People love C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia series,
and so do I. Growing up they were my first favorite fantasy series, and I
knew them before I knew Tolkien or anyone else existed (I was about middle
grade school when I read them). Visiting my cousins in Los Osos, we would
wander around the house next door where the owner had a sort of oak forest that
we used as a facsimile of Narnia. My mind was filled with fantasy and
wonder of that distant land beyond the Wardrobe. While attending university, I visited
Westmont College in Santa Barbara and specifically looked for the C.S. Lewis Wardrobes that is supposedly there. I never found it, unfortunately.
Despite this love, admiration and inspiration, however, I have a deep and seething hatred for C.S. Lewis. I despise him, or rather, one thing he does with every single one of his Narnia books, and more specifically I hate Aslan the Lion. Now, I know you’re wondering, "William how on Earth can you hate Aslan? He's a talking lion who is a Christ allegory. He's awesome, he's magnificent, he's voiced by Liam Neeson in the movies." You're not wrong. Aslan may be all these things, but he is also guilty of a sin.
Aslan kidnaps children, brainwashes them, then he discards them.
It's true. He will bring children into Narnia, pit them against danger and death, and then opens a land of beauty and wonder for them to own and explore. Aslan promises children that they will be kings and queens of Narnia forever. They meet Father Christmas himself. The children see and experience wonders after horrors, beauty after ugliness. They grow up in Narnia, and their lives in our simple, ordinary world are almost forgotten. Then, quite suddenly and without warning, Narnia vomits them back out into our world. The beauty is gone, the wonder shut away ... and they are ordinary children again.
I suppose this could be an allegory to actual imagination or childhood, the way it works. After all everyone has to grow up sometime. Yet Narnia is very evident to be more than mere imagination. It's real, it's the prelude to heaven until Aslan makes a real one. Aslan's weird little rules about Narnia also made no sense. At some point you were "too old" to be allowed into Narnia. That's some Peter Pan miscellany right there, and it’s an insult. Even C.S. Lewis' beloved granddaughter, Lucy, is not immune to this stupid and obscene rule as a self-insert character in the novels. The last book is the worst offender where everyone gets shoved off a cliff (almost literally), except for one person who survives because she's literally of no interest to Aslan anymore.
Picture it if you would. You are a kid taken to this wonderful fantasy land to be a great warrior, a king or queen with a magnificent palace full of fantasy creatures and friendly talking animals who love and praise you for everything you've done. As this hero or heroine, you inspire and lead people, you travel and see such things that no one in our world could possibly otherwise imagine. Then one day *snap* it’s gone, like a waking dream fading into the grim, glum reality. Then another day, you're back, everything's even more wondrous and dangerous than before. A thousand years have passed, and the legend of your rule is but a myth. Despite this the world needs a hero or heroine who alone can still bring the world back to what it can be. So, you go through more trials, tribulations to triumph, and after that this talking lion tells you "Sorry kid, you need to be this tall to enter. Have fun paying for college and finding a job with this on your resume."
I fault Lewis entirely for this. It is his world, his rules, and for all those making the allegory to Christ, I don't seem to recall this in the Word of God. Now, of course, Lewis was an early fantasy writer like Tolkien. Even Tolkein, who was C.S. Lewis contemporary never did this sort of thing. I could see myself in a writing group with Lewis and saying, "I would rewrite the ending of almost every single book. They all end with these weird caveats."
Let's be fair, though, how would I fix or write The Chronicles of Narnia myself? First off, get rid of the age to enter rule. That is some old b.s. and if Narnia is an allegory to heaven as Aslan is to Christ, it makes no sense. Second, make staying or going home a choice, not an obligation or an accident. Third, if the characters are to return to their old lives, let them live a full life in Narnia first. Let the characters live up to the point of their passing on, THEN return them. Let them live to see progeny and a potential future of Narnia, even if they return 1000 years later to find it all goes to hell in a hand basket. It would feel less cheap for them to fulfill a full life and then return with the lessons they learn ... and even then, let them carry Narnia with them. Maybe they see things in different colors and shapes. Maybe animals are more friendly to them in the real world. Let the fantasy touch and shape reality to make it better, that is what fantasy does, especially for a wartime novel like some of Lewis's works were.
That is just what I would do in Aslan's skin were I a great talking Lion who created the universe. But I am not. I'm just a schlub who got lost in the wardrobe and came out with moth balls as his only reward.
Despite this love, admiration and inspiration, however, I have a deep and seething hatred for C.S. Lewis. I despise him, or rather, one thing he does with every single one of his Narnia books, and more specifically I hate Aslan the Lion. Now, I know you’re wondering, "William how on Earth can you hate Aslan? He's a talking lion who is a Christ allegory. He's awesome, he's magnificent, he's voiced by Liam Neeson in the movies." You're not wrong. Aslan may be all these things, but he is also guilty of a sin.
Aslan kidnaps children, brainwashes them, then he discards them.
It's true. He will bring children into Narnia, pit them against danger and death, and then opens a land of beauty and wonder for them to own and explore. Aslan promises children that they will be kings and queens of Narnia forever. They meet Father Christmas himself. The children see and experience wonders after horrors, beauty after ugliness. They grow up in Narnia, and their lives in our simple, ordinary world are almost forgotten. Then, quite suddenly and without warning, Narnia vomits them back out into our world. The beauty is gone, the wonder shut away ... and they are ordinary children again.
I suppose this could be an allegory to actual imagination or childhood, the way it works. After all everyone has to grow up sometime. Yet Narnia is very evident to be more than mere imagination. It's real, it's the prelude to heaven until Aslan makes a real one. Aslan's weird little rules about Narnia also made no sense. At some point you were "too old" to be allowed into Narnia. That's some Peter Pan miscellany right there, and it’s an insult. Even C.S. Lewis' beloved granddaughter, Lucy, is not immune to this stupid and obscene rule as a self-insert character in the novels. The last book is the worst offender where everyone gets shoved off a cliff (almost literally), except for one person who survives because she's literally of no interest to Aslan anymore.
Picture it if you would. You are a kid taken to this wonderful fantasy land to be a great warrior, a king or queen with a magnificent palace full of fantasy creatures and friendly talking animals who love and praise you for everything you've done. As this hero or heroine, you inspire and lead people, you travel and see such things that no one in our world could possibly otherwise imagine. Then one day *snap* it’s gone, like a waking dream fading into the grim, glum reality. Then another day, you're back, everything's even more wondrous and dangerous than before. A thousand years have passed, and the legend of your rule is but a myth. Despite this the world needs a hero or heroine who alone can still bring the world back to what it can be. So, you go through more trials, tribulations to triumph, and after that this talking lion tells you "Sorry kid, you need to be this tall to enter. Have fun paying for college and finding a job with this on your resume."
I fault Lewis entirely for this. It is his world, his rules, and for all those making the allegory to Christ, I don't seem to recall this in the Word of God. Now, of course, Lewis was an early fantasy writer like Tolkien. Even Tolkein, who was C.S. Lewis contemporary never did this sort of thing. I could see myself in a writing group with Lewis and saying, "I would rewrite the ending of almost every single book. They all end with these weird caveats."
Let's be fair, though, how would I fix or write The Chronicles of Narnia myself? First off, get rid of the age to enter rule. That is some old b.s. and if Narnia is an allegory to heaven as Aslan is to Christ, it makes no sense. Second, make staying or going home a choice, not an obligation or an accident. Third, if the characters are to return to their old lives, let them live a full life in Narnia first. Let the characters live up to the point of their passing on, THEN return them. Let them live to see progeny and a potential future of Narnia, even if they return 1000 years later to find it all goes to hell in a hand basket. It would feel less cheap for them to fulfill a full life and then return with the lessons they learn ... and even then, let them carry Narnia with them. Maybe they see things in different colors and shapes. Maybe animals are more friendly to them in the real world. Let the fantasy touch and shape reality to make it better, that is what fantasy does, especially for a wartime novel like some of Lewis's works were.
That is just what I would do in Aslan's skin were I a great talking Lion who created the universe. But I am not. I'm just a schlub who got lost in the wardrobe and came out with moth balls as his only reward.
(Picture courtesy of Wikipedia
commons. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Lion_waiting_in_Namibia.jpg)