Owen Barfield's Death in 1997 (aged 99)

The Owen Barfield World Wide Website: Barfield's Death

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Discovered today (Sunday), but too important to overlook. Click on the URL to be taken direct to the Barfield website.

Arborfield said...

(From the Barfield site)

Writing about Barfield in his 1956 book Surprised by Joy, Lewis spoke of him as a friend...

who disagrees with you about everything. He is not so much the alter ego as the antiself. Of course he shares your interests... But he has approached them all at a different angle. He has read all the right books but has got all the wrong things out of every one... How can he be so nearly right and yet, invariably, just not right? He is as fascinating (and infuriating) as a woman. When you set out to correct his heresies, you find that he forsooth has decided to correct yours! And then you go at it, hammer and tongs, far into the night... more often like mutually respectful enemies than friends... Out of this perpetual dogfight a community of mind and a deep affection emerge... I think he changed me a good deal more than I him.

Barfield was amazed that Lewis would think so, for to him keeping up with Lewis was "like trying to run along beside a motorcar in top gear."