Posted on 01/04/2021 3:20:53 PM PST by Making_Sense [Rob W. Case]
C.S. Lewis and accomplished author J.R.R. Tolkien sat down and had a talk about children’s stories in their day. Douglas Gresham, the stepson of C.S. Lewis’s, elaborated on this conversation between them. He said, “[Lewis and Tolkien] sat down and had a discussion about children’s literature that was being produced in those days. They found that they both agreed that children’s literature of that time was really not good enough for children. It didn’t say the things that children needed to hear. And it didn’t say the things that children would like to hear and enjoy. So, they both decided they would sit down and have a go at writing a children’s story.” The end result of that on J.R.R. Tolkien’s end was “The Lord of the Rings” which took the imaginary race similar to humans called “Hobbits” first introduced in “The Hobbit” and took it a step further, as the generation after Bilbo Baggins dealt with temptation, evil forces, their own shortcomings and fallibilities between the presences of adversity and absolute power, the mind, and their resolve in accomplishing the mission laid out for them. C.S. Lewis went a different route, creating a world that would convey deep and profound spiritual truths in a fantasy setting replete with fauns, minotaurs, dragons, dwarves, and so forth that would have a different “port of entry” in each story.
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It (and the 2nd Chapter of Acts musical version) inspired me to order some Turkish Delight off the Amazon to try it out.
I didn’t find it worth selling out my family for.
German Chocolate Cake, on the other hand...
Oh, never mind.
That, and I do wish that I could have a spiffy old Victorian style street lamp installed near my mailbox.
And I rather think that given current events, we may be seeing ‘Tashlan’ on the rise soon. (sigh)
The movie was incredible.
I cannot recall if I read the books or saw the movie before I picked up the Narnia books. I can say, however, it really should be required viewing in the younger grades as younger children can absorb the lessons being taught without even knowing they are ....learning life lessons.
I would put the Narnia books on the same track as Animal Farm in showing the reality of imposing differing views upon others that are dangerous, and how people must learn early on to stand for what’s good and upright.
Dear Christian Freepers, the final scenes of The Last Battle (Further Up and further In!) are so kabbalistic its as if CS Lewis were a closet chassidic rabbi.
Such an apt analogy of our infinite but traversable distance from G-d himself.
(Or course, its all relative. We believe that Torah study and commandments draw G-d “down” so to speak.... but thats just man’s prospective. Further down and Closer still!)
To quote goofy congressional prayer leaders, AMEN! Ail Melcher, Neheman.... G-d, Faithful King— reveal Your inseparable presence within your creation. From my flesh I see G-d....
Those books are not easy reads....and yet, as i ground through them, I found it fascinating, knowing that Lewis was once an agnostic and yet converted to Christianity (yes I know he was originally baptized and fell away). The book that influenced me most was to read about his religious passion as he watched his wife die in A Grief Observed. Every so often I’ll pick up one of his books and read or reread things I read years ago that really are thought provoking.
I loved the first Narnia film for its Christian emphasis. The sequels kind of lost that. As for Tolkien, I have all three LOTR films on DVD and all three Hobbit films on my tablet for streaming. After watching both series in the cineplex.
When I was a child, my Uncle bought me the Narnia series. I read them many times. As an adult, I purchased them for myself and read them again. When I had a child, I bought them for him. Now, I have a great-niece that I will be getting them for. For me, they were wonderous, captivating, imagination-fueling, and, later, as I grew older, I could see so much more of the meaning.
Just my take on them. The movies, eh, I preferred my imaginary journeys to Narnia and meeting Aslan.
I love the movie and won’t change the channel if I come across it on TV.
I recently read and then sent the following part of an article (from Narnia) to me in an email so I would have it on hand to read whenever necessary. From this articlehttp://www.reformedtheology.ca/deut10.html
:
What does it mean then, to fear God? Rather than give you a definition, allow me to share an example of the fear of God found in C.S. Lewis’ book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe . In this particular scene, one of the children asks Mr. and Mrs. Beaver about Aslan the Lion.
‘Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion’.
‘That you will, dearie, and make no mistake,’ said Mrs. Beaver. ‘If there is anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or just plain silly’.
‘Then he isn’t safe?’ said Lucy.
‘Safe?’ said Mr. Beaver; ‘don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king, I tell you’.
Is God safe? The Bible teaches that God makes Himself a place of refuge for those who trust in Him(Ps. 46:1). However, there is a larger sense in which God most definitely is not safe . The book of Hebrews reminds us that God is also “a consuming fire “ and cautions us therefore to worship Him “with reverence and awe “(Heb. 12:28-29).
Great point. When I was a kid, going to a Christian school, I learned about C.S. Lewis, and there was a really bad illustration (comic book type) with an excerpt from “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” Needless to say, I was not impressed. When I saw the movie in the theater originally (and I was in my mid 20’s then), it was so captivating to me that it sparked an interest and a fascination with C.S. Lewis and his work. I bought his books, bought books about him, bought the Narnia book with all 7 books incorporated into it, listened to his audiobooks, and even bought that big, thick book called “The Quotable C.S. Lewis.” Needless to say, those things are all treasures to me, as they helped place certain things in a perspective that I would use and benefit from ever since. It’s critical HOW a story is adapted, because that will determine the type of interest and fascination you build with your audience. And knowing that Douglas Gresham was involved in the production convinced me that the spirit would be faithfully conveyed.
I always saw “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” generally as a metaphor for faith, the subjective forces of evil, God’s plan for the ages, and how the Gospel message impacts and influences that world around them. The other films/stories were more of a subjective nature, where the characters deal with circumstances and situations that we deal with that are put to light in lieu of Aslan. For example, “Prince Caspian” was about living in dark and evil times and dealing with them as if Aslan was dead, and not losing one’s soul in the midst of war, evil rulers taking away the rightful power from the one who is supposed to inherit the throne. In “The Silver Chair”, Jill Pole and Eustace are supposed to listen to Aslan’s voice, but they have to overcome the distractions that inevitably would veer them off course. Voyage of the Dawn Treader was about dealing with the inner fallibilities and shortcomings that hinder us from accomplishing the greater mission. And so on and so forth. “The Magician’s Nephew” is the creation story of Narnia and the Genesis, if you will, of the rebellion and the forces of good vs. evil.
I also love “The Hobbit” and “Lord of the Rings” films. Their spiritual element is found predominantly in the spiritual war dynamics that saturate the story and the characters themselves, mixed with the dynamics of human weakness, corruption and how that is impacted by absolute power. When they are helped out (cue, the eagles), it is as divine intervention swooping in to prevent what would otherwise be a defeat, death, or some calamity that would negatively impact Middle Earth. Fascinating films, fascinating stories.
+1 for 2nd Chapter of Acts album mention.
Annie Herring had quite the voice back in the day.
I was disappointed Phil Keaggy didn’t do more guitar licks on that album, though.
Absolutely agreed about Tashlan...I was waiting for the MSM to come up with some version of “Trumbiden” but it hasn’t happened yet. ;-)
Go read his Space Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength
C.S. Lewis wrote of Narnia’s inspiration, himself:
“The Editor has asked me to tell you how I came to write The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
I will try, but you must not believe all that authors tell you about how they wrote their books. This is not because they mean to tell lies. It is because a man writing a story is too excited about the story itself to sit back and notice how he is doing it. In fact, that might stop the works; just as, if you start thinking about how you tie your tie, the next thing is that you find you can’t tie it. And afterwards, when the story is finished, he has forgotten a good deal of what writing it was like.
One thing I am sure of. All my seven Narnian books, and my three science fiction books, began with seeing pictures in my head. At first they were not a story, just pictures. The Lion all began with a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood. This picture had been in my mind since I was about sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself: ‘Let’s try to make a story about it.’
At first I had very little idea how the story would go. But then suddenly Aslan came bounding into it. I think I had been having a good many dreams of lions about that time. Apart from that, I don’t know where the Lion came from or why He came. But once He was there He pulled the whole story together, and soon He pulled the six other Narnian stories in after Him”
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