November 8: C.S.Lewis, Narnia "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"

     In this session, we continued talking about how fantasy can make the familiar unfamiliar and can therefore reveal to us certain truths that we have not seen before.  Specifically, looking at "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe," we looked at Aslan, Mr. Tumnus, and the White Witch. We also discussed the nature of evil seen here and in Dante. Here are some specifics:
When Christ is protrayed as a gigantic lion, we are propelled into thoughts about Him that go beyond our usual images. There is great majesty in Aslan; most important, he is not a tame lion. Yet, he is deeply familiar to the characters. Also, we often see glimpses of Aslan, from a distance or from the corner of our eyes. We were reminded  that in "Caspian," Lucy sees Aslan at a distance, but the others don't believe her when she tells them so.  She finally goes to him and Aslan says something like, "Why didn't you come with me the first time?" She has, of course, allowed the pressure and ridicule of her brothers and sister to deny what she knows to be true.
In an interesting reversal of "making the familiar unfamiliar," we discussed the scene between Lucy and Mr. Tumnus. Mr Tumnu is a faun-like creature who cannot believe his eyes when he sees an actual human, having thought that they were mythological creatures.  "What are you?" he asks Lucy.
In our discussion of the White Witch, we looked at the nature of evil that she embodies; she is cold, magnificent, and self-absorbed. Where she reigns, it is always winter. Her power is to render things lifeless--the ice statues that were once human are chilling examples of this, whereas Aslan's breath brings life into these frozen creatures. He is the breath of life.
Winter, of course, is not a terrible season; it can be quite enjoyable. But the winter in "The Lion, the Witch..." is removed from the cycle of seasons and is unnatural. (And, of course, it's winter, but there's never Christmas).  We are reminded of Dante's "Inferno," where those perpetrators of the greatest sin, treachery, are souls frozen in ice.
The lands of evil in both Lewis and Tolkien, we noted, have a real lack of variety and a sense of monotony. We concluded that evil can pervert what is natural. As with Edmund, for example, his temptation (for turkish delight) overrides his natural instincts.
For the 15th, we will probably continue to discuss Lewis before we move into Tolkien.