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Ch 4a: pp 45-49

PostPosted: June 6th, 2007, 4:17 pm
by Stanley Anderson
(All of the chapter’s introduction up to, but NOT including section A [“Chalcidius”] -- Seven paragraphs beginning with "All the texts..." and ending with "...belong to us Christians.")

Lewis talks here about not the differences, but the similarities of the two “religious” sides battling for dominance in the pre- or formative medieval years, saying even that it is often difficult to tell if a writer from that period was Christian or pagan. I think of the problems some people have with the “pagan gods” scene in Prince Caspian. The last sentence of the TDI section, “Whatever things have been well said by all men belong to us Christians” might also apply to imagery and myth, and Lewis uses them extensively in Narnia.

We also see an explicit demonstration and “explanation” of this “gathering up” of mythic elements into the Christian fold in the Space Trilogy when Ransom contemplates in OSP and Perelandra that various “mythological” images on earth appear in reality on the other worlds (eg the cyclopean cave-dwelling shepherd nature of the sorns, and the heraldic dragon creature in Perelandra). He also offers an “explanation” from the opposite direction (ie from Earth’s point of view) wherein the Oyarsa of other worlds have their “Earthly manifestations” in the Greek and Roman myths of the gods

Again, as I've mentioned in this study's introduction and periodically in the sections, this strikes me as a very “fractal” or medieval aspect (I’ve come to the conclusion that fractal-ness is a very medieval-friendly concept:-) of the books where larger images and themes are reflected in smaller ones and visa versa throughout the books.

--Stanley

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PostPosted: June 9th, 2007, 4:23 am
by liriodendron

Re: -

PostPosted: June 28th, 2007, 2:03 pm
by Stanley Anderson