Fun Stuff > ENJOY
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
0bsessions:
Man, I don't realize that, because as I said, I haven't more than the vaguest familiarity with Christianity and it kind of proves my point, I think. Why should a non-Christian give a flying fuck if it's allegories to something they're not even familiar with to begin with?
Boro_Bandito:
Wow, you guys are taking my comments a bit further than I intended. I wasn't realy Christian bashing in my post. To answer Jon, see, I was raised in various christian sects through childhood, and I broke away from that as I got older. And its true, reading the books as a kid doesn't mean I shouldn't like them as an adult, in fact I thought I said that in my first post, guess I wasn't clear enough. Having going back and read the books recently, yeah, like Surgoshan says, there really is a lot of obvious stuff in there.
To answer Linds, yeah, Tolkien was christian before Lewis was. They were friends, and Lewis apparently one day had an epiphany for some reason. Gandalf being reborn is an obvious reference to Christ. Of course, it doesn't ruin my view of Tolkien either, but then I thought he was a better writer and I must've read the original Hobbit in excess of thirty times as a kid. My elementary school library gave me the book because I checked it out so many times. I still have it.
Edit: It matters Jon because we can see it. Why should it matter to a christian if the themes in Philip Pullman's novels are obviously atheist? Maybe it shouldn't, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't. A large part of it also is feeling tricked. If the themes and characters in the children's book you're reading at the time are drawing the same parallels as the bible study course you're in, it can reinforce those ideas on a somewhat unconcious level. True, just the fact that I'm atheist now means that that didn't necessarily work on me, but meh.
Talking about the Spoilers Below:
And also, hrivero, this version of Susan isn't married. If you'll remember, once they left Narnia they all became kids again, and forgot a lot about what had happened in the "years" that they'd spent there. She was a kid, it would've been creepier to think that she was still married. It sounds like a contrived plot idea, of course, but not really that wierd.
Also for the love of God the point of the post above yours has spoilers sectioned off for a reason! Fix your damn post before Hulk get angry!
jimbunny:
Just an offhand point, here: so it's obvious (much more obvious than in LOTR--and a lot of other modern literature, too, for that matter) that the Christian narrative finds its way into The Chronicles of Narnia in lots of ways. Is it really either a good story or an "allegory" (and I think that word is too often thrown about--real allegory finds a concrete stand-in for abstract ideas, while much of The Chronicles is just finding characters that stand in for other, biblical characters and pairing actions and events to other actions and events)? Even if you don't accept the Christian story as truth, there are definitely elements in it that make compelling myth. Lewis also wrote a novel retelling the myth of Cupid and Psyche (Till We Have Faces), which is a wonderful tale that is never explicitly Christian. You can find shared thematic material in that novel and in many, many others that is applicable both within and outside the Christian worldview. That doesn't make the material itself less deep and resonant, nor does it make the Christian religion unquestionably true.
0bsessions:
That's a point I was making in Gabbly. From what little I do know from the bible, I know it's a damn interesting story on its own. Just like many other religions, in 1500 years or so, Christianity will likely be relegated to the same status as Greek myth. A quaint idea that led to some pretty badass stories about morality.
Lines:
--- Quote from: Boro_Bandito on 19 May 2008, 10:01 ---To answer Linds, yeah, Tolkien was christian before Lewis was. They were friends, and Lewis apparently one day had an epiphany for some reason. Gandalf being reborn is an obvious reference to Christ. Of course, it doesn't ruin my view of Tolkien either, but then I thought he was a better writer and I must've read the original Hobbit in excess of thirty times as a kid. My elementary school library gave me the book because I checked it out so many times. I still have it.
--- End quote ---
Yeah I know. Tolkien was the one who converted him, basically. But don't worry, yours wasn't really the comment I was replying to.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version