[Ua] Narnia was (Re: Parables...)

[Chad Underkoffler]

> Date: 9 Feb 2001 14:33:12 -0000
> From: "Nick Wedig" <mrteapot at disinfo.net>
> 
>>> ewww. i feel all dirty and used. reminds me of when, as a 
>>> kid, i started getting suspicious of the narnia books.
>>>
>>> ASLAN: I am a lion here, but in your world i am a lamb.
>>> ME: Hey, wait a minute...
>>
>> But *that's* the *point*!
>>
>> Sheesh, it's like getting suspicious that DRACULA might be
>> about vampires.
>
> But Dracula is completely open about beings about vampires.
> Everyone knows it, it's got a vampire on the cover and 
> everyone's seen the movies.  

Actually, no. 

UYou've hit a button. My apologies in advance.

Only through reading DRACULA do you discover that Count Dracula,
Mr. Harker's client, is a supernatural creature. Sure, the
environment you're in that lets you know that DRACULA is about
vampires; but there are environments where it's a known fact
that Narnia is implicitly Christian. Environment is not
universal.

> But Narnia doesn't tell you "I'm a parable for Christianity"
> but rather gives you a nice fantasy world much like the Oz 
> books or the Lord of the Rings, and a little kid doesn't 
> expect or typically find out it's a religious parable until 
> later.  

The core concept of Narnia is simple: "What would a world where
the Messiah is a lion, rather than a man, be like?" The reader
learns this through reading the book, just as the reader learns
that Dracula is a nosferatu through reading DRACULA.

It's not hidden. It's not sneaky. It's there, in the open. It's
bloody obvious. There's no conspiracy here. Hell, in CS LEWIS'S
LETTERS TO CHILDREN, he tells the core concept to kids who write
him again and again. Only the terminology and execution-- the
story as it plays out-- is different.

Listen, if you were reading, say, THE BRONZE BOW (which I did in
grade school) a novel that happens to be set during the time of
Jesus's ministry in Galilee and deals with the J-man as a
character, would you be upset that it's some sort of "allegory"?
It's not a parable or allegory, it's a *sotry* utilizing those
characters.

> ObUA: um... so that's Aslan's some sort of True King, eh?

Only if Jesus is, to which I'd say "yeah."



=====
Chad Underkoffler [chadu at yahoo.com]
http://www.geocities.com/chadu/index.html
"Hold your breath. Make a wish. Count to three."
  -- Willy Wonka

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