The Sci Fi Catholic Yak Module
My problem with the Narnia books is that Lewis has the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Aslan is supposed to be Christ, and so he is delivered to his enemies, humiliated, and slain, only to return to the dead according to a prophecy that we had not heard until it was fulfilled.
It seems that Lewis thought that subtlety is wasted on tots. Since I am no longer a tot, I cannot enjoy it.
Good Lord, Adrianna. Must you force me to oppose you at every turn? 
Barr attributes Compass's poor showing to Christian outrage, but I'm more inclined to attribute it to the bad script and direction.
Given that The Golden Compass appears to have done fairly well overseas I'm going to have to agree with Msgr. Barr's take on this.
I do not know why people like or dislike it.
I know why I don't, and that there may be others who share my views.
Me and my brother both liked "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" alot.
I remember reading Steve Greydanus' review of the first movie, and that his biggest complaint was the portrayal of Aslan. I agree with his complaint Aslan seemed more like a lion with great magical powers than God incarnate. Although you'd have to be blind to miss the Christian symbolism during Aslan's death scene.
Lewis is one of my favorite writers, but he had a tendency to lay it on real thick.
Lewis didn't like children, as he admits in "The Abolition of Man" (glorious, bracing reading!!). That didn't surprise me very much, from what little I remembered of those books. I admire his adult books a lot, but writing to delight an audience you don't know & don't like is a bad idea.
Given that The Golden Compass appears to have done fairly well overseas I'm going to have to agree with Msgr. Barr's take on this.
Hmm, an interesting thought. Perhaps you and Msgr. Barr are right, but this bit of evidence does surprise me. From where I was sitting, it was a terrible movie and I had no difficulty believing it had flopped at the box office. However, I didn't think it was much worse than The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Whoa, more dissing of Lewis in this thread than I expected. Now I must turn turncoat and defend him.
I didn't actually think he laid it on all that thick in his novels. A little thick, maybe, but many people have read them and remained unaware that they are Christian works. My problem is that the conclusions are usually rushed and anticlimactic (he had the same problem in That Hideous Strength), that the characters and situations are generally simple and unengaging, and that the universe has little incogruities that are obvious enough they wreck my suspension of disbelief. On top of that, I had Lion etc. read to me something like five times in grade school, which biased me with a loathing for the novel I never completely recovered from.
That being said, most of the books' flaws are redeemed by the character of Aslan, who is quite remarkable and a very real contribution to literature even if little else in the series is. I don't believe the first movie captured him on screen, however, and so that, along with the deus ex machinas, leaden dialogue, indifferent acting, and the humdrum action sequences made a mediocre fantasy film.
You seem to be in agreement with Mr. Greydanus' critique of Aslan, and I guess that seeing Aslan in all his CGI glory could have been underwhelming for you.
I'd like to talk a little bit about Lewis' writing style. I've read Mere Christianity, Problem of Pain, Four Loves, Abolition of Man, and the Out of the Silent Planet Trilogy. One thing that Lewis does really well is present complex theological concepts with a great degree of humility and clarity. His explanation of the "God outside of Time" concept in "Mere Christianity" is the clearest explanation I've ever read. Another thing he does really well is integrate his knowledge of Medeival and Renaissance literature is order to flesh out the ideas he presents. Anyone whose read Screwtape Letters or the Great Divorce will probably know what I mean.
Yet when it comes to his fiction novels, he tends to fall into the same trap as Pullman (to a lesser degree). He becomes so focused on the message that the plot and characters tend to be bogged down. Mark & Jane in "That Hideous Stength" seemed to me to be in the story just to fill out a Christian symbolism. Though I did feel a strange liking for Macphee, Ransom's colleague and a proud skeptic. But you can see what Lewis was doing when Macphee was "on-stage"; the character was meant to be a representation of Lewis in his younger, atheistic life. That's why a man like Lewis bares a similarity to Pullman. Both seem to focus too much on theme that otheraspects of their fiction suffer.
I think that may be a reasonable critique. I do really like Perelandra, though. Somehow he gets away with it in that one even though much of the novel is two men sitting down and having a discussion about theology.
Monsignor Barr's reviews of Caspian are excellent, I posted them on Catholic Media Review at his request. Here's my review at MercatorNet.
http://www.mercatornet.com/artic...prince_caspian/
Thanks for the tip, Leticia.
Commenting by HaloScan
