2. Do you agree with the dual definitions of "real"?Yes, people do use the word "real" a bit hypocritically, don't they?
3. What does Screwtape mean by "they are more often in the predicament of paying for the cake and not eating it?"The opposite of eating the cake and having it too. Screwtape says that people accuse one another of wanting this. In context it might go like this: "You always think of children at play being real life but bodies splattered on the pavement as being less real somehow!"
As Screwtape points out, people are actually more likely to believe that the horrible things in life are real, but the pleasant things are not.
4. The following reminded me of
The Silver Chair:
The Screwtape Letters wrote:Keep him comforting himself with the thought of how much he will enjoy his bed next night.
Sounds a bit like Jill and Eustace, right?
5. Also, Lewis said something that is very nearly like what I said in response to a previous letter and I'd like to share it:
The Screwtape Letters wrote:Whatever men expect they soon come to think they have a right to: the sense of disappointment can, with very little skill on our part, be turned into a sense of injury.