#mark studdock

[two4tea1485]

I'm 99% convinced CS Lewis' Mark Studdock was directly based on Trollope's Mark Robarts.

[cecilia37]

'Supposing the Straight was utterly powerless, always and everywhere certain to be mocked, tortured, and finally killed by the Crooked, what then? Why not go down with the ship?'

"Mark Studdock's realization that it would indeed be better to go down with the ship than to stay alive by becoming Crooked illustrates the cornerstone of the Tao: goodness and power are not the same thing. Or, to put it another way, powerlessness is not necessarily an evil. Indeed, there are circumstances in which choosing the ultimate form of powerlessness -- death -- may be the right way to go. Mark finds himself in a situation in which it would be sweet and fitting to die, or at least in which it would be unfitting and sour to stay alive."

-- Michael Ward, After Humanity, p. 193-194.

[mutantoftomorrow]

'It is ugliness itself that becomes, in the end, the goal of his lechery; beauty has long since grown too weak a stimulant.'

- C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength