Prince Caspian
Warning: This contains spoilers. Seriously, though. It’s C.S. Lewis. The plot isn’t good, anyway.
As those of you who watch my “Currently Reading” section (if anyone does) already know, I’ve returned to the Narnia series. In the last two weeks I finished Prince Caspian (which will probably be released in theaters for the holidays) and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I was driven back to C.S. Lewis out of boredom. The other book I’m reading (Religion Explained), while it contains some interesting ideas, is repetitive and terribly dull. I will probably still finish, but I may yet decide to abandon it.
Of the three Narnia books I’ve now finished, I would most recommend Prince Caspian to atheists because of the subject matter. It takes place hundreds or thousands of (Narnian) years after The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the mythical country is unrecognizable. There are no talking animals, fauns, dwarfs, giants, etc. In fact, when young Prince Caspian tells his uncle, King Miraz, that he wished he had lived in the Old Days, Miraz says that all of those stories are fairy tales. He denies the existence of Kings Peter and Edmund, Queens Susan and Lucy and Aslan. Actually, he denies the very existence of lions. When Caspian says that he learned these stories from his nurse, Miraz has her sent away immediately.
Lewis, a former atheist, has clearly shaped this new Narnia as a model of a modern, secular world. No one believes in anything. Except, of course, they do. Lewis, like so many other misguided Christians, thought that atheists really believe in god on some level. This explains why a huge, dense forest has been planted to separate Narnia from the eastern sea, because Aslan comes from that direction. It explains why the authorities have concocted and disseminated ghost stories to make sure people are too frightened to even enter the woods. It explains why a canal has been dug to turn the peninsula that held the castle of Cair Paravel (from which the Pevensie children reigned) into an island.
Of course, the atheist (alionist?) leaders are pure evil. Miraz, we learn later, murdered Caspian’s father and usurped the throne. The queen is about to give birth to Miraz’s heir, which puts Caspian’s life in danger as well. Hence, Caspian flees to the south, where he is waylaid by two dwarves and a large talking badger. The queer population of Old Narnia has simply gone into hiding, and Caspian finds himself amongst them. The bears and squirrels and centaurs, etc. convince Caspian to lead them in a war to reclaim the kingdom. Lewis is always honest about the fact that the success of religion requires bloodshed.
As the army of Old Narnia tries to hold out against the superior army of Miraz, the Pevensies are being led to Caspian by Aslan. Well, not at first. Aslan refuses to be visible to anyone but Lucy for a while, just to mess with their heads. At one point, he tells Lucy that she must follow him, even if it means leaving the others behind. This is a very Christian message, and quite like one that you might hear at any given cult meeting.
When they finally arrive, there is a scene that caused me to stop and scratch my head for quite some time. If you read or saw The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, you know how truly bizarre it is when Santa Claus pops up and gives the kids weapons. This blows that out of the water. They get a visit from Bacchus, Silenus and some Maenads. No kidding. This Christian allegory has a pagan god, a satyr and yes… some underage drinking. The girls get to participate in all that while the boys are doing man’s work, saving Caspian and company from a werewolf and a sorceress who wants to bring the White Witch back to life.
At this point, Peter takes control of Caspian’s army and decides to send a challenge for one-on-one combat to Miraz. The challenge is accepted, and the two meet in a ring in full armor. During the match, shortly after Peter allows Miraz to get up after tripping just to be gentlemanly, two of Miraz’s own men jump into the fray, stab Miraz to death, and blame Peter for it. This behavior is to be expected from alionist scum like them. Luckily, it’s right around this time that Aslan awakens the trees, and they devastate Miraz’s army. It is a deus ex silva, if you will.
From that point it is all ridiculous denouement involving Aslan running around “freeing” people. There are a few highlights. For one, Aslan destroys a bridge at the request of the river god. Shortly thereafter, he turns a group of schoolboys into pigs so that their teacher can come with him. In the end, Aslan allows the Telmarines (the people of Caspian and Miraz) to choose whether or not they want to stay in the New Old Narnia. He says that the ancestors of the Telmarines were accidental visitors to Narnia anyway. They are descended from a group of Earth pirates who happened to walk into a magic cave generations before. Those who want to go back to the South Pacific are sent.
In summary, Lewis’ portrayal of unbelievers is vicious. His fixation on the violence inherent in religion is telling. His marriage of the Christian and the pagan is curious, and somewhat suspicious. While still certainly light on plot and heavy on crazy, it’s a better read than the first book, possibly because of the latter.
I will bring you my thoughts on the next book in another post soon.
~I AM~
January 25th, 2006 at at 12:50 am
Very interesting. I agree with you that the plot isn’t really that great or original, but the books charmed me as a kid. I was fortunate enough to read the whole series before finding out it was a christian allegory. Now when I read them I can make the connections left and right, but even still, I consider it a good read. It’s probably the whole nostalgia thing, but I still have a place for the series on my bookshelf.
January 25th, 2006 at at 12:53 am
Oh cool, I had forgotten about Bacchus in this book. I need more material on him.
January 25th, 2006 at at 12:54 am
Oh and I definitely need to find a good picture of Aslan.
January 25th, 2006 at at 2:01 am
I AM:
“bears and squirrels and centaurs” Oh, my!
Interesting that Lewis portrays all the ‘alionists’ as evil, since he was an atheist himself at one point. Guess he figured he had the ‘inside’ exclusive on us, eh?
I for one get sick of these insinuations that we’re all a bunch of closet sociopaths. Completely lacking in anything resembling empathy.
Knobs.
January 25th, 2006 at at 7:23 am
I think a reading of the book that concludes that all ‘atheists’ were portrayed as evil overlooks the character of Trumpkin – true friend, hero and atheist for at least the first half of the story. If Lewis had such a black and white view, Trumpkin would not have displayed any good traits until after he became a believer. Nikabrik was far more present as a villain than Miraz, and he was no atheist.
January 25th, 2006 at at 8:14 am
Oh and I definitely need to find a good picture of Aslan.
Here’s one. Enjoy.
Richard
January 25th, 2006 at at 8:38 am
Lewis, a former atheist, has clearly shaped this new Narnia as a model of a modern, secular world. No one believes in anything. Except, of course, they do. Lewis, like so many other misguided Christians, thought that atheists really believe in god on some level.
That’s probaby because Lewis was never truly an atheist. He “lost” his faith when his mother died, but I’m convinced that he never truly became an atheist. I think that he blamed his god for his mother’s death and thought that disbelieving was a punishment to that god. His “reconversion” seems more like a forgiveness of god than that he truly went from seeing no evidence for a higher being to suddenly being a believer.
January 25th, 2006 at at 9:17 am
I’ve personally always felt that lewis might just be THE most over-rated author of all time. His writing is childish, his plot devices simply moronic, and the christian allegory is a mechanism for the brainless. Anyone can write a friggin’ story if all they do is just switch crap around from well-established religious fairy tales (making your lion into christ and pulling in random tidbits from other culture’s mythology to slap together a hodge-podge mythology of your own is hardly difficult – especially when you are lucky enough to have your retarded fanbase overlook the inclusion of santa as an arms dealer. If they’ll forgive that they’ll forgive anything).
I couldn’t believe it when I heard they were making this mental diahrrea into a movie, and I especially couldn’t believe it when I heard the budget for said movie. I guess I should have anticipated in this evangelical haven for religious fucktards that the movie would kill at the box office. I’m jahrta on epinions as well. Check out my comments on the review a little more than halfway down on the first page of reviews for the movie – the only review giving the movie 2 stars (everyone else gave 4 or 5 out of 5). I think carl lazoric (or whomever) wrote that review. I just commented back and forth to the morons who spouted their love for this tripe. You’d think they’ve never seen a real movie before.
Here’s a link to the page of comments:
http://www.epinions.com/content_213473463940/show_~allcom
Start at the bottom and work your way to the top, if you’re interested
January 25th, 2006 at at 10:51 am
I spent several years in marketing and a common marketing tool to reel in more movie goers is to aim advertising and marketing media to a potential audience who are harder to attract. Christians used to be encouraged by their church leaders to shun “sinful” Hollywood, however, in recent years, they are being baited by Hollywood film makers to spend money to see films that are being promoted as having moral or spiritual content. In reality, it all comes down to profit and money-making. Hollywood, and even Mel Gibson are looking for a blockbuster to provide fame, wealth and more wealth for the money makers. Ol’ Mel can say he did it for his faith, however he kept quite a bit of the profit for himself, and he gets attention that actors crave so much. Aging actors have been known to try anything to keep in the spotlight.
The attitude of the film industry is “it worked for The Passion of the Christ it can work for “Narnia.” (Marketing to the Christian audience, that is.)
“We [Narnia] edged out `Kong.’ It’s been neck-and-neck,” Buena Vista’s Dennis Rice said in a media interview. “These are two great movies in the marketplace that are doing great business.”
“Narnia” took in an estimated $32.8 million during the Friday-through-Monday period, nudging Universal’s “King Kong” out of the No. 1 spot and into second with a New Year’s weekend take of $31.6 million.
I really don’t care WHO goes to the movies and I don’t care how much the movie industry is making, but what I get irritated about is when people say that Hollywood has suddenly become “spiritual” and is promoting a religious message out of the goodness of their hearts while christians fall all over it as if Hollywood is doing something for the religious community. It’s all about MARKETING and all about MAKING MONEY. It doesn’t end with the films; there are products related to the films like toys, books, posters, clothing, Happy Meal toys, bedding, videos and soundtracks to market and sell to the people, because Hollywood knows what suckers many people are no matter what their beliefs.
January 26th, 2006 at at 10:30 am
I’m with Matt in that I doubt that Lewis was ever actually an atheist. He may have been mad at god, and so called himself one, but if you are an atheist because of some sort of logical arguments that get you there, it’d be damn hard for you to go back to theism, much less christianity. If you can become a christian, you were definitely never an atheist.
January 26th, 2006 at at 4:41 pm
I tried reading Prince Caspian after seeing LWW in the theatre before Christmas. Unfortunately, I found Caspian a slog to read through, and finally gave up after two weeks of pointless struggle. How could a book I liked as a child have turned into unreadable pap? (Don’t answer–that’s a rhetorical question.
)
In retrospect, part of my struggle may have come from reading Neil Gaiman’s short story, “The Problem of Susan,” which is about an elderly Susan reflecting on visiting Narnia in her youth and the death of her family in the railway accident. One of the great puzzles in Narnia is the reason for Susan’s fall in The Last Battle, and while Gaiman doesn’t exactly address that, he does explore the idea that Susan could still redeem herself through repenting of her denials of Narnia and Aslan. But why should she? Susan’s problem is Job’s problem, which is the problem of evil–if Aslan killed her family, what makes Aslan a god worthy of worship and veneration?
And then there’s the sex in Gaiman’s story….
Suffice to say, I came to Caspian with my perception of Aslan and Narnia thrown upside down. Maybe Aslan isn’t good. Maybe Narnia isn’t a great place to visit. Even Aslan can be a dick.
Now anxiously awaiting “God is a Dick: The Last Battle.”
January 26th, 2006 at at 6:39 pm
I recall reading some of Lewis lo these many years ago (Screwtape Letters? Another one, an ‘alleged’ sci-fi story? Can’t recall).
For a professor of Medieval & Renaissance English, he was (as far as I can recall) the dryest, least poetic, most prosaic writer I’ve encountered.
IOWs: he sucked.
Jahrta:
“mental diahrrea”
How terribly apt.
January 28th, 2006 at at 1:57 am
excellent post. i so love your blog.
February 1st, 2006 at at 5:40 pm
Just a question…
Isn’t the correct sequel to “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” “The Horse and His Boy”?
February 3rd, 2006 at at 11:54 pm
Delta says: “If you can become a christian, you were definitely never an atheist.”
Not true some of the most committed Christians were atheists. No one is born a Christian for instance, and even if a person’s parents were Christian (mine weren’t) doesn’t make them Christian, God has no grandchildren, only children.
February 3rd, 2006 at at 11:59 pm
Reluctant Atheist,
The Screwtape Letters were not science fiction they were meant to portray a Senior demon apprenticing a trainee demon and teaching him the ropes on destroying lives and thwarting Christian conversion or whatever.
February 4th, 2006 at at 10:55 pm
Neutral Atheist:
I am reading them in the order of publication. If you order the books chronologically by the time period in which the story takes place, The Horse and His Boy would be number 3 and The Magician’s Nephew would be number 1. However, they were published between The Silver Chair and The Last Battle.