Dragaera

A question re: Beginning Fantasy for Youth

David Dyer-Bennet dd-b at dd-b.net
Mon Nov 25 21:28:31 PST 2002

"David Rodemaker" <dar at horusinc.com> writes:

> > #Matthew Hunter <matthew at infodancer.org> writes:
> > #> As for Narnia, no denying the allegory, but it's a good story
> > #> nonetheless.  It's not a book that tries to convert you, it's
> > #> just told from an explicitly Christian viewpoint.
> > #
> > #That's what bugged me, it's *not* explicitly christian.  It's a
> > #fantasy world, with non-christian fantasy religious elements, which he
> > #whips the covers off at the end and blatantly associates with
> > #christianity.  That's what pissed me off about it.
> >
> > Well, yeah. Except that for Lewis, the Christian mythos is absolutely
> > true about the universe. The fair question, as I see it, is: Did Lewis
> > expect the series to hit people this way, or could he reasonably have
> > expected it to? And if so, how did he feel about it? -- Not necessarily
> > questions we can answer.
> 
> The same argument could be made about LOTR, it's certainly as Christian as
> Narnia is...

Oh, nonsense.  I'll agree that LotR is compatible with (Tolkien's view
of) Catholic doctrine in some ways, but in fact one of the things I
like about it is the clear *absence* of religion from that world.

> The argument can be made that both T. and L. were Christian mystics (not in
> the occult sense but in the religious one) and were quite aware of what they
> were doing.

I'm sure they were too.
-- 
David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b at dd-b.net  /  http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/
 John Dyer-Bennet 1915-2002 Memorial Site http://john.dyer-bennet.net
	   Dragaera mailing lists, see http://dragaera.info