Don't Ruin Your Trip Like C. S. Lewis Did

[epicsamurai]

I love Lewis so much.


Tolkien: “My books have no symbolism or allegory. Stop asking.”

Lewis: “THE LION IS JESUS!”

[stevena]

My favourite thing about Lewis was that he had such extreme culture shock from moving from Belfast to England that he wrote:
"The strange English accents with which I was surrounded seemed like the voices of demons. But what was worst was the English landscape ... I have made up the quarrel since; but at that moment I conceived a hatred for England which took many years to heal."

[XiTheta]

Specifically, he walked through Botley, which to this day remains 'a bit shit'

[grearea]

A dear friend of mine always says, "We needed to see that anyway, " when she gets lost or turned around.

[dragonsaint]

That little anecdote also speaks volumes about how sharp and steep the divide between rich and poor was, which is rather sad to me.

[southie]

As someone who has done similar in several stations including Oxford, I relate to this on a personal level.

[Qaszka]

I'm good at direction and orientation but exits from stations are always super confusing.

[PokeCastle]

Poor guy, I relate to him on a spiritual level. :(

[Penguinmanereikel]

"Wrong side of the tracks, " as they say.

[samrivenburg]

As one of his dear friends would say not all who wander are lost except him he is definitely lost

[jorgepeterbarton]

As someone who grew up near Oxford this cracked me up. People are surprised how much it suddenly turns into a complete shthle and I nearly did exactly the same thing. The city is actually very divided between its university and manufacturing (cars) areas which is a huge class divide broken up in certain places by parks and rivers almost as if its separate. At least he didn't go in Cowley or Whitley direction...or end up in Blackbird Leys.

[CrankyOtter]

As someone who often approaches from the loading dock end of important places, for no particular reason, I get this.

[josephkarl]

I think having seen the worst of Oxford, he'd be more delighted than usual with the best of it 😀

[alicequayle]

I got lost like this so often I started drawing maps for a living.

[kbuttons]

I had a similar experience to Lewis when I travelled to Iceland for the first time. Wanted to go to the Main Street and I turned right when I left my hotel. Ended up wandering round and industrial estate and then the suburbs for 2 hours and eventually got to a Hilton hotel and ask for directions. I should have turned left outside of my hotel and I would have been there in 10 minutes. I feel a specific empathy with Lewis now.

[phastinemoon]

In fairness, he didn’t have Google Maps in his pocket like all of us do.

[FrostyButter]

Personally I like the idea of building suburbs that don't suck 🤔

[Gandalfthewhat]

For a second there I thought he just experienced the Oxford version of Paris syndrome

[rylinhansen]

I spent a month in the UK and Ireland - mostly the UK - and to this day I wonder how much more I could have seen on that trip if I hadn't spent so much time getting lost.

[whosilence]

But would he've been able to see the towers and spires as he did from up close? There's a great Poe quote that reads something like "depth is not found in the valleys, where it lies, but upon mountain-tops, where we seek them"