Luiseach

Do you mean 'archetypal'? If so, then yes, the redeemer narrative (involving resurrection, etc.) is not the sole property of Christian mythology.

Although I agree with you to a degree, and even though I don't think that Lewis was just trying to present Christian themes in the guise of a fairy tale (or fantasy novel), I think the issue of Lewis's role as a Christian apologist needs to be considered as significant in understanding his role as fiction writer.

His prefatory letter to LWW reads as follows:

'TO LUCY BARFIELD

My Dear Lucy,

I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand, a word you say, but I shall still be

your affectionate Godfather,

C.S. Lewis'

(underlining mine)

-----. C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, New York: HarperTrophy, 1950, 1978.

It might seem, at first glance, that Lewis is framing the narrative for LWW as just a fairy tale and nothing more. There is no mention of the Christian subtexts whatsoever. However, by signing the letter as Lucy's godfather - traditionally a person designated to safeguard a child's spiritual/religious development - a hint of the book's underlying didactic purpose peeks through.

It's in the Apocrypha. I'm using the following edition: The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Expanded Edition (Revised Standard Edition). Subtitle: An Ecumenical Study Bible.

2 Esdras appears before Tobit in the Apocrypha (at least it does in my copy).

Devilnaut

"Although I agree with you to a degree, and even though I don't think that Lewis was just trying to present Christian themes in the guise of a fairy tale (or fantasy novel), I think the issue of Lewis's role as a Christian apologist needs to be considered as significant in understanding his role as fiction writer."


Well, Christian religion (themes) is really just a way of presenting information and Lewis was probably just trying to present this same information. No reason to hold strictly to the same metaphors used in the bible (and I assume you agree that the essence behind a metaphor transcends the metaphor itself).

IMO the medusa makes a great witch, snakes coming from her head, encasing others in stone, being defeated by mirrors, all fit really well with the witch concept (not just in xian mythology but in all mythology).

Luiseach

I agree with your characterisation of a metaphor. I also think that despite Lewis's downplaying of the Christian subtexts to LWW, he was nonetheless trying to teach Christian lessons in morality using metaphors and symbolism which could straddle both the genre of the fairy tale and the Bible.

Although I completely concur that the Medusa is an excellent witch-type, and even though Lewis gives his witch the Medusa-like ability to turn people into stone, interestingly enough in Lewis's version she is anything but ugly:

'But behind him, on a much higher seat in the middle of the sledge sat a very different person - a great lady, taller than any woman that Edmund had ever seen. She also was covered in white fur up to her throat and held a long straight golden wand in her right hand and wore a golden crown on her head. Her face was white - not merely pale, but white like snow or paper or icing-sugar, except for her very red mouth. It was a beautiful face in other respects, but proud and cold and stern.'

-----. C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (New York: HarperTrophy, 1950, 1978) 31.

Devilnaut

Well, the ugliness of witches can often be a perception issue. Those who know see them as ugly, those in ignorance may not.

I think that occassionally witches are portrayed as outwardly and obviously ugly when they play a smaller role in the story and have therefore less depth, and especially from the perspective of a character who is in the know.

In a story where a witch is more of a main character (as she is in LWW) the author might lend the subject more depth by making her beautiful (popularly, to be sure, and therefore not essentially) on the outside and repulsive on the inside (especially in stories which follow the perspective of the protagonist, who learns of the ugliness as the story progresses).

Though I can't remember ever reading LWW so I think I'll shut up about this now

Amos

Yes, archetypal and therefore not exclusive to Christian mythology, but, at the same time, not part of every religion in multi religion mythologies. That was a nice letter he wrote to Lucy and isn't that how the LWW affects people? As a child we read it (I never did) and later in life we recognize it as real but not quite real in the way we first perceived it to be.

Do you not think that all (?) fairy tales are grounded in archetypal realities?

Dargo

Wasn't Lewis a fairly liberal Christian?

Luiseach

It's far more than a nice wee letter, though. Lewis was a master of rhetoric, what with being a Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature and all. Further, he was a Christian Apologist. In other words, this was a highly-educated man who was skilled in the effective and persuasive use of language to convey specific messages...and the main thrust of his messages in Narnia was, I would argue, Christian ideology.

The letter is positioned at the beginning of LWW, and appears at first glance to be rather charming and disingenuous. I agree. One needs to notice how Lewis signs his letter, however, for the underlying rationale of the Narnia series to become apparent. He doesn't simply sign with his name, but makes certain to highlight his role as Lucy's godfather.

When I read the Chronicles as a child, I never noticed the Christian symbolism throughout the series. It's disguised enough so that many people can read the narrative and extract meanings without being versed in biblical texts; at the same time, the narrative, despite its variations, alterations and disguises, also emphasises a distinctively Christian worldview which becomes more apparent the more familiar one is with Christian biblical literature.

I think it's amazing how Lewis managed to unite the traditional fairy tale form, characters and situations with the Christian belief system as per biblical texts (including Apocryphal ones). It's hard to tell where, exactly, the fairy tale ends and Christian apologetics take over in the Narnia series. The marriage is almost seamless.

I suppose if one is looking for archetypes in literature, one can easily find them. This is a psychoanalytic view of textual criticism, and one which perhaps limits a potentially richer understanding of the nuances in any given written work.

Fairy tales and LWW alike are about more than archetypes.

I think ideology (values, beliefs and attitudes of a given culture or society) plays a more salient role in written texts (biblical or literary) than psychological archetypes do.

Luiseach

I'm not sure what you mean by a 'liberal Christian'. Would you please define this?

Amos

Thanks for the elaboration Luise.

Of course they are more than archetypes but for them to be beautiful they must also communicate with our soul. Otherwise we would just read them for their beautiful lines (which is OK but only half of it).

Is this difference not why cultures are not all the same and also why they change over periods of time? I did read some Shakespearean criticism (boring) and that is what they concluded.

I would like to read something he wrote. Do you have any suggestions? (I have Tolkien but never read any of it).

Luiseach

No problem, Amos.

Okay. I agree that really good writing can move one on a level that is not necessarily purely intellectual/cerebral - the emotions must come into the experience, and are a necessary part of appreciating literature as an aesthetic event. Like enjoying a piece of beautiful music, or a lovely painting, or an excellent film.

And in a metaphorical sense, I suppose the word 'soul' could be used to encapsulate the effect that good literature, music or art can have on us.

Do you mean ideologies? Yes, definitely...I would think that the differences in beliefs, values and attitudes from culture to culture, or from one period of time to another, could indeed account for heterogeneity.

Even in one text - such as Lewis's LWW, or Shakespeare's Macbeth, or the Bible - there are ideological shifts and changes which can create tensions and paradoxes in the values, beliefs and attitudes being expressed.

With LWW, for instance, Lewis 'clothes' Christian ideology in a non-Christian genre (the fairy tale). The Christian message being expressed through the narrative is frequently at odds with the values attached to some of the fairy-tale elements of the story. I don't know if Lewis was aware of this or not, but the tensions between two often dissimilar sets of beliefs have made LWW neither pure Christian apologetics, nor undiluted fairy-tale fantasy, but something else again.

Do you mean Lewis? If so, then the Narnia series is enjoyable (if you haven't already read these books that is). Then there's his more 'serious' stuff, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, The Problem of Pain and The Case for Christianity, amongst others. Screwtape Letters is an excellent read. I've been reading a collection of his essays entitled Compelling Reason. Very interesting indeed, and somewhat surprising. Oh, and Surprised by Joy covers, amongst other events in his life, his re-conversion to the Christian faith. He also wrote some good science fiction.

Quite the multi-tasker, so he was.