Kevin's Watch

Im sorry, but I just HAD to advertise my favorite fantasy and fantasy author on this forum, plus Im giving it...some life.

Has anyone here read the Chronicles of Narnia? Lewis' Space Trilogy? Lewis' Christian anthologies? Till We Have Faces? Screwtape Letters? LOL, its a long list, but theyre all worth the read. If you have, tell me what you think/thought about them. Thanks!

Funny but I never read any of the Narnia books - they just passed me by as a kid. I have read the 'Out of the Silent Planet' trilogy and found them a wonderful read - I must read them again soon - I think I first read them over 25 years ago. What are the Srewtape book about? - the name rings a bell but I've never seen them in any book shops.

I haven't read any Lewis stuff either for some reason. Will venture forth to bookstore and acquire copious volumes

Has anyone got to grips with the voluminous Otherland series by Tad Williams, they put a whole new slant on VR and the www

I saw it at Barnes and Noble and some copies of some of the volumes at a used book store.

PoA, the Screwtape Letters is a Christian theology, almost. Its all letter from a devil to his nephew who is trying to mess w/an Englishman's head so he will be damned to hell. Its very cool, and brings up some interesting questions about how the human mind thinks.

Narnia

Thought you might like this

You bet! That looks great! But 60 bucks...

I've always admired C.S. Lewis, and it's pretty obvious to me that SRD has been heavily influenced by him. In some ways, the Land could almost be seen as a deconstruction of Narnia, in which Aslan never appears to set things right. (And TC himself reminds me of a grown-up Eustace Clarence Scrubb in many ways.) The notion of time proceeding at vastly different rates in the fantasy world and the 'real' world is one of Lewis' major tropes. Donaldson put it on a more rigorous level -- one day in 'reality' seems to equal one year in the Land, as precisely as you can measure these things -- but his treatment of the idea is recognizably similar to Lewis'.

A lot of critics have sneered at SRD as 'just another Tolkien clone'. To my mind, he bears a lot closer resemblance to Lewis, except of course that SRD is not Christian and doesn't write books of theology on the side.

Lewis' books are well-written, but I don't like most of their message... He was a fanatic. Messages like "muslims are satanists" and "atheists will stay in purgartory", and so on... no, thanks.

He doesn't state them literally, but which message is stated that way?
In the last book of the Space trilogy, muslims are immediatly rejected as allies against evil.
And as for the atheists, read the chapter "How the dwarfes refused to be taken in" in "The last battle" and tell me otherwise...

Lewis' problem was that to him only christianity was true. He didn't tolerate other religions and faiths. To him, they weren't other approaches to the same goal, they were just plain wrong.

I agree, Ive always though that Calormenes were supposed to be evil Muslims in the Chrons of Narnia.

I like the messages Lewis sends, and especially the way he sends them.

And your signature is in The Last Battle

If someone actually belives what Christanity states, then it would be illogical to think that anything that says anything contrary would be wrong.

Tried the Narnia books as a kid, but couldn't get into 'em (tho i can say the same for LOTR, but those I reread as an adult, so maybe i should try again).

As far as Otherland goes... read them. I can't say I enjoyed them as much as Sorrow, Memory, and Thorn, but they were good books. Orlando and !Xabbu were excellent characters, though i thought the rest of the characters were a little weak, way too static. overall, decent scifi (not hard, not soft... somewhere in between with some good VR fantasy), but you don't walk away from them quite satisfied (the last chapter has a pretty good bow to Tolkien in it... kind of balances out Williams' deconstruction of Middle Earth in S,M,&T).

I'm with you Sivo on this .. I dont like the kind of biggotry and religous intolerant messages either ..

I prefer Donaldson any day .. he doesnt make such graphic value judgements .. though he retains an ethical foundation to his work .. which I admire greatly!!

And if I may say .. neither did Tolkien .. Lewis does come across a fundamentalist chirstian fanatic if we interpret his work the way it would seem he intends us to ..

And I love the chrons of Narnia on a purely fantasy level .. when we analyse his work .. thats when I get totally turned off this author ..

That's what's great when you're a kid. You read and enjoy the story and the underlying stuff is lost

Skyweir wrote:And I love the chrons of Narnia on a purely fantasy level .. when we analyse his work .. thats when I get totally turned off this author ..

Yup, that's just it. He IS a very good writer, but when it gets deep down into analyzing him, I'm turned off...

Although some things can be explained by considering when he lived. For example, it's popular to criticize him for how he depicts women - but women just were viewed differently than today, so it would be unfair to be hard on him for this.

By the way, did you hear about how Phillip Pullman thinks about Lewis? As I said, I don't really like Lewis, and Pullman is a better writer in my view, but here he's talking rubbish...

Check it out: www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,726739,00.html

Wow, what sad, sad little man. Lewis was a better author then he will ever be.

Did you guys see the movie with Anthony Hopkins as Lewis (the name escapes me at the moment... something about shadow or night?)? Long and dry, what I remember of it.

Shadowlands, yes I saw it. It was pretty good.