by nomad » January 24th, 2009, 4:10 am
Oh, for sure he wanted to challenge preconceptions. And he succeeded in my case. I so need to read this again, but it seems to me that Lewis was presenting several different perceptions of God - from the simple villagers who worshiped Ungit to the Fox's worship of reason and Orual lost somewhere in between. And with our pre-conditioned responses and assumptions about "civilization", tend to react negatively, or at least condescendingly, to the faith that expresses itself in a pagan ritual, and we react with sympathy to the Fox. Even those of us who ultimately disagree with him tend to find his view more acceptable. But in the end, both miss the truth and both impede their adherents from going deeper. And although we moderns sympathize more with the Fox, I think the story brings us to understand that it is not for us to say which might be closer to the truth. Because, if I remember correctly, in the end, while there were elements of both Ungit and the Fox's teachings which hindered, there were also elements of both which helped Orual forward to something that was neither one nor the other.
If anything, Psyche's faith seems to be the "ideal". But it's also not the focus of the book.
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"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best -- " and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.