(urth) Religious writers and audiences

[Craig Brewer]

Whose? Wolfe's? Lewis'? Pullman's?




----- Original Message ----
From: "brunians at brunians.org" <brunians at brunians.org>
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
Sent: Sat, June 5, 2010 8:38:15 PM
Subject: Re: (urth) Religious writers and audiences

His books are masterful works of high propaganda.

.


>
>> _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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