Into the Wardrobe

Hello all, I’ve been reading through the posts on the White Witch (and/or the Lady of the Green Kirtle) and there is a lot of good discussion on Jadis herself, but there’s not a lot of information about where her power comes from.
Specifically, I was wondering what the Deplorable Word might be, or where it came from. TMN is quite vague on this point, saying only that Jadis
“…learned it in a secret place and paid a terrible price to learn it.”

Given that Jadis was descended from Lillith, I have my own theory about the Word, but it’s quite long and rambling.
Does any one else have any thoughts on this?

Erin

The very fact that we don't know what the Deplorable Word was, and we don't know where Jadis got it, just gives Lewis' work more depth and gives Narnia more history and more realism.
I like not knowing for sure. It's more fun to vaguely wonder and guess.

*pops in to comment that maybe "Human-Arboreal Transmogrification" is pretty a Deplorable Expression, even if it is not THE Deplorable Word.*

Hmm, I wonder if it was the word itself, or its meaning that was deplorable? I can think of some pretty deplorable concepts... like vandalism, apathy, cruelty...

leverage (when used as a verb)
mute (when they should be saying "moot", but don't know any better)
robust
cross-functional
facilitate

...I suppose none of them are deplorable enough to destroy a planet, but I do get the unfulfillable urge to destroy the speaker's world any time I hear one of these....

Seriously, though, the Cherniak "Riddle" story was great. It can be seen as an excellent metaphor for why you can't turn back the clock. Remember James Burke's "Connections" book/show? Once a thing is disovered, it's very hard to undiscover, and most of those things to which it naturally leads usually fall into the category of Unintended Consequences.

The deplorable word may be C.S. Lewis trying to show people how the Atomic bomb affected our world. Because Jadis destroyed her world with it, and C.S. Lewis grew up during both world wars and he witnessed the destructive power that it posssed.

There wasn't just the Atomic Bomb issue.

Chemical weapons had been used in WW1 (mustard gas), and there was an assumption that it would be repeated in WW2.

Also there was the spectre of biological based attacks.

granted by todays standards both of a "primitive" nature but still devestating enough.

Considering the fact that thestructures of Charn appeared intact one would assume that an explosive atomic device probably wouldn't have been the "weapon" but a "Neutron Bomb", or the spreading of radioactive material is more likely.

Biological and chemical weaponry would also have the same outcome.

A chemical agent would by nature have a complex chemical formula and as such might be the "Deplorable Word", as might the name of the biological virus.

Also the "word" could be a complex formula which describes some as yet unfathomed quality of the Universe which if manipulated could have undesirable results.

So you're saying that maybe Jadis' Word wasn't actually a spoken magical word, but only the name of some chemical? Well, I think I like the magical version better.

I like to think of Jadis searching for years, and killing off dragons to find ancient scripts in their caverns, and meeting mysterious spies in the alleyways of the city, and travelling to the far reaches of her world through burning deserts and wastelands; all to find one little word of power written somewhere in a scrawly handwriting on a fading parchment at the bottom of a crypt. She's certainly determined.

No I'm not saying that.

It's like "horses for courses"

Charn is by implication a predominately magical world, so "words" may have greater weight as a value...

BUT transposed to our world the word could represenmt the chemical formula of some substance that has the power to eliminate the complex molecules that are the basuis of life.

I saw a horror film once, where a physist realised that the "spell incantations" in a book of magic had a one to one correpondence to formuloas which defined the rules of the universe. (sort of like interlopers cryptograms)

For me its somewhat late and notr expressing ideas well.. sorry

/me is also a bit down after watching the demise of a character in a tv series which he didn't expect