The Brand (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 7, Ed. 1, Wednesday, October 17, 1990 Page: 2 of 4
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Richard's Nameless ColumnH
Writer Has Influence
by Richard Ruane
I've been reading this book Reahty
and the Vision in which 18 Christian
writers all members of the Chrysostom
society tell what writer has influenced
them most and why. The contibuting
writers include many of my favorites:
Richard Foster Calvin Miller Steve
Lawhead Madeleine L'Engle Walter
Wangerin and Harold Fickett; as well as
many I was not so familiar with. The
writers the group listed ranged from Ray
Bradbury to William Shakespeare from
J.R.R Tolkien to St. Augustine. The only
criteria for who each author picked was
"who has influenced you most as a writer?"
Don't worry this won't be a book
review but that question left me musing. I
began to wonder what writer has had the
most influence on me. The list of writers I
loved began to form. I thought of J.R.R.
Tolkien who had brought me through
High School. Then there were poets like
John Donne George Herbert William
Blake and William Wordsworth. And of
course there was my favorite writer of
nonsense and absurdities Lewis Carroll.
But one name kept coming back (a name
noticeably absent from the book): C.S.
Lewis.
I'm sure Professor Lewis is dancing in
the crypt right now overjoyed to hear that
some second rate columnist from Abilene
Tx. has named him the "writer who most
influenced me" but when it comes down to
it I believe C.S. Lewis has taught me more
than many of the other writers all together.
I think I was in third grade when my
teacher read us The Lion the Witch and
the Wardrobe. Shortly thereafter I read it
for myself and also saw the highly
dissapointing cartoon version. Then I
moved on through the other Chronicles of
Narnia and no matter how many times I
read them they captured my imagination.
Then I put them away for a few years and
didn't think much else of Lewis until I
became a Christain my junior year of high
school. I don't quite remember how I
came across it but I somehow got hold of
Mere Christianity a copy that is now
quite dog-eared and excessively
underlined. Then I read The Screwtape
Letters and then The Four Loves (which
I think is his greatest non-fiction work) and
then Out of the Silent Planet
Perelandra That Hideous Strength and
The Great Divorce.
To try and tell you every thing I've
learned from C.S. Lewis would be
impossible. Imagination the nature of
grace God's love the true meaning of
Christianity the freedom of surrendering
to Christ and the nature of evil are only a
few. But most recently I've begun to learn
lessons from the man himself. C.S. Lewis
was at times a weak philosopher and a
poor theologian. He smoked and drank
regularly he once had an affair with a
friend's widowed mother. But he taught
me that for all one's faults one cannot hide
or shun the calling of God: it is ever
present and inescapable ever on our heel
lovingly at every turn. He taught me that
God is ever in the process of changing us
and perfecting us and leading us
constantly into his kingdom "farther up and
farther in" where the inside is much bigger
than the outside.
Well I've gone on quite enough. If
Duane Simolke editor
Leigh Ann Whiddon asst. editor
Rick Hope asst. editor
Tim Baker layoutdesign editor
Carey Alderson sports editor
Rick Schochler religion editor
Jonathan Owen chief photographer
Shawnic Maffctt reporter
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Jeff Eggcr reporter
Richard Ruane criticcolumnist
Kevin Burfield critic
Randy Armstrong faculty advisor
Dorothy Kiser faculty columnist
Angela Magee business manager
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you were bored this time next time I'll try
not to wax so literary. If you actually
enjoyed it come find me and I'll be more
than happy to ramble on for hours on end.
The House of Bernarda Alba
Reviewed by Richard Ruane
I have seen very few plays that
communicate so directly as the Van Ellis
Theatre performance of this play by
Federico Garcia Lorca. The play is about a
domineering mother and the five daughters
who try to cope with her death grip.
Dorothy De Leon's powerful presence and
energy made her a natural for the part of
Bernarda the mother. In an exceptionally
strong performance De Leon presented to
us the power of a tyrannical absolute
matriarch from the peaks of her power to
the small glimpses of her weakness.
The play opens with Bernarda who
rules over her five daughters with the rod
of religious legalism leading in mourners
from her husband's funereal. When the
short wake is over she pronounces the
proper eight years of mourning for herself
and her daughters. The daughters who
range in age from around 20 to almost 40
are all unmarried. Also in the house is
Bernarda's insane mother Maria Josefa
played by Sara Wetzel. Maria in her
schizophrenic ravings says aloud what all
the women under Bernarda secretly long
for: to get away from the stifling pressure
of the tightly ruled household.
La Poncia Bernarda's chief maid
played by Debra Pearsons is the only
person who comes close to being able to
speak freely to Bernarda. In the course of
m
the play we find that three of Bernarda's
daughters are in love with the same man.
There are many other complications. The
play revolves around the growing friction
between the three sisters and the deepening
oppression by the mother.
The show is beautifully performed
and the set and costumes work with the
show almost perfectly but that is not the
only reason to see this show. I think few
plays so harshly remind us of the terror of
religious legalism. It would be indeed
dangerous to point accusing fingers at
Bernarda without first washing the blood
from our own hands.
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The Brand (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 7, Ed. 1, Wednesday, October 17, 1990, newspaper, October 17, 1990; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth97509/m1/2/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hardin-Simmons University Library.