tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2239062544101975016.post1792943749803519746..comments2024-03-27T21:39:23.192-07:00Comments on Sacnoth's Scriptorium: C. S. Lewis calls W. H. Auden "a pansy"John D. Rateliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12324926298336489295noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2239062544101975016.post-85605719034534378052015-06-18T14:31:50.787-07:002015-06-18T14:31:50.787-07:00Lewis definitely uses the word to mean "homos...Lewis definitely uses the word to mean "homosexual" (though with a clear implication of effeminacy, in The Four Loves page 93, as part of his effort to ward off suggestions of homosexuality from male friendships. He finds it incredible to think that classical male shows of affection between "manly men" should be read as homosexual. While acknowledging the possibility of same-sex relations between a "Brave and his squire" on the war-path, he finds the image of the "hairy old toughs of centurions in Tacitus... begging for last kisses" to be "comic." What, he declares, "... all pansies?"Tobias Stanislas Haller BSGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08047429477181560685noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2239062544101975016.post-38934729765906414462015-04-24T11:21:35.109-07:002015-04-24T11:21:35.109-07:00The use of the word "rather" suggests to...The use of the word "rather" suggests to me that Lewis didn't know anything about Auden's actual sexual proclivities, but that he behaved like the stereotype of a homosexual, i.e. "an effeminate man."David Bratmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08090662884600828582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2239062544101975016.post-58774442812368883492015-04-23T06:02:10.201-07:002015-04-23T06:02:10.201-07:00My Dalzell and Victor dates this meaning of "...My Dalzell and Victor dates this meaning of "pansy" -- "a male homosexual, an effeminate man" to the UK in 1929, but supplies no quotation. <br /><br />Given the larger context of Lewis's remark -- "Auden is a Christian and a Tolkienian, and so far good; but he is rather a pansy." -- I would have to go with "homosexual" as the primary gist, but I don't know that the two can be separated.Thomas Hillmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11645380693097266173noreply@blogger.com