by Stanley Anderson » July 9th, 2004, 8:14 pm
[from ryderd]:
>Shame on me, but everytime a Calormen was mentioned, all the
>behaviors seemed so believable because I have seen men and
>women act the same ways. They were unfortunate that they
>lived in a land that officially rejected Aslan and imbraced Tash.
>Living in a dark land does make it harder for those trying to be
>good.
Yes, I agree wholeheartedly. Especially when one looks at The Last Battle. In that book it is easy to think of the "bad guys" as the invading Calormenes. But they are only the "tools", if you will, of God's will carrying out a sort of "judgement" against the real bad guys -- the Narnians themselves! For it is their own comfort and willingness to compromise their faith that has allowed the land to slip into the darkness that embraces it by the middle of the book.
I think of the land of Calormen as being one of the "hot" or "cold" places that the Lord would rather it be than the "lukewarmness" of Narnia that He will spit out of his mouth. Of course many from both lands will be redeemed or condemned (the two branching pathways in the door to Aslan's left and right), and both Narnia and Calormen (and even including the desert between them!) will be renewed in "Heaven" as we see at the end when Lucy looks out over them. But if Lewis had any "judgements" against any countries, it was certainly against Narnia first and foremost, whatever else happened in other lands.
We can see this as a call to look to ourselves for the evil we sense (and one can see this in very nearly all seven of the Chronicles), and not to those "out there". One of Lewis' main themes in all of the Narnian books is not "us against them", but "us against us".
If I have a chance at home, I may try to scan a Tim Kirk image of Tashbaan that sends shivers of Joy up and down my spine. I just want to "be there" (along with lots of othe places). Sure there are bad Calormenes, just as there are bad "Englishmen" (or whoever the men of King Miraz' kingdom in Prince Caspian are), or bad giant in Ettinsmoor or whatever. This is story-telling.
--Stanley