(urth) Religious writers and audiences

[James Wynn]

> _The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia_ by Laura 
> Miller. Basically: young girl loves Narnia, clueless about the 
> religious aspect. Grows up, eyes open, feels betrayed by the allegory. 
> Gets even older, comes to terms with loving a book that she does not 
> at all "believe."But it brings to mind two questions about Wolfe:
> 1) In what sense do people feel that his books are "allegorical" (even 
> in the loosest sense) of his (or any) religious views? I take it here 
> that allegorical means more than being informed-by-religion and 
> actually instructive-of or apologetic-for a certain theology, as Lewis 
> apparently wanted Narnia to be?

1) Sometimes his work is apologetic and sometimes it isn't. The Sun 
Cycle --the setting and heroes-- are Christian Gnostic. Actually, the 
setting of the Wizard Knight is Gnostic as well with it's layers of 
aeons each ruled by an archon. I doubt Wolfe is Gnostic. When Silk talks 
about gun control, I presume Wolfe concurs. The way Able makes Disiri 
human is I presume a Christian figure. When Wolfe, (as I believe) 
creates a Rajan character who is father, son, and spirit, three-in-one, 
he is probably rationalizing the Trinity. But it is all an extremely 
light touch. If anything IMO associating the characters Severian with 
Jesus (as Wolfe certainly does) would be blasphemous if it were intended 
as Christian allegory (however loosely).

> 2) How do his non-Catholic readers react to the overt theologizing and 
> moralizing that is obviously there at times? (This would go for even 
> Catholic readers who might find something non-orthodox.)

2) I'm not Catholic. How do I react to the Catholicism that *does* arise 
in his stories? Let me put it this way. I have zero sympathy for anyone 
who discovers that there is a Christian theme in the Narnia books and 
feels "betrayed". I consider that ignorant bigotry. They are no 
different from the Christians who have spoken to me against the 
"unChristian elements" in Narnia and Tolkien and said their stories were 
unsuitable for youth.

The shelves of libraries are full of stories that are condescending or 
hostile to observant Christian belief...I mean the kind of fervent 
belief that causes people to pool their money to send missionaries to 
tell about on 12000 miles away. Those books reflect the worldview of 30s 
Intellectualism (which originally was a specific movement that was 
politically pro-socialism and religiously materialistic) which --for 
decades-- darkly overshadowed the publishing industry. The Great Books 
are full of moralizing and theologizing from that angle. Should 
observant Christians feel betrayed by that? Overt liberal democracy is 
pretty rare in science fiction. If the governance of the societies are 
defined at all, they are typically centrally planned either by a 
bureaucratic government or a military order. Should I feel betrayed by 
this or just allow myself to follow along the story the author chooses 
to weave?

As for Narnia, if people didn't continuously and erroneously INTRODUCE 
people to the books as "Christian allegory", not that many people would 
catch on to the Christian themes mixed in there -- not until the final 
volume if at all. Lewis noted that most did not and those that did were 
usually children. I have had very astute readers tell me that they 
didn't note any Christian themes in "Til We Have Faces" until *I* began 
discussing them. Anyway, Narnia is not nearly so crudely apologetic as 
Pullman's answer to it.

J.
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