"But with Narnia there's this other part where you know that the world in nowhere near so pure as Lewis writes it, that you know that there's a dark underbelly of Narnia just like everything else. Lewis tried to take all the old pagan stuff and weave it into a sweet little story, pure and neutered, and that's the reason why the Christian stuff doesn't kick me out, because I did independent research and learned some things about the old pagan stuff. And it's very easy to see all that other knowledge lurking around in the background."
You know, you're absolutely right. As a longtime atheist myself, the discovery that there were obvious Christian symbolisms in Narnia (a discovery I did not make until a few years after first reading the books, having actually read the Bible) ought to have put me off, but it didn't, and I don't understand why. For me--I know that there is a 'dark underbelly' to mythological characters, but that is not what still draws me to Narnia. I think--and this is probably just me--that since I knew the fauns, etc. to begin with in a 'depraved' context--I was pleased that someone had chosen to make them *innocent.* I'm no lover of children and I don't accept the idea of a Jehovah; Apollo, your golden mean, is far more congenial to me.
And it frightens me, because at times I feel certain as you do that the Turkish Delight was a symbol of something else. For then where should we be? My younger self, struggling to write a sequel to Narnia (yes, this was in second grade; yes, I entitled it "The Next Great Story!")needs somewhere to park her hat that has no hidden meaning, no darker connotations.
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Date: 2005-03-16 01:42 am (UTC)You know, you're absolutely right. As a longtime atheist myself, the discovery that there were obvious Christian symbolisms in Narnia (a discovery I did not make until a few years after first reading the books, having actually read the Bible) ought to have put me off, but it didn't, and I don't understand why. For me--I know that there is a 'dark underbelly' to mythological characters, but that is not what still draws me to Narnia. I think--and this is probably just me--that since I knew the fauns, etc. to begin with in a 'depraved' context--I was pleased that someone had chosen to make them *innocent.* I'm no lover of children and I don't accept the idea of a Jehovah; Apollo, your golden mean, is far more congenial to me.
And it frightens me, because at times I feel certain as you do that the Turkish Delight was a symbol of something else. For then where should we be? My younger self, struggling to write a sequel to Narnia (yes, this was in second grade; yes, I entitled it "The Next Great Story!")needs somewhere to park her hat that has no hidden meaning, no darker connotations.
Or maybe she just needs to grow up.