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secular view of CON?

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secular view of CON?

Postby nomad » May 18th, 2008, 7:09 pm

I found this link while searching for CON in Arabic. It's a take on the portrayal of Calormenes in CON. The two contributors are obviously not very familiar with CS Lewis, so they're commentary would benefit from some research. They also fall pretty heavily into the anachronism trap. However, I think it's an honest response and, unlike Pullman, not mean-spirited. It's a bit painful for a Lewis fan to read, but I think beneficial.


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Calormenes

Postby Bnayqyama » May 19th, 2008, 4:07 am

It seems obvious to me that the author of Horse and His Boy (my favorite CoN) had a negative view of the middle eastern person and culture. If I am wrong, then it is because the Calormenes are thinly veiled.
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Postby repectabiggle » May 19th, 2008, 4:31 am

I don't think Lewis knew or thought much about middle east culture. The Calormenes are modeled on the Turks, the ever-present threat to Christendom in the middle ages, not Arabs.
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Postby Dan65802 » May 19th, 2008, 3:55 pm

"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." - Martin Luther King
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Postby repectabiggle » May 19th, 2008, 4:43 pm

I always understood Turkey to be the Near East. I could obviously be wrong about that. At any rate, the Turks are not Arabs, and neither are the Calormenes, so to speak.

But I agree that Lewis was fascinated with the East in general and a close reading of THAHB actually reveals a certain amount of admiration for some of the ways of the Calormenes, I think.
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Postby Stanley Anderson » May 19th, 2008, 11:29 pm

…on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a fair green country under a swift sunrise.
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Postby rusmeister » May 22nd, 2008, 2:06 am

Not that I'm the great expert on Turkey, but I have vacationed there a few times and taught myself some Turkish. (Turkey is to Russia what the Carribean is to US vacationers - except it's cheaper).

Most of them (it seems) want to be considered part of Europe and the EU, not the Middle East. Their recent history bears this out (look up the Ataturk).
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Postby Mornche Geddick » May 22nd, 2008, 4:18 pm

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Postby repectabiggle » May 22nd, 2008, 4:31 pm

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