Letter 20 Summary

The patient has resisted temptation and is now going through a time of tranquility. He has learned a dangerous lesson—that sexual temptation does not last and that it goes away faster when resisted. Screwtape suggests Wormwood try again by filling the man's thoughts with the idea that chastity is unhealthy. That is a very helpful satanic idea.

Screwtape wants to know what kind of unsuitable young women are in the man's neighborhood which he might be encouraged to marry. He also says a particular culture's taste in female desirability is manipulated by devils working through the media. The idea is to remove men's taste from the reality of women through media manipulation so that men hunger after abstract, unrealistic images and are unable to love the particular women right next to them.

Wormwood may also benefit from playing inside the patient's...