Thanks Phil for the name as I don't actually recall if Marguerite mentioned a name or not.

Thinking back I realize how privileged I was to have chatted so many times with Marguerite. I had met her just once way back in 1967 when I first approached Ray, Marguerite, and one of their daughters in the art store. I then got to ride back with them to their home. Often she would be the one who answered the phone and I would speak with her for a moment or two before she called Ray to the phone. In fact I believe that it was only about a month before she passed away that I was able to speak to her. What a delightful lady.

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:
...the PDF file of Conversations With Ray Bradbury has been emailed to you both. Sorry for the delay - it's been very Christmas just lately!

Pray, don't apologise, and thank you! We've had a touch of Christmas over here in the New World as well.

Just got done watching the extended, four-disc version of Narnia, my favourite film from last year. Wonderful!

quote:

Originally posted by Doug Spaulding:

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:
...the PDF file of Conversations With Ray Bradbury has been emailed to you both. Sorry for the delay - it's been very Christmas just lately!

Pray, don't apologise, and thank you! We've had a touch of Christmas over here in the New World as well.

Just got done watching the extended, four-disc version of Narnia, my favourite film from last year. Wonderful!

Really? Not to offend you or anything, but I thought the Chronicles of Narnia (I think that is what you are taking about) was terrible.

atroposmar

Chronicles of Narnia terrible?

You made mention that you are somewhere along the lines of an atheist. The author of The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis, had been an atheist. At that time, he was a professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at famed Cambridge University, and a Fellow of English at Oxford University's Magdalen College. Thru a lot of personal anguish and study of scripture and the life of Christ, he came to the conclusion, later in life, that scripture was true, and that Jesus was God in a form that man could comprehend. Thus, his first book explaining Christianity is his famous, Mere Christianity. Later, a book about his conversion, Surprised by Joy; others included The Screwtape Letters, a controversial book of discussions with Satan.

His multi-novels make up what are generally referred to as The Chronicles of Narnia. The motion picture that you are referring to is from one of the books, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. To really understand the motion picture, you have to know that the Lion is actually Jesus Christ. C.S. Lewis was so profoundly affected by the understanding he came to in his study of scripture, that he created the series as an adventure of scripture in a way that would be entertaining to an audience not interested in God. My advice, someday read the novels.

Mr Knox is correct on every point. Devour the novels! They're among the best stuff I've read including Bradbury.

Coincidentally, just this minute finished watching C. S. Lewis: Dreamer of Narnia, an feature-length extra on the four-disc set. Our own Ray Bradbury was interviewed for the documentary, and it is fascinating.

For Christmas, I received a DVD of Shadowlands, the 1985 British film, which is a biography of Lewis, and is brilliant - much better than the adequate 1993, glossy Hollywood version (which I also have). See it!

C. S. Lewis's novels are great and I found this latest attempt to film them a very good effort.

Ditto Dandy.

quote:

Originally posted by dandelion:
...and I found this latest attempt to film them a very good effort.

Adamson truly captured the essence of the book - a difficult thing to do. I was not disappointed, in fact was appointed!

As a non-Christian person, I still loved Narnia. The lion is a lion to me, not a stand-in for Jesus, who had the smarts to outwit and trick the evil Snow Queen, knowing the Rule, which he used to permit him to avoid death. A great story told by a great story teller. When viewed through the eyes of a Christian things are made to align with that belief system. I actually resent the high jacking of the story by those who would use it for their own purposes. I am aware of the biography of C.S. Lewis, that doesn't sway me. The story stands on its own as great fantasy with good messages for children of all ages, whether Christian or not.

Don't forget, "..He's not a tame lion!"

Because the Chronicales of Narnia were written with the Christian symbolism as the driving idea, it is not hijacking it to see the Christian elements of it. Am I misunderstanding what you mean, Pete?

Indeed.

Lewis himself paralleled the similarities.

Aslan is considered a Christ-like figure because he sacrificed himself to pay for the crimes of another and is resurrected from the dead. The witch is defeated, and good once again triumphs over evil. It is the sacrifice of the innocent in place of the guilty that determines whether a work can be considered Christian.

Furthermore, Lewis wrote:

"Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something about Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tale as an instrument, then collected information about child psychology and decided what age group I'd write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out 'allegories' to embody them. This is all pure moonshine. I couldn't write in that way. It all began with images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn't anything Christian about them; that element pushed itself in of its own accord."

Lewis, an expert on the subject of allegory, maintained that the books were not allegory, and preferred to call the Christian aspects of them "suppositional". This is similar to what we would now call fictional parallel universes. As Lewis wrote in a letter in December of 1958:

"What might Christ become like, if there really were a world like Narnia and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?' This is not allegory at all. For example, the character Aslan is not an allegorical representation of Christ, but a literal representation of Christ. Aslan is a literal rendering of Jesus Christ, only in another body, in another universe, and by another name. Aslan and Jesus are the same character in two different worlds. There is no allegory involved."

As Lewis has Aslan say at the end of Dawn Treader, "There I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name."

There is one line in one of his "Space" books where he condemns or denounces science fiction as being wayward. I will try to find it. I don't like him and I don't buy what he said about the allegories not being intentional. I'm certain that he either lied, or he wasn't aware of his motives. He makes his intentions clear in his "Space" trilogy. Why would NARNIA be any different? Having said that... PERELANDRA is one of my favorite books and is definately my favorite world ever imagined in the all the books I've read.

Didn't he and Aldous Huxley have a famous war of words?

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This message has been edited. Last edited by: grasstains,

No, not Huxley. They are linked in death, having died the same day... along with JFK.

Perhaps it was Orwell he took to task. Fleeting memory.....

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