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My dear Smogbrush,

I have at last read your letter (congratulations on your success in the academy). I am pleased with your enthusiasm to wage the war, but I note, with special interest, your guiding of the patient's friendships. All the time you've spent, "making certain that he sees a great deal of his materialist friend to ensure his eventual conformity to that way" struck me as a trifle naive. It sounds as though you suppose that direct conflict, or argument, with the Enemy was the ideal method of keeping the creature out of His clutches. You see, the Enemy can argue too, and quite well, and by doing so we are very likely moving the struggle onto His field. Increasingly, since your patient was a small child (though handled under another's wing at that time) he has been encountering extended instances of a number of incompatible philosophies all vying to occupy his mind at once, resulting in a need for skeptical thinking.
He does not conceive the concept of true and false as we do. He, instead, regards doctrines with terms such as, "heartless" or "practical", "obsolete" or, "academic". The current Jargon of his generation, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Enemy. It is a waste of time to try to convince him something is true, he will likely decide on that himself; instead, Make him think it is, "Informed", "Educated", "Relevant", "Noble", or "Courageous", that it is the enlightened philosophy to rise in the future. Ludicrous sentiments like that are the sort of thing your man cares about.
Back to the subject of arguments; the real trouble of those is that when we engage in them we run the risk of stimulating the bundle of cells within the patients that the humans so fondly call a brain. If that were to happen who knows what dangerous things might be called to mind. You must not forget that you are there to fuddle him. One might get the impression, by the way some of you young fiends talk, that our work is to teach them something! Write back in a week, and in the meantime, keep careful account of what your patient does; I look forward to looking it over.

Your Affectionate Uncle,
Lockrot

Exceptionally close to the truth.

This is a condensation of letter 1 of the screwtape letters.  http://www.freebooks2u.com/fantasticfiction/2010/139/5902.html.

Some paraphrasing, and the names are changed, but the same message and still plagerism. The Screwtape Letters is a book by C.S Lewis, and consists of Letters written by a senior demon to his nephew, who has received his first "patient".

Like to ruin a good mistery, do you? Way to build a reputation around here.

*WARNING GRAMMAR NAZI INCOMING*

"It's Mystery you fool! Mystery! Blasted kids these days, don't know how to even type on a computer."

^The word was not mystery but this is an actual quote from some guy on YahooAnswers.com

? I was following you untill that last sentence :)

To my great Uncle Lockrot,

I write to inform you of my great success with my patient of eight years. She is sixteen, nearing seventeen, and completely oblivious to both the Enemy, and myself; moreover, she is quite happy that way. Her passionate desire for the "job well done" feeling was quickly capitalized on. She now spirals herself in extended tasks which give her little time for anything else. She has significant athletic tendencies, which I have encouraged and funneled into long distance running. The Glorious result is that she now spends several hours a day running for the sake of running. Isn't that quaint? She is also the academic type. As such, it is easy to occupy the remainder of her time studying. Her corresponding grades are enough to keep her content with that way of life.

Her social and family life are also of no danger to us. While she likes nearly everyone and everyone seems to like her, the priority of my patient steadfastly remains her work. Besides chit-chat between classes at lunch and sport practices, all of her social interaction is academic in nature. Whenever the Enemy is mentioned in conversation I remind her of something important to her. I've been brutally proficient in keeping away from her any that might actually tell her about the Enemy. She does not know what He proclaims to be; she knows little more than what the creatures call him.

Her father is a peculiar man. His spiritual views are that one should develop their on religious stand point, and that others shouldn't, in any way, interfere or help with it. This is the reality that he has fabricated for himself, and because of it, he is no threat to us. He will never bring up to her the idea of the Enemy. On the other hand, her mother called herself a Christian once, and I imagine still would if she were asked, but never talks about Him or reads His book. She lives day to day, quietly in discontent, with her husband, practically believing as he does. She is also by no means a threat.

I have kept her so entertained with the harmless pleasures of this world, that she can't imagine there being anything she's missing. Anyone can handle her now, I'd like a new, more challenging patient. That is the real reason I've written you. Can you by chance get me a transfer? I wait appreciatively for your reply.

Your Triumphant Nephew,
Leachlung

I want to read this book.

I actually don't really remember this letter. I know the first one was made by altering the letter, but is this one original?

I think that, at its core, all the content was "borrowed" from the original. In this one, the writer has simply been more careful to pick and choose from a variety of letters rather than just one. Some of the words have been changed this time to modernize the text, but everything the borrower wrote is easily distinguishable from the style of the original. Lewis would never have written “That is the real reason I've written you. Can you by chance get me a transfer? I wait appreciatively for your reply.” Lewis was a professor at a prestigious British university, and didn’t use conjunctions in his writing, and the use of “get me” is very modern, and just feels wrong in context.

Yeah, no shit Estel. I didn't say "this looks like Lewis's writing" I said "is this an original?". As in is this an original letter.

And by orignal letter I mean originally written by this user. I didn't make that very clear in the above post.

Sorry if I'm short with you, but when I first saw this thread and the reactions to it I was pretty happy since it looked like a good thing to keep the members guessing... then you came along a poked a hole in the baloon :P

At least it's still bringing interest to the book though, if comments are anything to go on.

The main reason I didn't call it out was because I didn't find it plagarism. I found that for a couple of reasons.

1.) He didn't post any intro or conclusion to the post, so we didn't know if he had anything to gain or was seeking credit
2.) He never said "hey guys check out my excellent writing" or anything like that
3.) He took the time to create a profile specifically named Lockrot to help the storyline
4.) He at least changed it to where it's halfway original, so he wasn't just copy and pasting from an ebook.
5.) (this was the main reason) I've seen stuff like this on other forum sites. A writer posts something strange or otherworldly without any reason and then expands on the mystery, occasionally with others joining in. I remember one like that was this one about a children's TV show that took an amazing twist, but I can't remember the name. This looked like one of those threads so I didn't interfere.

If at any point the writer tried to take credit, I definately would have called him out on it, but I was happy to sit back and see how it progressed instead. I'm a bit surprised that he kept posting as well, but hey at least the story's still progressing :)

I suppose you're right. Looks like whatever story they're trying to tell happens to have its inspiration in The Screwtape Letters. I just think they should have said so in the first instance.

 

Haha, if I see someone saying "the following thread is inspired by X", it loses authenticity to me. I like it when I have to draw upon my knowledge of certain areas to understand the concept.

My dear Leechlung,

You have done a good number of things quite right, but you have gone about a few things rather the wrong way. I am proud of you for being wise enough to evade the Enemy instead of trying to fight him off, clearly a successful effort. As it comes across to me, however, you have based your entire long term strategy on keeping her happy. You may be shocked to hear that this is incredibly counterproductive, and easily undone. Do you honestly intend to tell me that you are going to keep her happy forever? You are trying to play the Enemy's game, and I dare say his skills in that field are better than yours. What do you imagine will transpire when the painful realities of human life come crashing down upon her? The Enemy, faster than you can gather your wits, will be at her side, asking her something like, "What has it all meant up till now?" or, "What are you missing?" Do you see the trouble Leechlung? One tragedy and eight years of appeasement come undone. This can happen because you haven't really been gaining any ground; instead, you appear to have been trying to hold it. You are playing defense while the Enemy lacks a foothold. Unfortunately, you will likely find that going on the offense is now quite difficult. You see, you have enabled her to become a highly productive little worm and as such her habits are largely not in our favor. Why did you feel the need to make her productive?

The appeasement policy ought to be ended exchanging it for something else later. First, start wearing away on productive habits, running, studying, etc. Hopefully your own efforts have not rendered this impossible. Keep in mind the Supplementation Assumptions. As we have no control of the flow of time, the amount of time the patient has in any given number of days cannot be shortened. So Any time an activity is restricted, they do something else in its place, and any time an activity is added, the time is taken away from something else. The goal then, is to bring about a decline in the quality of her time spent. Supplementation as referred to here is this: The expected human pattern to attempt to fill voids and/or increase liveliness, health, wealth, wisdom, etc. (This is a part of their nature that should be corrupted if possible.) Now to the point, you can not possibly expect to be able to simply break habits she has enjoyed for several years. Even if you did, replacing them with idle procrastination would be too much to hope for. She would likely convert the efforts into something similar, make a habit of it, and be quite happy with herself. To overcome this, a replacement program must be put into play. If you try to directly take away her healthful habits, she will resist, and quite strongly. Instead try to introduce less productive activities that she will still enjoy. Naturally that time must be taken from something.

If you have not yet guessed, you won't "get" a new patient anytime soon. Honestly you already endangered the one you have.

Your affectionate Uncle,
Lockrot

Please highlight the following to read:

So who in the world is this guy?  i don't really understand the point of this thread, with him just randomly TLDR-ing messsages.  Can anybody tell me who this guy is?  P.S.  i have a feeling that i should develop an urge to call him a nerd due to his somewhat odd vocabulary, and his username. 

Bump?

My dear Smogbrush,

The letter may come across short, no apologies will be made for this. I would like to think you have been thoroughly consumed in continuous attention for your patient, as though you were capable of such focus. Certainly I know better. Your reply ought not bare any excuses; moreover, there had better be a reply. Serving chiefly as a reminder, as seems necessary in your case, I take this letter, as an additional opportunity, to enlighten you with an application of the principles explained in my last letter.


I had a patient who, only in the physical sense, lived in London. He habitually occupied a specific bench within a museum, on which he read. My man lived in my pocket for a good number of years when suddenly I saw in him a train of thought that was going rather the wrong way. In an instant the Enemy was at his side and my twenty years work was teetering. Had I lost my wits and engaged in argument I might have been undone. I, instead, called upon the part of the man which I had best under my command saying, "About time for lunch isn't it?" One can never quite overhear what the Enemy is saying, though I imagine he said something like, "Oh, this is far more important than lunch." for when I whispered back, "To important to consider at this time, better to get a fresh breath and come at it with a readied mind." he closed his book, garnered his coat, and headed out the door. The instant he hit the outside I knew I had won. I directed his attention to a boy calling out the day's paper, an odd looking old man, and an attractive young woman. All he needed was a splash of "reality" to be kept under thumb. He is now safe with Our Father Below. Remember, it is most often best to avoid direct engagement. Distract and divert as often as possible.

Your Affectionate Uncle
Lockrot