One of the things I like about Supernatural is their (  Sympathetic Portrayal of Religious People:  )

The Telmarine war cry is “Christ Amour”. This is not as bizarre as you’d think it would be (it isn’t in the books, but we’re not talking about what is or is not in the books right now). It only seems weird until you realize that there is no way the Telmarines could be unfamiliar with Christianity. They came into Narnia from an era in our world that was after the arrival of Christianity. The Magician’s Nephew tells the story of the creation of Narnia, from the pov of Edwardian era humans, and I once heard that C.S Lewis said the Telmarines arrived in the twenties. I have never heard anyone say this before or since though. But there’s a good chance (eighty percent, probably) that the Telmarines knew about Christianity before they entered Narnia.

I think that may be the point of them. I read a fic from a Telmarine pov where Peter is referred to as “the pagan king” and I thought “that is exactly how they’d see him”.

From their pov, the Narnians worship an animal and believe in a bunch of frightening minor nature gods. The Telmarines fear and hate anything related to Old Narnia, so they fear and hate Aslan, even to the point of desperately pretending he doesn't exist. And of course, Aslan is actually Jesus, so it's all about how Christians are cut off from their own god and are consequently terrified of perfectly normal things their god made. And you know, the horrible horrible things they do to other people in the name of the god they are carefully trying to keep locked away in some building.

They don't understand that Aslan *is* the same being their ancestors worshipped in our world, so they spend the whole book (and movie) trying to wipe out Old Narnia. Partly because the reality of God scares them so they have to put up walls in order to deal with it. And also, partly because they just don't comprehend that any version but their own is valid.

Like all those people who just couldn't understand that people who voted for Obama could also have strong Christian values and be voting according to them (although it's always been interesting that people during US elections say they're going to vote for "The Christian candidate"...as opposed to what, the Hindu candidate?)


I wanted this to be longer but I strained my hand today.

I would agree that C.S Lewis had some…issues. Every author does and the majority of them are flawed people in their personal lives. But it's unfair to flip out and overreact to every percieved instance of sexism in books that are hardly worse about gender relations than a lot of their contemporaries. I'm not under the delusion that he's some great feminist, but I can definitely say I've seen much, much worse. Like the last season of Angel.

Perhaps I own some special edited versions of the books, where all the Horribly Offensive Stuff has been removed?

Lewis has a chatty, conversational style, at least in these books. And while this means you feel as if he’s confiding in you personally, it also means people tend to feel like he’s personally approving or disapproving of their lives- the favorite uncle telling you wonderful stories by the fireside is someone you do not want to feel like you've let down and you feel betrayed when it turns out he's not perfect. They get very upset if his opinions on something are different from theirs- much more so than they do when they disagree with JKR or Terry Pratchett or Stephen King. And sometimes they overreact when they think he is making judgments about them, and start yelling before even considering that there might be something more to it or that they are taking things too literally or looking at it from the wrong angle. Everyone comes to a book with filters on based on their own life experiences, and sometimes we take these basic sets of meanings and try to plug them into every book whether it works in that book’s universe or not. Even if answers to questions asked are contained in parts of canon we haven’t bothered to read. But this is not a post about why Jadis is no misunderstood feminist icon.

It is, however, a bit of an UnPopular Fannish Opinion I'm about to express. And I'm probably going to regret it. This one's a two parter, folks.

( She Saved the World. A Lot : Girls, Battles and Belief )

The first line in the last book says “In the last days of Narnia” so it’s very clear that this is, in no uncertain terms, The End. I have a love/hate relationship with this book. It’s well done, except where it isn’t. It’s awesome, except where it sucks. And if you grew up in the world I grew up in, the entire plot has an extra level of scary attached. To make it easiest on myself, I’ll be tackling this book in entries split up by character, group of characters, or theme.

( Shift the Ape: Brother Hate’s Traveling Damnation Show )

I have two books left. The last book may stretch into more than one entry.

( If he was a lion he'd have to be a beast like the rest of us )

BBC "Silver Chair" movie trivia:
Camilla Power has actually…done other stuff. Wow. Stuff I’ve even seen or will see soon. And David Thwaites is listed as the producer of some movies I’ve either seen or heard of. I don’t usually find this is true of kids who starred in tv movies when I was little.

Back to book talk.

( Crying is all right while it lasts. But sooner or later you have to stop and then you still have to decide what to do )