Letters to the Editor
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Appreciating a work of literature "despite"
Miller states:
"Learning to appreciate a literary work's qualities when you disagree with it ... that's a skill you learn only as an adult"
This implies that kids lack the skill to appreciate a literary work's qualities when they disagree with it. But kids, by nature, do not AGREE or DISAGREE with a work of literature. BTW - this notion is also flawed - the idea of AGREEING with a literary work reduces literary works to STATEMENTS. But let's say, for the sake of argument that a literary work makes a STATEMENT. 99% of the time, kids do not perceive these STATEMENTS. I certainly didn't get a Christian subtext in the Narnia Chronicles.
When I was an undergrad I learned of the Christian themes of the Narnia Chronicles. I was a bit disappointed for about half a second but then I asked myself - why? The joy that I got from those books is undiminished. I'll be a dad in four months and I am already impatient for my son to get old enough to enjoy the Narnia Chronicles as much as I did -- STATEMENT or no.