This Life Is Merely The First Page: A Conversation w/Elizabeth Hardy on Lewis's Great Divorce

Welcome to Episode 7 of 9 in our series on C.S. Lewis's novel The Great Divorce. Join us as we explore the ideas presented by Lewis in this fantastic tale, a dream vision, written in response (according to Lewis) to William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Today's conversation features Elizabeth Baird Hardy. Elizabeth is Instructor of English at western North Carolina's Mayland Community College. In addition to composition and literature courses, she teaches humanities courses including Myth in Human Culture and Introduction to Film.   In this conversation, Elizabeth and I discuss the ongoing recovery in her hometown from Hurricane Helene, the coincidence of our recording on the date of C.S. Lewis's death (and JFK's assassination), the pitiful tiny-ness of Hell, and the overwhelming solid bigness of Heaven.    Elizabeth is the author of Milton, Spenser, and the Chronicles of Narnia: Literary Sources for C.S. Lewis Novels.  (https://www.amazon.com/Milton-Spenser-Chronicles-Narnia-Literary/dp/0786428767)     She also frequently writes literary and popular culture criticism and has contributed to numerous collections focusing on the work of C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling, and well as on topics as diverse as The Hunger Games and Star Trek.    A popular presenter, she contributes to a variety of programs and podcasts and depending on the day, can be found sharing about eighteenth-century medicinal plants, World War II Victory Gardens, or literary alchemy.    To donate to Feeding Avery Families, click here: https://feedingaveryfamilies.org/support-faf/