(urth) Religious writers and audiences

[brunians at brunians.org]

Wolfe.

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> Whose? Wolfe's? Lewis'? Pullman's?
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> ----- 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
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> His books are masterful works of high propaganda.
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>>
>>> _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.)
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>> 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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