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Tolkien's Criticism of The Chronicles of Narnia

Plato to MacDonald to Chesterton, Tolkien and the Boys in the Pub.
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Re: re: Tolkien's Criticism of The Chronicles of Narnia

Postby Marcus_P_Hagen » January 31st, 2006, 4:27 pm

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re: Tolkien's Criticism of The Chronicles of Narnia

Postby jo » January 31st, 2006, 4:57 pm

"I saw it begin,” said the Lord Digory. “I did not think I would live to see it die"

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Re: re: Tolkien's Criticism of The Chronicles of Narnia

Postby Kolbitar » February 18th, 2006, 6:21 pm

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Re: re: Tolkien's Criticism of The Chronicles of Narnia

Postby Monica » February 18th, 2006, 8:26 pm

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Re: re: Tolkien's Criticism of The Chronicles of Narnia

Postby Kolbitar » February 19th, 2006, 12:37 am

:: I don't suppose you're the Jesse who used to post here -- changing your name to (the very appropriate) Kolbitar?

Yes, the same Jesse who invoked that paranoia panic way back when, finding you-know-who behind every screen name :blush: . It's good to see you around, I've missed your contributions.

You've heard of "Kolbitar", eh? Many, I'm sure, haven't the slightest inkling ;) .

I hope all is well with you...
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Re: re: Tolkien's Criticism of The Chronicles of Narnia

Postby Monica » February 20th, 2006, 2:22 pm

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re: Tolkien's Criticism of The Chronicles of Narnia

Postby jo » February 20th, 2006, 8:12 pm

LOl I just presumed it was jesse's last name. HI to both of you though!!!!
"I saw it begin,” said the Lord Digory. “I did not think I would live to see it die"

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Re: re: Tolkien's Criticism of The Chronicles of Narnia

Postby Kolbitar » February 20th, 2006, 9:29 pm

Hey jo!

:: I just presumed it was jesse's last name.

If I could change my name I think I'd go with Henry Shepherd -- maybe a pen name someday...

I hope you're also doing well...
The man who lives in contact with what he believes to be a living Church is a man always expecting to meet Plato and Shakespeare tomorrow at breakfast. He is always expecting to see some truth that he has never seen before. --Chesterton

Sober Inebriation: http://soberinebriationblog.blogspot.com/
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re: Tolkien's Criticism of The Chronicles of Narnia

Postby alecto » March 6th, 2006, 4:46 pm

I have heard pieces of a debate. It was long, long ago so I can't remember the details anymore. I know Tolkien has said something like "I don't like allegories in any form" and Lewis has said something like "Narnia stories are not allegories, they're supposals," where a supposal is an alternate world with different initial conditions, i.e. an long answer to a question like "suppose there were a land of talking animals and Christ needed to go there to redeem it. How would this work out?" I remember these being a critique and counter concerning Narnia. In any case, since many would call the Chronicles allegory, including, possibly, Tolkien, then we could say he criticized them because they were allegory. This of course begs the question, why didn't Tolkien like allegory? It's probably not just the child-story thing, since there were allegorical fantasy stories that were not for children, and he chose allegory to dislike, not just children's stories.
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Re: re: Tolkien's Criticism of The Chronicles of Narnia

Postby Marcus_P_Hagen » March 6th, 2006, 6:06 pm

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re: Tolkien's Criticism of The Chronicles of Narnia

Postby A#minor » March 6th, 2006, 6:15 pm

"My brain and this world don't fit each other, and there's an end of it!" - G.K. Chesterton
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re: Tolkien's Criticism of The Chronicles of Narnia

Postby Larry W. » March 7th, 2006, 2:31 am

Many fans of Lewis's books are also fans of Tolkien's, but strangely enough, Lewis and Tolkien did not always like each other's books even though they were close friends. Did they ever know that some of their readers were puzzled about their reasons for being so critical of each others works? It makes you wonder what Lewis would have said if you asked him, "Why do you think so many people like The Lord of the Rings?" Or what would Tolkien have said if someone asked him, "Why are so many people fascinated with The Chronicles of Narnia?"

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re: Tolkien's Criticism of The Chronicles of Narnia

Postby Adam Linton » March 7th, 2006, 2:58 am

While Tolkien was not able to appreciate Narnia, Lewis did, in fact much admire TLotR, encouraged Tolkien during the writing, and offered considerable personal and critical support after its completion. (Of course, there were elements on which they disagreed, among these being the poetry [the non-alliterative, especially].
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re: Tolkien's Criticism of The Chronicles of Narnia

Postby A#minor » March 7th, 2006, 4:16 am

I don't think Tolkien would have been able to finish LOTR if not for the encouragement (and criticism) of people like Lewis, probably mostly Lewis.
And I have to wonder if Lewis would have thought to write CON without the idea of writing children's "fairy tales" from Tolkien. Tolkien always thought that Lewis gained a great deal of his inspiration for CON from Tolkien's ideas.
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re: Tolkien's Criticism of The Chronicles of Narnia

Postby Larry W. » March 7th, 2006, 12:42 pm

There is also some poetry in The Hobbit-- usually brief songs. Sometimes you wonder if this should have been left out since Tolkien was much better at prose than poetry. But then, since Middle Earth had its own songs and literature-- a culture of its own-- I guess it's appropriate to have something like that in the books. Lewis didn't put much verse in the Narnia books-- just a few sayings like "Wrong shall be right when Aslan comes in sight.." and Reepicheep's "When the waves grow sweet, doubt not Reepicheep, there is the utter east" (not really a poem but a poetic saying). There is also a poem called Narnian Suite in Lewis' Poems. He may have thought verse would slow down the story in the Narnia series so he put it in only when necessary.

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