Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Tolkien-Lewis Update

I wrote years ago What Tolkien Disliked About Narnia, and my mind had not changed about this until recently.  Holly Ordway, the author I mentioned yesterday in Notes From an Unliterary Reader relates that this is greatly overstated, tracing much though not all of it back to Humphrey Carpenter. Her method is very strict with regards to original sources, rather than two generations of critics quoting each other about who said what to whom. She finds few direct references of what Tolkien thought about Narnia, but looking at the few unarguable ones, she finds his disapproval mild and his approval considerable.  For example, he had a bookshelf for the grandchildren when they came over, and this was watchfully curated, with few volumes in total, as he was a bear about encouraging good taste in literature.  All seven Narnian Chronicles were on the shelves, elsewhere estimated at about thirty volumes in total.  Beatrix Potter and Lewis Carroll were also believed to be on the shelf, but I have not found any further books identified specifically. He remarked in correspondence that he was glad that his recipient had discovered Narnia, and that the books had become "deservedly popular." 

The negatives are that he commented "I hear you've been reading Jack's [Lewis's] children's story. It really won't do, you know! I mean to say: 'Nymphs and their Ways, The Love-Life of a Faun'. Doesn't he know what he's talking about?" (italics mine) and "It is sad that 'Narnia' and all that part of C.S.L.'s work should remain outside the range of my sympathy, as much of my work was outside his." But the former was after listening to the first few chapters read aloud, and given the italicised part is easily attributable to the standard mythology of fauns/satyrs as rapists, and Lewis changed what books appeared on Mr Tumnus's shelves thereafter. As to the latter, Tolkien did express distress at Jack's mixing of myths and "too obvious" allegory, as his works are less so. Still "Leaf by Niggle" is allegorical, and the opening section of Silmarillion is clearly allegorical to my eyes, so I am not sure he is being quite fair.  Though I take his point. Aslan executed on the Ten Commandments Stone Table and then resurrecting shortly thereafter is too blatant for my taste as well, however many modern readers are oblivious to it. "Outside the range on my sympathy" should be regarded as no more and no less than what it says.


7 comments:

james said...

That is encouraging. I had no idea so much was filtered through so angry a reporter.

Earl Wajenberg said...

Did Tolkien acctually "accuse" Lewis of allegory? I ask because both knew medieval literature inside and out, and when they used the word "allegory," they meant something much more specific that the way moderns use the word, which often refers to anything somewhat rich in allusion and symbolism.

When Lewis wanted to write an allegory, he jolly well wrote an allegory, and the characters had names like "Vertue" and "Reason" and "Mother Kirk" (the church), and lived in places with names like "Claptrap" or Pecatum Adae ("Sin of Adam"). Narnia has plenty of allusions and call-outs and parallels, but it doesn't have abstractions walking around on two legs (or four), delivering lines.

Earl Wajenberg said...

And thank you, it's nice to know Narnia made the cut for his grandchidlren's reading shelf.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Earl, you were sputtering there. That's why I like you.

Wendy Laubach said...

I struggle with the idea of being oblivious to how blatant an allegory is. I'd say it's either apt or not. I don't need it to be hidden, only refreshing and dramatically powerful, which the Aslan resurrection always was for me. It gave me a way to think about the Christian doctrine of resurrection that wouldn't otherwise have been evident, in part by making it personal and accessible to a child, which I was when I read it first.

Wendy Laubach said...

I'm using a new browser, "Brave," and it's wreaking havoc with my online accounts.--Texan99

Wendy Laubach said...

I mean, Brave is fine, but Google doesn't recognize me, so it tortures me with endless sign-in requirements and demands that I establish new and better passwords.