the age of the waltz, and we now teach men to like women whose bodies arescarcely distinguishable from those of boys. Since this is a kind of beauty evenmore transitory than most, we thus aggravate the female's chronic horror ofgrowing old (with many excellent results) and render her less willing and lessable to bear children. And that is not all. We have engineered a great increase inthe licence which society allows to the representation of the apparent nude (notthe real nude) in art, and its exhibition on the stage or the bathing beach. It is alla fake, of course; the figures in the popular art are falsely drawn; the real womenin bathing suits or tights are actually pinched in and propped up to make themappear firmer and more slender and more boyish than nature allows a full-grownwoman to be. Yet at the same time, the modern world is taught to believe that itis being “frank” and “healthy” and getting back to nature. As a result we aremore and more directing the desires of men to something which does not exist—making the rôle of the eye in sexuality more and more important and at the sametime making its demands more and more impossible. What follows you caneasily forecast!That is the general strategy of the moment. But inside that framework youwill still find it possible to encourage your patient's desires in one of twodirections. You will find, if you look carefully into any human's heart, that he ishaunted by at least two imaginary women—a terrestrial and an infernal Venus,and that his desire differs qualitatively according to its object. There is one typefor which his desire is such as to be naturally amenable to the Enemy—readilymixed with charity, readily obedient to marriage, coloured all through with thatgolden light of reverence and naturalness which we detest; there is another typewhich he desires brutally, and desires to desire brutally, a type best used to drawhim away from marriage altogether but which, even within marriage, he wouldtend to treat as a slave, an idol, or an accomplice. His love for the first mightinvolve what the Enemy calls evil, but only accidentally; the man would wishthat she was not someone else's wife and be sorry that he could not love herlawfully. But in the second type, the felt evil is what he wants; it is that “tang” inthe flavour which he is after. In the face, it is the visible animality, or sulkiness,or craft, or cruelty which he likes, and in the body, something quite differentfrom what he ordinarily calls Beauty, something he may even, in a sane hour,describe as ugliness, but which, by our art, can be made to play on the raw nerveof his private obsession.The real use of the infernal Venus is, no doubt, as prostitute or mistress. Butif your man is a Christian, and if he has been well trained in nonsense aboutirresistible and all-excusing “Love”, he can often be induced to marry her. Andthat is very well worth bringing about. You will have failed as regards
fornication and solitary vice; but there are other, and more indirect, methods ofusing a man's sexuality to his undoing. And, by the way, they are not onlyefficient, but delightful; the unhappiness produced is of a very lasting andexquisite kind,Your affectionate uncleSCREWTAPE
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The Screwtape Letters
- Page 4 and 5: MAGDALEN COLLEGEJuly 5, 1941
- Page 6 and 7: at his elbow in a moment. Before I
- Page 8 and 9: like. Keep everything hazy in his m
- Page 10 and 11: the imagined mother will ever flow
- Page 12 and 13: meant to ask Him for charity, let t
- Page 14 and 15: The Screwtape LettersMY DEAR WORMWO
- Page 16 and 17: The Screwtape LettersVIMY DEAR WORM
- Page 18 and 19: The Screwtape LettersVIIMY DEAR WOR
- Page 20 and 21: The Screwtape LettersVIIIMY DEAR WO
- Page 22 and 23: The Screwtape LettersIXMY DEAR WORM
- Page 24 and 25: Your affectionate uncleSCREWTAPE
- Page 26 and 27: I see much (indeed more than I like
- Page 28 and 29: gives rise to many incongruities: t
- Page 30 and 31: are over. A few weeks ago you had t
- Page 32 and 33: The Screwtape LettersXIIIMY DEAR WO
- Page 34 and 35: ever to act, and, in the long run,
- Page 36 and 37: threatens to become a virtue. By th
- Page 38 and 39: The Screwtape LettersXVMY DEAR WORM
- Page 40 and 41: natural phenomenon is really in our
- Page 42 and 43: conduct of the services is also adm
- Page 44 and 45: The Screwtape LettersXVIIMY DEAR WO
- Page 46 and 47: Your affectionate uncleSCREWTAPE
- Page 48 and 49: His real motive for fixing on sex a
- Page 50 and 51: The Screwtape LettersXIXMY DEAR WOR
- Page 52 and 53: war and peace, it is, from the poin
- Page 56 and 57: The Screwtape LettersXXIMY DEAR WOR
- Page 58 and 59: on the more realistic and dynamic g
- Page 60 and 61: disadvantages. Nothing is naturally
- Page 62 and 63: The Screwtape LettersXXIIIMY DEAR W
- Page 64 and 65: used as a convenience. Men or natio
- Page 66 and 67: dream how much of his conversation,
- Page 68 and 69: The Screwtape LettersXXVMY DEAR WOR
- Page 70 and 71: have the better chance to slip in a
- Page 72 and 73: are under the double blindness of m
- Page 74 and 75: The Screwtape LettersXXVIIMY DEAR W
- Page 76 and 77: been for the last ten years, and wh
- Page 78 and 79: prosperity or middle-aged adversity
- Page 80 and 81: The Screwtape LettersXXIXMY DEAR WO
- Page 82 and 83: Enemy and courage the Enemy supplie
- Page 84 and 85: endured no longer at the very momen
- Page 86 and 87: The Screwtape LettersXXXIMY DEAR, M
- Page 88: tempters like yourself the greatest
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