In the sixth* book of Chronicles of Narnia, the story’s protagonist, Digory Kirke, has an ethical dilemma. His beloved mother, Mabel, is dying of cancer†; he has gone on quest in hopes of finding a cure for her. As a result he brings the wicked sorceress Jadis to the newly created world of Narnia; he brings the serpent into Eden.
The Great Lion Aslan send Digory to a certain Garden, where he can obtain a magic fruit to protect Narnia from evil for a season. On this errand, Digory encounters Jadis, who points out that the fruit he has obtained has the power to save his mother from death.‡ But when Jadis (who has already eaten a magic apple and gained immortality) reveals her essentially wicked behavior by suggesting that Digory betray his friend Polly, he realizes that no course of action she suggests will be to his or his mother’s ultimate benefit, and thus declines.
When Digory returns from his errand, the Great Lion confirms his intuition. In so doing, Aslan breaks what one of his own rules**: he tells Digory what would have happened if he had stolen the magic apple, as well as what would have happened if a Narnian had gone unbidden to retrieve one for the country’s protection. His mother would have recovered, only to live a life of misery and woe so great that she would have regretted her recovery; and Narnia would have been become a great, powerful, wicked empire, rather than the kindly land Aslan means it to be.
This grieves Digory greatly, who takes Aslan to mean that his mother cannot be saved. But such is not the case. Continuing the breatking of his rule, Aslan says that none of t hat will come to pass now. He gives Digory an Apple. Digory takes it home and gives it to Mabel. She recovers and lives a long and happy life afterwards.
Narnia fans: Am I alone in being bothered by this resolution? I think it’s both an artistic and philosophical misstep. Anyone care to defend it?
Damn you, HarperCollins!
† Yes, I’m perfectly aware the book never says what her illness is. Bite me.
‡ Well, stave off her death, anyway. Thanatos is always the final emperor. Stupid thermodynamics.
** This is part of why I insist on calling MN the sixth book. The discontinuty of rules is not something you notice if you read the series in the stupid HarperCollins order.
I had a long, thoughful reply here, but it disappeared. And it’s 1:05 pm which means time for me to go home for the holiday.
I’ll just make my three main points:
I never noticed the inconsistency with Aslan’s rules, and I agree, but it doesn’t particularly bother me.
It would be more interesting story-wise if Dig’s mother died, and would provide an opportunity for Aslan to explain the nature of tragedy and suffering to Digory. If MN had been written after Lewis’ wife died, I wonder if this would have been done differently.
It’s a children’s book, so even though the ending is a little clean and pat, it’s not necessarily inappropriate for the type of fairy tale it is.
All seriousness aside, it is pretty obvious wish-fulfillment for Lewis, whose own mother died of cancer. I can forgive my favorite writer much.
Artistically? It’s a fairy tale, and it needs a happy ending. It might have worked better if Lewis could have worked it into the last book, so that Digory’s mom dies and then they are reunited in heaven like the rest of the characters. But I am not author enough to see how that could be done.
I dunno, the reason I call The Magician’s Nephew the sixth book is that it’s the sixth book. What more reason is necessary?
As for the situation in the story, it looks to me to deliver exactly the point that it was meant to, the difference between a gift freely given and a theft. Evil leads to evil, and good leads to good. Since Digory followed the good path, without heed for the reward, he gets it.
And thanks for the cheesecake you teleported over… Is this honey drizzled on the top from your own hives?
I certainly don’t remember it bothering me when I last read the book, though it’s been awhile. I don’t have the book with me right now, so I can’t defend it as well as I’d like. I do agree with Chronos’s point about theft vs. a gift freely given. And I agree with others who said that the ending is apt for a fairy tale.
And I dimly recall Aslan telling Digory something (which I cannot remember well enough to do justice to) to the effect that people do die and sad things do occur. So, in giving us a happy ending, Lewis is not preaching that happy endings are guaranteed in this world to people who do the Right Thing.
Were I defending this resolution in a court of Artistic Law, I might, or might not, find some way to appeal to Chesterton’s Doctrine of Conditional Joy.
On a slight tangent, what’s up with the footnotes? First an asterisk, then a dagger, then a double dagger, then two asterisks. Is that standard practice? Also, how do you even make the daggers? If I ever need them, I’ll probably just end up looking up this thread, then do cut-and-paste.
“Magician’s Nephew” was my favorite of the series. It had that cool world with ponds everywhere that turned out to be portals to other worlds, and rings to allow you to pass. Plus it had a really nice charcoal gray cover … not as good as the LW&W turquoise … but still nice. I forgot about the dying mother. Who cares that Aslan changed his rules to save her? He’s still one of the most internally consistent deities out there.
No, it never crossed my mind to be bothered by that. And in fact, I never noticed Aslan’s inconsistency. But since you brought it up, here’s something that always has bothered me.
In Dawn Treader, Lucy uses a spellbook to eavesdrop on two of her schoolmates. Naturally, she hears them being catty, and is devastated. Later, Aslan tells her that the one girl really is her friend, only “She is afraid of the older girl and has said what she does not mean.”
(Paraphrased from memory) “I don’t think I can ever forget what she said.”
“No, you won’t.”
“Oh, Aslan, do you think we would have gone on to be great friends all our lives if–”
“My child, don’t you know that no one is ever told what would have happened?”
That’s the inconsistency you speak of, but forget that for a sec. She said forget, not forgive. Is Aslan/Lewis’s faith consistent with “To understand all is to forgive all”? I’ve forgiven plenty of people once I heard their side of things. Surely Saint Lucy of the Wardrobe could do the same.
Thudlow posted that, but doesn’t have the book to hand…and neither do I. So can someone who does check that quote for any allusion to the two wars that were yet to happen in Digory’s timeline, but that Aslan undoubtedly had some foreknowledge of? Especially the first one, that Digory would probably have to fight in, as Lewis did. (And while you’re at it, can you also post the quote about Aslan returning to Narnia being like King Arthur returning to England, [again, paraphrased] “as some say he will do any day now. And I say the sooner the better.” Harrumph!)
It’s a Rhymer thread. Rhymer threads are supposed to be silly. I think it’s in the faq.
Are you on a PC? If so, run the Character Map program and search for dagger. It’s pretty self-explanatory from there.
I too like MN, especially as an adult; as I wrote about at the time, it was a comfort to me after my mother’s death a few years back. But I think the ending’s a cheat somehow, because I think that Aslan had good reason for always refusing to answer the “What would have happened?” question. Admittedly, He generally refuses to do so when someone asks what would have happened if they had not sinned or disobeyed, rather than someone asking what would have happened if they HAD done wrong.
No, it doesn’t bother me. The Last Battle bothered me a lot (though it serves a purpose in Jack’s little book project, I get that now). Perelandra bothered me enough I never finished it. Jack’s pathetic attempt at justifying the Trinity in Mere Christianity perhaps bothered me a little. The way some Xtians treat The Screwtape Letters like it’s real bothers me. Bits of The Great Divorce are pretty obnoxious.
But The Magician’s Nephew? Maybe I was bothered by that once, but I doubt it; it seems pretty standard fairy-story stuff. The Deplorable Word is more disturbing, admit it.
In any case, it’s good that our heroes make big obvious clonky mistakes, so we see they are not infallible & their knowledge is not perfect.
Doesn’t bother me a bit. I don’t even see where there’s a problem. Digory makes the right choice, the good choice, and is ultimately rewarded. Standard fairy tale stuff. And as for Aslan breaking his own rule, well, he’s Aslan–who else should get to break his rule besides himself?
And you can even weasel out of that, if you like: given that TMN is chronologically the first story, and all the other references to the “no one is told what would have happened” rule occur after that story, one could argue that the rule was not even enacted at that point; that Aslan’s revelation to Digory is the event that creates the philosophical problem that leads to the creation of the rule. And thus, Skald’s problem disappears in a puff of logic.