What's Your Opinion on C.S Lewis and His Works?

[Willowz]

I would like to ask.What's your opinion on C.S Lewis? I know he is a Christian apologist and wrote fantastic books. I saw some of the Narnia movies. Good quality movies.

Here is the hard part. Some of his styles have been characterised as 'http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_science_fiction" '. What do you think about his style, do you agree with it?

My point is, his books hold a lot of imaginative value and have a stimulative effect. But, do you agree with the themes in his literature?

 

[Evo]

I take books at face value, for the story, I ignore "deeper religious, social, or political" meaning. It ruins the fun of the story for me.

 

[Proton Soup]

a huge amount of storytelling draws from previous literature, such as roman and greek mythology. can you see elements of eastern religion and christianity in Star Wars? a huge chunk of the Disney catalog is rebranding of old world fables.

but for something more timely, see JK Rowling's revelation that christian themes are prevalent in her books.

 

[flyingpig]

garbage in my opinion

 

[Willowz]

I guess you can't cut away from the past when writing stories. But, I guess Arthur C Clarke is the guy to go with in this case.

 

[Willowz]

a huge amount of storytelling draws from previous literature, such as roman and greek mythology. can you see elements of eastern religion and christianity in Star Wars? a huge chunk of the Disney catalog is rebranding of old world fables.

but for something more timely, see JK Rowling's revelation that christian themes are prevalent in her books.

I haven't read the books but it seems Rowling pleased the Christian crowds with Potters 'resurrection' and implied afterlife in the story.

 

[Integral]

I liked the first 2 or 3 books of the series, but the further I got into the series the more metaphysical it became. I did not appreciate his take on it.

I have not seen the movies and am only moderately disinterested in them.

 

[Willowz]

One thing regarding religion oriented stories or movies is that they are often based on the assumption that what you are doing is wrong or that the main character is lost and needs finding. All that existential mumbo-jumbo. It that sense I don't like religious movies or books that later inflict that mood onto the readers.

I mean in Potters case he was 'carrying' the weight of pure evil inside his soul (anyone see the some connections here?).

Note, I'm not saying that all religiously oriented stories require this sort of settlings. C.S Lewis being an exception.

 

[Galteeth]

Some of his books were great imaginative fiction. Much more in the fantasy genre then science fiction. Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, The Magician's nephew, all great stories. Although there are Christian themes (explicitly neo-platonist in the Dawn Treader), they are not distracting since God basically takes the form of a magical lion ( who doesn't NEED to specifically be Christ for the story to work.). On the other hand, in The Last Battle, the over the top messages are the story (and the themes here are particularly irritating to someone who is not a Christian, as it condemns various contemporary non-christian groups; such as theists, muslims, atheists, and skeptics.)The Screwtape Letters was a fascinating look at everyday psychology and people's motivations for basic actions or thoughts.. Alhough it was again based from a christian perspective, not all the lectures directly related to Christianity. There are a few gaping fallacies here as well, but the context make its fun, since it is a demon advising a demon on how to tempt humans, but the advice may or may not be good advice since there are contradictory motivations in play.

 

[mheslep]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwtape_Letters#Summary" has been made into a popular play fairly recently that is making the rounds in the US. I enjoyed it greatly. I don't know of a writer who has captured human frailties better than Lewis.http://www.screwtapeonstage.com/about
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdBNimP7eaw

 

[Zantra]

If you want to swing to the opposite end of the spectrum, Phillip Pullman's take is an atheist's take on the hypocrisy of religion. And the themes are as overt, if not more so than CS Lewis' stories.

 

[DoggerDan]

Some of his styles have been characterised as 'http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_science_fiction" '.

I'd agree with this characterization.

What do you think about his style, do you agree with it?

Don't know that "agreeing" with it is a correct way to assess his works of fiction. Liking or not liking it would be a better way to put it.

My point is, his books hold a lot of imaginative value and have a stimulative effect. But, do you agree with the themes in his literature?

Such as? Kids magically transporting through a wardrobe? Perelandra? His fiction was intended as entertainment with a message, but what fiction writer didn't have some message they wove throughout their works?

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Literature is culture and religion or religiosity are part of culture. I find these things and the way they are presented in literature interesting. I read to 'experience' the author's expression of culture, whether I "agree with it" is irrelevant.

 

[arildno]

I particularly liked "The Magician's Nephew" and "The Horse and its boy".

 

[Chi Meson]

I was surprisingly unimpressed by CS Lewis's stories as I read them to my kids. I found them not too much superior to other books such as the "Magic Treehouse" series. As far as the undertext, I have always been suspicious of and unimpressed by authors making their point through fiction and allegory. This goes for Ayn Rand AND J.H. Christ.

 

[Chi Meson]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwtape_Letters#Summary" has been made into a popular play fairly recently that is making the rounds in the US. I enjoyed it greatly. I don't know of a writer who has captured human frailties better than Lewis.

I have never read any of his not-for-kids books, so I'll suspend judgement on them.

 

[Jobrag]

He did write a trio of science fiction books, the first was "Out of the Silent Planet", it's a long time since I read them, but remember them as raising some interesting points.

 

[Willowz]

He did write a trio of science fiction books, the first was "Out of the Silent Planet", it's a long time since I read them, but remember them as raising some interesting points.

Yesterday I started reading 'Perelandra'. Didn't know it was part of a trilogy and haven't read the first part. Really liked it. There was a moment where C.S Lewis made the impression, "Your faculties of reason are no good here. Put them away or you'll ruin the story for yourself.". lol

 

[mheslep]

I was surprisingly unimpressed by CS Lewis's stories as I read them to my kids. I found them not too much superior to other books such as the "Magic Treehouse" series. As far as the undertext, I have always been suspicious of and unimpressed by authors making their point through fiction and allegory...

Really? After an allegorical cleaning of the nursery what do you have left among children's books? Among the allegorically banished would be Dr Seuss, Grimm's fairy tales, Disney's originals, Aesop, Bible stories, derivatives of all the above, etc.

 

[mathal]

He did write a trio of science fiction books, the first was "Out of the Silent Planet", it's a long time since I read them, but remember them as raising some interesting points.

I too read at least one of his SF novels. I think the 'Christian message' that this discussion started with really stems from these books. I distinctly remember one passage where a green skinned female from Venus talks to the first visitor from Earth about what a glorious man Jesus was. That was a bit too blatant for me.

mathal

 

[mathal]

I was surprisingly unimpressed by CS Lewis's stories as I read them to my kids. I found them not too much superior to other books such as the "Magic Treehouse" series. As far as the undertext, I have always been suspicious of and unimpressed by authors making their point through fiction and allegory. This goes for Ayn Rand AND J.H. Christ.

C.S.Lewis in 1946 commenting on George Macdonald "What he does best is fantasy-fantasy that hovers between allegorical and mythopoeic. And this, in my opinion he does better than any man...I know...The great works are Phantastes, The Curdie books, The Golden Key, The Wise Woman and Lilith."
The Curdie books and The Wise Woman are children's fairy-tales the other three are the first fantasy novels ever written for adults.
G.K.Chesterton on George MacDonald from his book "The Victorian Age of Literature "George Macdonald, a Scot genius as genuine as Carlyle's; he could write fairy-tales that made all experience a fairy-tale."
Lewis Carroll in 1862 gave his manuscript for Alice to George and the delight of the MacDonald children in the story decided their "Uncle Dodgson" on publishing it.
The Back of the North Wind is another popular fairy-tale novel for children. Although a preacher, his beliefs didn't seem to directly guide his writing of fairy-tales. Stories of his contemporary period did definitely have this element, sometimes too prominently for me.
Another quote from, C.S.Lewis "It must be more than 30 years ago that I bought Phantastes...A few hours later I knew I had crossed a great frontier. What it did was to convert, even baptise...my imagination."
I think the writing of C.S.Lewis even in general comments can lack subtlety.
George on the other hand is worth checking out (if you haven't).IMO
mathal

 

[Chi Meson]

Really? After an allegorical cleaning of the nursery what do you have left among children's books? Among the allegorically banished would be Dr Seuss, Grimm's fairy tales, Disney's originals, Aesop, Bible stories, derivatives of all the above, etc.

A good point, and I had to consider it before I could respond. It had something to do with what mathal said about Lewis lacking subtlety. There are those who write to tell a story, and those who write to make a point. Those writing to tell a story might end up making a point, but the point is beside the point. But the stories that are created primarily for the purpose of supporting the point end up pointless. kinda forced. like this post.

I will own up to the fact that I read a few of the Narnia books after I was well aware of their allegorical nature, and therefore they seemed a bit bludgeon-ish. I wonder if I would have noticed had I not been predisposed to notice.

 

[DoggerDan]

There are those who write to tell a story, and those who write to make a point.

Oh, I dare say the latter is a superset of the former. Some are just better at hiding it than others.

 

[Loren Booda]

I believe The Magician's Nephew uses a forest of pools much in the way of wormholes to travel from one land to another.

Growing up, I read and enjoyed much of the Narnia books. Reading them as an adult, I found that I had lost much of my interest in them, like their brilliance had faded.

When I first found a map of Narnia, everything seemed out of place compared to my early readings. The same could be said about finding the movies.

I had spiritual epiphanies with some of the material -- mostly great nostalgia and imagination. I had to be coached to discern the religion behind it.