The Best Advice Is That Which We Give To Ourselves
A Star Wars controversy, C.S. Lewis on morality + a video premiere
Hello Geeky Stoics! I rarely bring to this newsletter the petty online drama of Star Wars fandom that so many of you are lucky to not be involved in. It’s crazy out there. But there’s been a bit of Star Wars news that reminded me of a valuable lesson I wanted to share with you and had saved in the Drafts tab of Substack until the right story presented itself.
Bear with me on the backstory, and you’ll walk away with a wonderful insight from C.S. Lewis on how to write stories children will want to read.
The backstory
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is an international documentarian whose focus has been on the repression of women in Islamic Pakistan. She is also the slated director for the upcoming Star Wars film centered around Rey, who will be rebuilding the Jedi Order in the time period after the Disney sequel trilogy.
After doing an interview this week on CNN where she talked about being excited to have a woman steer Star Wars (which is not a new milestone) a video of her has been going viral.
In 2015 Obaid-Chinoy was on stage talking about her documentary work, and said the following, “I enjoy making men uncomfortable,” she added. “It is important to be able to look into the eyes of man and say ‘I am here’ and recognize that. And recognize that I am working to bring something that makes you uncomfortable and it should make you uncomfortable because you need to change your attitude. It’s only when you’re uncomfortable, when you’re shifty, when you have to have difficult conversations, that you will perhaps look at yourself in the mirror and not like the reflection, and then say maybe, ‘there is something wrong with the way I think’ or maybe ‘there is something wrong with the way I’m addressing this issue.”
What makes us “look in the mirror”?
For the purpose of Geeky Stoics, I want to share something with you about why this kind of remark is melting down the Internet.
Many are under the impression this remark was made recently about her new Star Wars project. In reality, she was speaking about the dynamics of making movies in Pakistan. But regardless, it comes across as a moral lecture of the worst kind. Condescending, finger-wagging, and akin to the attitude of a Catholic nun dying for an opportunity to rap you on the knuckles with a ruler.
Nobody enjoys this kind of thing. Obaid-Chinoy is a storyteller who presumably wants to improve her audience. I aim to do that here myself…improve everyone reading this by just a little bit.
But my motivations are also selfish. Because when I’m doing my best work, I am writing advice to myself. Little reminders. You’re just a beneficiary of that.
Before I move on to some relevant wisdom on this from C.S. Lewis, click into our new video on YouTube about Right & Wrong, and how “good” is not just a “point of view” as Star Wars’ Chancellor Palpatine would have us believe.
We put a lot of work into this one, and it’s premiering right now!! Open the video, finish reading this article, and then dive in. Leave a Like and Comment to help us get the message out to more people. Thank you!
C.S. Lewis on writing for children
I’ve been reading more of C.S. Lewis lately. You may know him for Mere Christianity or The Chronicles of Narnia. He also has an essay called On Three Ways of Writing For Children, where he’s sounding off on how to effectively engage kids with stories. Should they be entertained or enlightened? Which of things should be prioritized?
Lewis writes (and I’ll simplify afterward),
“I would like to return to what I said at the beginning. I rejected any approach which begins with the question 'What do modern children like?' I might be asked, 'Do you equally reject the approach which begins with the question, "What do modern children need?" I think the answer is Yes. Not because I don't like stories to have a moral: certainly not because I think children dislike a moral.
Rather because I feel sure that the question 'What do modern children need?' will not lead you to a good moral. If we ask that question we are assuming too superior an attitude.
It would be better to ask 'What moral do I need?' for I think we can be sure that what does not concern us deeply will not deeply interest our readers, whatever their age. But it is better not to ask the question at all. Let the pictures tell you their own moral.
But if they don't show you any moral, don't put one in. For the moral you put in is likely to be a platitude, or even a falsehood, skimmed from the surface of your consciousness.”
Remove the log
That’s pretty heavy. C.S. Lewis tends to be a little bit of a heady writer, discoursing with himself and asking hypotheticals over and over again to himself.
It doesn’t take a lot of thought to figure out what is going wrong with “young people today” and come up with a series of messages you'd like them to hear. It’s so much harder to look inward and dredge to the surface what it is about yourself that you fear or distrust.
If you can find that thing…your control freak tendencies, your judgemental nature, your emotional neediness or quickness to anger….tell people about that. Trust me, they’ll relate far more than if you try to minister to them from atop their most beloved franchises or movie studios. I’ve seen that with my own writing many, many times. Readers respond most to the heart-on-the-sleeve stuff, and sometimes even oversharing.
Matthew 7:5, “First remove the log out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye.”
The point of doing this as Jesus instructed is so that you can more effectively help others.
Doing some self-reflection is not just good for you, it also can help you win arguments and persuade people to come closer to your viewpoints. Again, some minor selfish motivation wherein everybody wins.
The storyteller.
The reader or viewer.
The story itself.
The best advice you can give to others is advice you are truly giving to yourself.