Bandersnatch: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings

by Diana Pavlac Glyer

What is a “resonator”? The term describes anyone who acts as a friendly, interested, supportive audience. Resonators fill many roles: they show interest, give feedback, express praise, offer encouragement, contribute practical help, and promote the work to others. The presence of resonators is one of the most important factors that marks the difference between successful writers and unsuccessful ones. Resonators show interest in the work itself—they are enthusiastic about the project, they believe it is worth doing, and they are eager to see it brought to completion. But more importantly, they show interest in the writer—they express confidence in the writer’s talents and show faith in his or her ability to succeed. They understand what the writer is attempting. They catch the vision and then do all they can. Resonators help innovators to make the leap from where they are to where they need to be.

Among the Inklings, praise was lavishly expressed and gratefully received.

All of the Inklings encouraged one another, but Charles Williams seems to have been uniquely gifted at it. Williams’s biographer, Alice Mary Hadfield, explains that Williams had this effect on everyone he met, whether a stranger at a bus stop or an old, familiar friend. She summarizes his impact as follows: “C. W. could make each one seem important and interesting, a vital gift to most of us, but even more than that, he could make life important and interesting, not some life removed from us by money, opportunity or gifts, but the very life we had to lead and should probably go on leading for years.” W. H. Auden highlights this when he says, “In his company one felt twice as intelligent and infinitely nicer than, out of it, one knew oneself to be.”

Goals

“He found the gold in all of us and made it shine.” Although all of the Inklings were quick to praise, Williams charged the very atmosphere with praise and encouragement wherever he went.

When Anne Gere did research on writing groups, she found that one of the most important keys to their success is “textual indeterminacy,” that is, the writer’s ability to stay open to the possibility of substantial change.

It seemed to Williams that here was a principle. Everyone, all the time, owes his life to others. It is not only in war that this is true. We cannot eat breakfast without being nourished by some life that has been laid down. If our breakfast is cereal or toast, then it is the life of grains of wheat that have gone into the ground and died that we might have food. If it is bacon, then the blood of some pig has been shed for the sake of my nourishment. All day long I live on this basis: some farmer’s labor has produced this wheat and someone else’s has brought it to market and so on. …