Belief And Unbelief

Of course willing suspension of disbelief is involved in all reading of fiction, including all fantasy and science fiction. However, one difference remains. Human characters created by both Poul Anderson and CS Lewis encounter both Martians and demons. In Anderson's works, Martians and demons are on an equal footing. Both are fictional. In Lewis' works, Martians are fictional but demons are not. In works both of non-fiction and of fiction, Lewis polemicizes for a world-view in which supernatural beings, including demons, literally exist.

"Though he was theoretically a materialist, he had all his life believed quite inconsistently, and even carelessly, in the freedom of his own will."

-CS Lewis, That Hideous Strength IN Lewis, The Cosmic Trilogy (London, 1990), pp. 349-752 AT CHAPTER 12, 7, p. 630.

What is free will and why is it inconsistent with materialism? We can discuss such questions and an author can show his characters discussing them but, in this passage, the narrator (who is sometimes omniscient and sometimes first person) assumes a traditional theological position on the issue. We should appreciate the work as a novel, a long prose fiction, while also understanding that some of its passages are polemical - and we may well disagree with its author.