Off the top of my head (I don’t have time right now to go look it up), this would have been Mrs. Moore, the widowed mother of one of Lewis’s friends who was killed in WWI. It’s not known for sure (biographers disagree) whether or not the relationship was sexual, or whether or not it could be considered happy or healthy.
This is weird for me, because I love the Narnia books, and I really enjoyed His Dark Materials, too.
I think we need to keep in mind not just Pullman’s comments, but the context in which they were made–or, more precisely, in which they were being reported. That article linked above mentions the fact that evangelical Christians are already embracing the upcoming movie and seeing it as a proselytizing tool. Pullman is not just peeved with Lewis and his works (and the secondary by-products thereof); what’s got his underwear bunched up is how these things are going to be used to further a current agenda which, in the eyes of many, has not been making the world a better place lately. At least that’s how I read it.
Regardless, I would still recommend both series to any interested readers. I like them, as stories, and I don’t feel that I nor anyone else needs to get hung up on anything beyond the essentials of the tales they tell.
Does it occur to Pullman that his books very effectively serve to promote the agenda he opposes (or at least, would, if the fundies had ever heard of them), whereas Lewis’ tend to take the wind out of their sails? The fundies argue that children’s fantasy literature promotes Godlessness or Satanism, to which one can point out the Narnia books as proof that that’s not necessarily the case. Pullman is not helping the cause of literature by writing a children’s fantasy series which really does promote Godlessness, just like the fundies rant about.
Ummm… cite?
Some fundamentalists have problems with specific books, but that is not the same as saying that children’s fantasy literature per se is bad or wrong. You might want to note that this site has dozens of books in the “Christian fantasy/sci-fi” genre.
The article I was referring to was not by Lewis (time to pit my poor memory) was “Nice Girls on Mars” by Poul Anderson, in the May 1956 F&SF. The article, which I just reread, notes that Polar explorers lasted even longer without women. In the same issue Miriam Allen deFord cuts Richardson a new one.
Anderson mentions that ancient Greeks wouldn’t have any problems. 
Ministering Angels, which I have read, is in the Jan. 1958 F&SF.
It’s been decades since I read the Narnia books, and I honestly remember nothing about them, but the point I find myself wondering about is this: even if the Narnia books are nakedly propagandistic, how can we suppose that the audience is even able to be influenced by it? Most children are purely literal-minded and impervious to symbolism. They take the story purely on its own terms – as a fantasy, not an allegory. Whole realms of understanding and allusion – not to mention large chunks of vocabulary – completely pass them by. It’s often striking to me how kids enjoy what they very incompletely understand. (To take an off-the-wall example, have you ever watched The Simpsons with your kids? They never laugh at the funny parts!)
You could argue for subliminal influence, but geez – how often does that work? That I remember nothing whatever of the books – even whether I like them – is a little revealing, and not just of the inadequacy of my memory.
Eh? Pullman’s books (which I have not read and therefore have no opinion about) may feed the maw of Fundamentalist umbrage, but so does natural selection, the Establishment clause, and Teletubbies. (I’m inclined to agree with them on the last issue, but only to a point of ridicule rather than reprobation.) My own personal and perhaps atypical experience with fundies is that they’ll take exception to whatever most inflames their indignation without regard to consistancy. Allegorical Christian fantasy or no, fanatics will find the moral toxins they look for by making whatever interpretation necessary. Personally, as I child I would have liked to have seen more literature that promoted “Godlessness”, or at least didn’t shove Christian beliefs down my throat. Lewis was, at least, (mostly) entertainingly subtle about his agenda.
They may not grasp the allegory, but the nature of the embedded morals is readily communicated. However, at least in the case of The Chronicles of Narnia, this speaks to its favor, as Lewis’ Apologistic viewpoint distills the most positive aspects of Christianity (acceptance, forgiveness, repentence, sacrifice, integrity, compassion, et cetera). In a way, they’re kind of an anti-Chick tract, and there is much ethical value to be gained from them due to, or perhaps in spite of, the allegory. Of course, there are some negatives as well, but most of these reflect more of the attitudes of the society in which Lewis lived in (and the pecularities of his life) than anything attributable to the Bible.
Stranger
Obviously mileage will vary from one Christian to the next. Nevertheless, there are some Christians who have universally declared all fantasy and science fiction to be evil, on the ground that it isn’t true. Here’s just one example; there are tons of others out there.
Sample quote: “Most good Christians would recognize the Star Wars movies as being extremely wicked.”
Nah, just the prequels and “special editions”. The only extremely wicked thing in the original movies are the Ewoks.
Sample quote “God hates […]”
They say parables deal with truth, and fantasy doesn’t. Um, beg the question much?
I don’t know. As a Christian, I found the speeder bike sequence to be totally wicked. When that one speeder is getting all up in Luke’s grill and then he does a swerve at the last minute and the dude ends up smashing into a tree BOOM! that was just rad.
As for the topic: I think Slow Mind Thinking said it best – why does something have to be totally secular to be acceptable? When I read the Narnia books as a child, the parallels to Christianity had to be pointed out to me. And keep in mind that I was surrounded by Christianity all the time, and I like to think I wasn’t all that dense.
Looking at the books as adults, we can see the parallels, but kids are looking for adventure stories. The idea that the Narnia series is exposing unwary, unwilling children to Christianity is every bit as ludicrous as saying that the Harry Potter series exposes children to witchcraft. Objecting to Narnia because of its Christian themes isn’t atheist, it’s anti-theist and reactionary.
Well I suppose that “some Christians” can be said have said/done all sorts of things; I suppose that somewhere, sometime, some atheist has said the same thing.
But given that Bob frickin’ Jones Press – about as fundamentalist as you can get – sells the Narnia books, I’d have to say that those issuing blanket condemnations are pretty darn rare. Ascribing such a view to Christians, even fundamentlist ones, is at least as hasty a generalization as the one that got **Psycho Pirate ** pitted.
Bob Jones Sr supposedly met C.S. Lewis once & came away grumbling “The man smokes a pipe and drinks alcohol, but I do believe he is a Christian.”
Oh- as to whether C.S. wrote Narnia to be a Christian allegory. From his various comments about it, I gather that- No, he did not set out to write a Christian allegory for children, but Yes, various aspects of the Narnia series did come out
being Christian allegory, some deliberately, some not. Not everything in Narnia is allegorical. Yes, LionW&W is the Gospel of Narnia, The Magician’s Nephew its Genesis & The Last Battle its Apocalypse, but Prince Caspian, Dawn Treader, Horse & Boy & Silver Chair don’t have such neat Biblical parallels.
The quote earlier in the thread makes me think that he didn’t plot out an insidious campaign of propaganda in advance; but I’ve seen nothing suggesting that he didn’t think, “I’d like to write some Christian fiction for children!” and then do so.
He’s certainly a good storyteller. And I’ve read heavily Christian fantasies that didn’t bug me. But his particular version of Christianity, especially as it appeared in The Silver Chair (my favorite as a kid–my bleak sensibilities go way back), really turned me off when I read it as an adult.
Daniel
Just out of sheer curiosity, I’m going to ask if you’ll name names.
I’d’ve liked to be a fly on the wall and heard what ol’ Jack came away grumbling
The Narnia books are also heavily pro-alcohol and pro-tobacco, btw.
I remember a while back hearing Pullman criticize the Narnia books. I think his problem with Susan being excluded from Narnia for her grown-up habits, was not so much that it suggested that loss of ‘child-like wonder’ would exclude one from the good life, more that it was portraying the loss of ignorant childish naivety (and thus the attainment of adult rationality) as a Bad Thing.
As an atheist/humanist, Pullman preferred the idea that children should aspire to be knowledgable and rational, leaving behind the ‘fairytale’ of Christianity, amongst other things.
I have no cite I’m afraid, I just remember thinking he had a reasonable point - though I can’t myself remember finding the Narnia books intrusively religious…
So they aren’t all bad.
He’d have an even more reasonable point if, say, Susan’s falling away had been attributed to reasonable doubts that she had entertained since taking a Master’s in philosophy, although the point’s not entirely proved even then (check out The Great Divorce for a satire on religious thinkers who subscribe to a point of view because it is popular, earns accolades, and advances the thinker’s career, rather than because he evaluates it and considers it true). What Susan did was to trade childlike innocence and the considerable personal privilege of having known Aslan himself for the gaudy vapidity of cocktail parties and boyfriend-dangling.
And the sticking point, of course, is whether Christianity is indeed a fairytale; and if it isn’t, then so far from it being a mark of knowledgeable rationality to leave it behind, it is the height of folly. (Not wishing to corner you and force you to defend Pullman’s views, you understand.)
Indeed not. As a rule of thumb, characters in Narnia stories (whether there or on Earth) who abhor tobacco or good honest booze should be treated with grave suspicion. There may be exceptions, but if you found yourself there and had to make a snap judgement, it’d be no worse a barometer than any other, and better than many.