Pints with Jack, season two, episode 42.

A vignette from The Great Divorce.

Good morning, everyone.

We are now officially here.

I'm very pleased to announce that we are now at the end of season two.

Next week, Matt and I will be releasing the first episode of season three, where we're talking

through till we have faces. And so to end season two of Pints with Jack, where we've been

discussing The Great Divorce, I thought I would share a recording that I made

back when we were studying the Great Divorce here in our C.S. Louis San Diego discussion group.

This is a recording that I made with my friend Justin, and it's an extract from Chapter 11 of

The Great Divorce. This is a scene where Lewis recounts the meeting of a ghost who has a lizard

on his shoulder with an angel. And at the end of that interaction, Lewis's guide through heaven,

George MacDonald, asks him if he's understood what he's seen.

I saw coming towards us a ghost who carried something on his shoulder. Like all the ghosts, he was

unsubstantial, but they differed from one another as smokes differ. Some had been whitish. This one was

dark and oily. What sat on his shoulder was a little red lizard, and it was twitching its tail

like a whip and whispering

in his ear. As we caught sight of him, he turned his head to the reptile with a snarl of impatience.

"'Shut up, I tell you,' he said. It wagged its tail and continued to whisper to him. He ceased

snarling, and presently began to smile. Then he turned and started to limp westwards, a wave from the mountains.

Off so soon, said a voice. The speaker was more or less human in shape, but larger than a man,

and so bright that I could hardly look at him. His presence smote on my eyes and on my body too,

...