lewis, Janie Dee as Joy Gresham 

Charles Dance may not have the country-farmer countenance of the real Lewis, and Nicholson's text gives little hint of his intellectual downrightness. But this is a play about a man whose Christian faith is severely tested by the premature death of a woman he has slowly learned to love. Dance, punctuating his speech with tiny snorts and giggles, and forever jangling the keys in his pockets, captures perfectly Lewis's emotional shyness.

But he also conveys the blossoming of passion in this undernourished heart, as he marries Joy first in a soulless civic ceremony and then with sacramental fervour. It is a beautifully quiet, understated performance; it is to Dance's credit he suggests the notion that earthly life is a mere shadowland offers scant consolation when confronted by a painful death.

source: guardian

[zarowl]

We read to know we are not alone.

William Nicholson, Shad

[daily-liz-white]

As Joy Gresham in Shadowlands, Chichester Festival Theatre (2019) 

Article and Photo - https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/theatre/shadowlands-review-chichester-festival-theatre-a4135696.html

[phoenixwrites]

SO IF YOU’D LIKE TO READ JOY DAVIDMAN’S SMUTTY POETRY ABOUT C.S. LEWIS...

You can buy it here!

It’s not just steamy poetry, there’s also selections of poetry criticizing capitalism, espousing communism, fantasy poetry, all sorts of eclectic subjects.  And she is good, I mean really good.  

Joy Davidman is often overshadowed by her more famous husband--which is a shame, because this woman was a total firecracker, very progressive for her time (she apparently had a running argument with C.S. Lewis about birth control, my God, if I could only see that correspondence...) and an enormously talented writer.  

She deserves recognition in her own right, and a lot of my colleagues are trying to give her that spotlight.

So if you could support the book and bring attention to her work, that would be amazing!

[phoenixwrites]

I'm reading the letters of Joy Davidman.

C.S. Lewis' wife.

And you guys just have no idea how unbelievably cool she was.  

Just...amazing.  

She was fighting for social justice and diverse representation in film and media before it was cool!