Yeah, I think you're right that in this scenario Lewis really is equivalent to the Emperor Beyond the Sea rather than to Aslan himself.
Perhaps he succeeds in writing a Christian story, but it's better and wilder and more interesting and less dogma-driven than what we think of as "Christian stories", and so it doesn't match our mental categories.
Mm, yeah--but Lewis' Christianity is also not very much like any other Christianity. I think we're agreeing at base, but using very different words? I guess what strikes me, especially as compared to G.P. Taylor who is awful, is that even beyond the blatantly allegorical stuff that doesn't register as such to many child readers much of what Lewis would have pointed to as "Christian" I just see as good ethics. They're in that Venn diagram intersection zone.
Your comments on the unsatisfactory nature of a lot of Lewis' later Narnia characters really brought home to me that I'm not sure whether Lewis considered them REAL, in a meaningful way.
I've been convinced since LWW--I think we talked about this--that for Lewis Narnia is totally a sandbox. It's a very nice sandbox, but a sandbox all the same, and when the sandbox gets grungy you have to dump out the sand and start over. I think you're right about the Pevensies/England/Narnia from Lewis' perspective, but I just can't share that perspective.
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regna
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Date: 2011-03-30 04:23 (UTC)Perhaps he succeeds in writing a Christian story, but it's better and wilder and more interesting and less dogma-driven than what we think of as "Christian stories", and so it doesn't match our mental categories.
Mm, yeah--but Lewis' Christianity is also not very much like any other Christianity. I think we're agreeing at base, but using very different words? I guess what strikes me, especially as compared to G.P. Taylor who is awful, is that even beyond the blatantly allegorical stuff that doesn't register as such to many child readers much of what Lewis would have pointed to as "Christian" I just see as good ethics. They're in that Venn diagram intersection zone.
Your comments on the unsatisfactory nature of a lot of Lewis' later Narnia characters really brought home to me that I'm not sure whether Lewis considered them REAL, in a meaningful way.
I've been convinced since LWW--I think we talked about this--that for Lewis Narnia is totally a sandbox. It's a very nice sandbox, but a sandbox all the same, and when the sandbox gets grungy you have to dump out the sand and start over. I think you're right about the Pevensies/England/Narnia from Lewis' perspective, but I just can't share that perspective.