Letters to the Editor
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Come on
"... one of the most astonishing child performances I've seen in years -- maybe since Drew Barrymore's in 'E.T.'"
Oh, for Christ's sake, see Ponette. Or the Joy Luck Club. Or The Piano. Whatever, just get out more.
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Religion and Narnia
I think the only thing causing me not to want to see this movie is the fact that it has been overmarked to religious groups. All of the Narnia stories need to be viewed as purely fantasy. Although Lewis was a born again Christian that does not mean that he intended these novels to carry subliminal religious meanings. He wrote these stories originally to read to children. When did we stop watching movies for entertainment and start watching them for any type of life changing meaning.
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God, what a stunning review this is
It's one of the best things I have ever read on Salon, and I have been reading for a very long time. The review took complex dynamics of political interference and dismissed each with a polished nail. It focused on the story and the execution of that story on screen, and boiled my blood to see it.
Advice to all: do not cede a lick of ground to the right wing over this movie. Why let them have all the diamonds?
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edmund
Interesting to see they've filled out a backstory on Edmund. As I remember, there was none of that in the Narnia books, and as I child I remember finding Edmund a distinctly unsympathetic character in many respects. I wonder if this is a tinge of American psychologizing that's snuck in the back.
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Narnia Article
Please note that "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe@ is NOT the first installment of the Narnia series - it is the second. The first in the series is called "The Magicians Nephew"...
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Stephanie's review
As for Stephanie's review, I enjoyed it. I look forward to seeing "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," Christian allegory or not. It sounds delightful, and I loved reading Ms. Zacharek's take on it- especially with her charming comparison of it to an old loved sweater. Anyway, I think it's ironic how people whine when she doesn't like something, and cry that she never writes a positive review; yet when she does like something, people take her to task as well for not. What silliness.
(Actually, "The Magician's Nephew" only became the first installment when Harper Collins repackaged the Narnia series several years ago. Until then, they were listed in the order that C.S. Lewis had written them.)
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Why the Hostility?
"[M]any fans of the Narnia books who've put up with or ignored the novels' Christian subtext..."
Why the hostility toward Christianity? Is it really necessary here? It pervades Ms. Zacharek's review and it is wholly unnecessary.
That Mr. Lewis fully intended this story to be an allegory of Christianity cannot be ignored, any more than the allegory of McCarthyism in "The Crucible" or communism in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers".
There is ample opportunity for Ms. Zacharek and Salon.com to rail against "Christians" in other matters, political and social. Ignoring or denigrating the obvious, intended subtext from a work of entertainment just seems mean-spirited and a bit too zealous. After all, there is nothing in the constitution that says that entertainment or literature needs to be separate from religion, is there?
By the way, when Salon.com and it's contributors sneer at "Christians" in their copy, just who are they sneering at? All Christians? Roman Catholics? Evangelicals? Liberal christians like, say, Ted Kennedy, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bill Clinton, John Kerry? Or is this just a blanket demonization?
Who?
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Stephanie's review of Narnia...
I've got to ask: why the defensiveness about the Christian imgaery that Lewis wrote into the book? He didn't mean it to be an allegory; but Stephanie sound as though she views Christian subtext as a dangerous thing, likely to ruin an otherwise good story. Does she know anything about the man who wrote the book?
I think she is demonstrating some of that reflexive hostility that 'progressives' seem to have these days towards religion. They'll deny it, but it is pretty obivious.
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Stephanie's review of Narnia...
I've got to ask: why the defensiveness about the Christian allegory that Lewis wrote into the book? Stephanie sound as though she views that as a dangerous thing, likely to ruin an otherwise good story. Does she know anything about the man who wrote the book?
I think she is demonstrating some of that reflexive hostility that 'progressives' seem to have these days towards religion. They'll deny it, but it is pretty obvious.
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Edmund and fauns
I just re-read the book two weeks ago. It hints, actually, that Edmund has changed since going to a new school, maybe because he's being bullied.
Meanwhile... Stephanie, thank you for you in-depth description of the legs of the fauns that inhabit Narnia. I was wondering.
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Lewis and Christian Allegory
As far as being "defensive" about the Christian content of the Chronicles of Narnia, it's not C. S. Lewis that is causing the problem. Lewis wrote them as allegories (which is one of the reasons Tolkien, who said "I cordially distrust allegory in all its manifesations," disliked them), so there's really nothing much to go on about there. What Zacharek and other "progressives" are "wary" about is the one-dimensional prosletizing with which retrogressive Christianists have surrounded the movie. It is the desire to read "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" as ONLY Christian allegory, and thus as prime fodder in the never-ending culture wars necessary to keep born-again and not-so-born-again types motivated, that is off-putting. Of course this produces multiple ironies. Lewis, the staunch Anglican, has about as much in common with the bible-thumping evangelicals who have claimed him as Tokien had with hippies who exclaimed "Frodo Lives!"--which is to say nothing at all. And as a committed academic/intellectual and careful reader of complex texts, he would have been appalled at having even his children's books reduced to propaganda. He would have agreed that eveyone should be "wary" of that.
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the Christians and the Pagans...
I've always thought of the "Chronicles of Narnia" as being almost as Pagan as Christian, what with the positive depictions of fauns and centaurs and the somewhat nature-embracing attitude. Frankly, if J.K. Rowling was visibly Christian, then the christofascists would probably have embraced Harry Potter as Christian allegory, too.
I've never noticed any particular hostility towards religion itself in Salon, just as I have no animosity towards religion myself. Rather, it's the behavior in which some people engage in the name of Christianity that "progressives" and "liberals" scorn. And that's why many of us dread the expected cultural takeover of this movie by the Talibaptists. Kindness, compassion and herosism are not exclusively "Christian" values.