The increasing anti-religious tone really soured me on the storytelling. It made me sad.
I don't really have a security blanket... unless you count Mr. Pointy.
Buffy ,'Lessons'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
§ ita § - Jan 01, 2010 4:21:00 pm PST #10719 of 28370
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Beverly - Jan 01, 2010 4:30:33 pm PST #10720 of 28370
Days shrink and grow cold, sunlight through leaves is my song. Winter is long.
I'm not sure Pullman's anti-religious tone was any more pernicious than Lewis' Christian allegory, though.
sarameg - Jan 01, 2010 4:39:59 pm PST #10721 of 28370
I'm not sure Pullman's anti-religious tone was any more pernicious than Lewis' Christian allegory, though.
Yeah, that didn't ping me (in either Pullman or Lewis,) so I was kinda surprised by the reactions to them when I found 'em later. I tend to just sink into the author's mythologies when the story engages me.
Steph L. - Jan 01, 2010 5:36:23 pm PST #10722 of 28370
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
I -- seriously -- didn't pick up on the Christ symbolism in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when I first read it (at the age of 18).
I am sometimes dense.
§ ita § - Jan 01, 2010 7:18:15 pm PST #10723 of 28370
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I was a different age from when I read Narnia. But I found Pullman shrill and vicious, not something whose converse I remember from Lewis.
Beverly - Jan 01, 2010 8:09:36 pm PST #10724 of 28370
Days shrink and grow cold, sunlight through leaves is my song. Winter is long.
I read them all as an adult. Halfway through two, Pullman started to give me a tic. But the Narnia books rang with the sounds of anvils. Children or YAs probably wouldn't notice so much.
Seska (the Watcher-in-Training) - Jan 01, 2010 8:25:07 pm PST #10725 of 28370
"We're all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?"
I didn't find Pullman's anti-religious tone too offensive. I saw it as an attack on institutions, not faith. I can relate to that.
I read the Narnia books as a child of church-going parents, and I pretty much had the symbolism pointed out to me as I read. Given my Christian background, I didn't mind that. I can imagine people of other faiths, or none, finding Lewis offensive at times.
Typo Boy - Jan 01, 2010 8:28:13 pm PST #10726 of 28370
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.
Yeah, the Dwarves in Narnia struck as pretty obviously anti-semitic stereotypes. And I thought the whole anvil about comparing atheism to people who lived in a gaslit hole underground with pussycats and could not imagine a lion or the sun was pretty vicious.
beth b - Jan 01, 2010 8:40:25 pm PST #10727 of 28370
oh joy! Oh Rapture ! I have a brain!
I just read Prince Caspian with my mostly 5th grade book club. The nonchristians -- missed all the christian myths( or synbols if you prefer) . But --- and mostly because they are all Percy Jackson fans-- they picked out a bunch of the greek mtyths references. None of them recognized the wild ride. The only other one I have read in that series is LWW. I read it as a kid and never went further with the series. My plan is to read the rest of them, partly because the mixing of various mythologies is fascinating -
Seska (the Watcher-in-Training) - Jan 01, 2010 8:43:00 pm PST #10728 of 28370
"We're all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?"
the Dwarves in Narnia struck as pretty obviously anti-semitic stereotypes.
Not to mention the... interesting representation of Islam.