Our November series on Christian fantasy began with a general discussion of how fantasy works to enliven and enrich a world whose symbols have become overly-familiar and therefore do not resonate with us, do not speak to our imaginative faculties that enable us to connect spiritually with God's creation.
Doug Burger, our leader, mentioned Peter Beagle's The Last Unicorn and read a passage in which the unicorns are conversing about the humans' failure to see them as unicorns. If we cannot imagine something, we cannot see it, even if it exists before our very eyes. We also briefly discussed Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea Trilogy, then moved into a conversation about the relationship between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien--their personal relationship and their uses of fantasy.
Doug pointed out some real differences in their uses of fantasy: Lewis is much more the allegorist, while Tolkien resists allegory. For example, in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," Aslan is clearly a figure of Christ; in the Ring trilogy, the Ring of Power or the orcs, for example, do not merely represent Nazis, but encompass many manifestations of evil.
Doug asked, "What does it mean--what are the implications for us--that Christ is portrayed as a lion [in "The Lion, The Witch....]?"
One concept that will stay with me from this class is the function of the storyteller, especially the fantasy story teller. It is the function of the story teller to help us to think about the impossible, and by thinking about the impossible to give us a context where "the impossible" might be possible. By helping us see new possibilities, the story teller paves the way for the evolution from the impossible to the possible.
ReplyDeleteFollowing the class, in her sermon Mary Kate mentioned Martin Luther King Jr. as a Saint among us. I asked myself: without the "I have a Dream" speech, would the marriage between Mary Kate and Jean-Hillaire have been embraced the the St. Aidan's community?
The discussion also gave me a new way of looking at St. Augustine's analogy for the Trinity; Thought, Word and Breath. The Word is born of the Thought and is carried to us on the Breath. I love the idea of God as story teller giving us the context to see beyond our experience to what could be.