From: djdaneh@pbhyc.PacBell.COM (Dan'l DanehyOakes)
Subject: Re: C.S. Lewis  (Re: Jumping to conclusions in r.a.b, etc.)
Reply-To: djdaneh@PacBell.COM (Dan'l DanehyOakes)
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 23:14:49 GMT

In article <1992Jul29.184153.399@leland.Stanford.EDU> gere@umunhum.stanford.edu (Susan Gere) writes:

>>>C.S. Lewis maintained that he did not *intend* Christian allegory 
>>>in his Narnia books.

>>OK, I'll bite.  Can you cite your source(s) for this?  

> I hope y'all are happy; I had to grub through the boxes in my garage
>for this. But it was worth it; I'll quote some of the priceless parts 
>below.
>
> But first, Walter Hooper (literary executive for the Lewis estate) 
>speaks:
>	There are, doubtless, others besides myself who were puzzled 
>	not to find in the fragment a high theological theme such as
>	that which runs through the other interplanetary books. I think
>	the answer is--indeed Lewis says so himself--that he never began
>	any story with a moral in mind, and that wherever there is one 
>	it has pushed its own way in unbidden.
>
>	[--from Notes to "The Dark Tower"]

This is nonsense on two levels.

On the first level, because "The Dark Tower" is a fragment, not of a Narnia
book, but of a "Space Trilogy" book -- it was, in fact, the first attempt at
a sequel to OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET, which went nowhere, probably because it
had nowhere to go.

And on the second level, because whatever general statements Lewis may have 
made, he made at least one very specific statement about the Narnia books as
allegory:  I don't have the source with me (it's in Lewis' "Letters," among 
other places), but the sense was that, from his own experience, he felt that a 
lot of Christianity seemed puzzling or ridiculous to young people; and that any 
attempt to explain the seemingly puzzling or ridiculous parts would be met with 
resistance by internal censors -- what CSL called the "watchful dragons" of the 
child's mind.  

The Narnia books (he explicitly states) are an attempt to slip the basic ideas 
of Christianity -- or rather illustrations and explications of them -- "past" 
those "watchful dragons," and thus make them -- I don't know, is the word 
"palatable" applicable here?  Thus, for example, THE LION. . . is, among other 
things, an attempt to answer the question "how can the death of someone else, 
a very long time ago, save me today?"


>Gentle Readers, I can fleetingly regret that I am what he calls later 
>in this same story so "modern"* that I can read the above with but one 
>interpretation.  And so it is for some with Christian-like images. It's
>unfortunate, and one of the things that makes Tolkien a superior writer
>of fantasy. His acquired Catholic faith does not show through to middle
>earth much at all (thank you, Jeyzus).

Um.  Acquired?

JRRT was *raised* Catholic by his mother.


		He's got a mask that's black and white
		  Mine's just black but that's all right
		In silence and cunning he plies his trade
		  I ply mine in silence and shade
		[. . .]
		In the heart of the city it's murder time
		  It ain't no crime to kill a mime
			-- "Killing a Mime" by Visual Purple

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, Net.Roach
My opinions do NOT represent Pacific Bell,
Professional Development, or anyone else.
But I'm willing to share.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books