thecosmicdance (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} thecosmicdance) wrote, |
I never "get" those who feel angry and betrayed because a story was "about" something they don't intellectually agree with.
After all, they never let people who hold opinions *they* disagree with, get away with that. Wow...that sounded bitter.
because it "tricked" them into considering Christianity.
I've never heard of it really working, but I saw this macro on narnia_secrets (which is anonymous)that had some text talking about how this person wasn't religious but they still liked Narnia and "if I knew that was how it would really end, I'd turn Christian". I thought that was so incredibly sad. Like, they wanted so badly to believe it but just couldn't make that final leap.
I didn't think "everyone wants to believe that and nobody knows for sure" was a good answer. :\
What they should be considering is why they liked the story before they knew what it was supposed to be about, and whether the author may have written something more universal than he intended.
To be fair, I've met a lot of people who had that reaction too. Probably more than the ones that went "arrgggh!" and threw the book across the room.
I mean, consider the nature of Aslan's sacrifice. Some might argue that it wasn't truly Christlike, because Christ suffered the ultimate doubt at the end ("Eli, Eli...") whereas Aslan went into it knowing perfectly well about the Older Magic.
I suspect that Lewis preferred a Jesus who didn't have doubts at the end because he was too well prepared and was pretty sure he'd come out of it okay. Which is very normal, most people don't want to deal with a Jesus who might have had doubts or hadn't planned it. So Aslan has to outsmart the witch, rather than just being the victim of unstoppable mystical forces or just plain lucky someone up there liked him. Which, yeah, kind of does make him look more like a trickster. But hey, if someone can relate to that, if it works for them.
What I'm trying to say is that the author's welcome to have his agenda, but that sometimes you have to ignore the author's "agenda" and listen to what the story itself is telling you.
Oh I know, after all, I've had to do that with Pullman, or with certain episodes of Joss Whedon shows but I mean, there's some practical plot points that people who don't know enough about Christianity are confused by. Like, you have to know the obscure or not so obscure bit of Christian history or mythology and then run it through what I'm going to have to call "The Lewis Filter" and then you go, "oh yeah, I see how it makes sense now". You can always choose another explanation if you want but people keep knocking themselves out trying to fanwank answers to things there are already answers to. Maybe the answers I think I have are just fanwanks too, I dunno.
After all, they never let people who hold opinions *they* disagree with, get away with that. Wow...that sounded bitter.
because it "tricked" them into considering Christianity.
I've never heard of it really working, but I saw this macro on narnia_secrets (which is anonymous)that had some text talking about how this person wasn't religious but they still liked Narnia and "if I knew that was how it would really end, I'd turn Christian". I thought that was so incredibly sad. Like, they wanted so badly to believe it but just couldn't make that final leap.
I didn't think "everyone wants to believe that and nobody knows for sure" was a good answer. :\
What they should be considering is why they liked the story before they knew what it was supposed to be about, and whether the author may have written something more universal than he intended.
To be fair, I've met a lot of people who had that reaction too. Probably more than the ones that went "arrgggh!" and threw the book across the room.
I mean, consider the nature of Aslan's sacrifice. Some might argue that it wasn't truly Christlike, because Christ suffered the ultimate doubt at the end ("Eli, Eli...") whereas Aslan went into it knowing perfectly well about the Older Magic.
I suspect that Lewis preferred a Jesus who didn't have doubts at the end because he was too well prepared and was pretty sure he'd come out of it okay. Which is very normal, most people don't want to deal with a Jesus who might have had doubts or hadn't planned it. So Aslan has to outsmart the witch, rather than just being the victim of unstoppable mystical forces or just plain lucky someone up there liked him. Which, yeah, kind of does make him look more like a trickster. But hey, if someone can relate to that, if it works for them.
What I'm trying to say is that the author's welcome to have his agenda, but that sometimes you have to ignore the author's "agenda" and listen to what the story itself is telling you.
Oh I know, after all, I've had to do that with Pullman, or with certain episodes of Joss Whedon shows but I mean, there's some practical plot points that people who don't know enough about Christianity are confused by. Like, you have to know the obscure or not so obscure bit of Christian history or mythology and then run it through what I'm going to have to call "The Lewis Filter" and then you go, "oh yeah, I see how it makes sense now". You can always choose another explanation if you want but people keep knocking themselves out trying to fanwank answers to things there are already answers to. Maybe the answers I think I have are just fanwanks too, I dunno.