Chronicles of Narnia : The Magician's Nephew (Thoughts from a devoted reader)
Okay, I apologize to those of you who read this blog. I promised one critique a day. That was two days ago, and I have yet to post one until now. Circumstances being beyond my control, I have not really had the opportunity to begin this project until this very moment. Sort of. See, it occurs to me that C.S. Lewis will remain throughout history a literary titan, an author of talent so great that his name will forever be synonomous with an entire genre, an entire avenue of human thought. I am merely an aspiring author, and though I live a thousand lifetimes, I doubt that I could ever hope to attain the level of skill that writers such as Lewis and Tolkien achieved in their art. It occurs to me that I cannot offer up a critique of Mr. Lewis' work, that it just would not be appropriate for me to do so. What right have I, a mere novice, to critique the works of one of the greatest writers of all time? It would be arrogance of the most grievous manner for me to do so. So I will not. Instead, I intend merely to share with the world my thoughts about the Chronicles of Narnia, and what they have meant to me. I hope you enjoy this, reader. Here goes.
The Magician's Nephew:
The Magician's Nephew, by C.S. Lewis, is not the most well-known of the books in the Chronicles of Narnia, not at all. But it is the novel that Mr. Lewis intended to be read first in the series, and the story which unfolds in The Magician's Nephew does a remarkable job of setting the stage for all the later novels in the series, and it is here that the very infrastructure of the Narnian world is set into place. I have always been curious about beginnings and first causes, and so I think it's only natural that this book would be one of my favorites. Certainly, it's not my favorite book in the series. That would be The Horse and His Boy, but it certainly holds a rather special place in my collection.
In The Magician's Nephew, the two main protagonists, a boy named Digory Kirke and a girl of the same age named Polly Plummer, are tricked by Digory's Uncle Andrew into taking part in a great experiment. The experiement, with a basis that is one part magic and one part of what seems to be, if I'm not mistaken, relativity theory. Uncle Andrew, having brought together the two great spheres of human understanding, i.e. the magical and the scientific, constructed from ancient "Antlantean" dust two sets of rings, each set containing a green one and a yellow one.
Digression #1: I find it to be quite interesting that two polar opposites such as the magical and the mundane could be combined to form one harmonious object, such as the magical rings of Uncle Andrew. It is almost as if, perhaps unwittingly, C.S. Lewis suggested in the Chronicles of Narnia that the principles of the Dao were interwoven into the very fabric of the universe, and that the physical and metaphysical essence of this universe was one of balance and harmony between polar opposites. At least, that's the way it seems to me. If this is so, then that would seem to suggest that each concept creates its own counterpart. That science created magic. And that magic created science. Or perhaps, maybe not creation so much as definition. That stands to reason, that without light, there is no dark. Without science, there is no magic. Or at least, no definition of such. How can one possibly define the magical without the mundane to compare it to? It is interesting, indeed, that while C.S. Lewis spent his life as a devoted Christian, the Dao is not only present, but prominent within the structure of his literary universe. Anyways, that's how it seems to me.
The aforementioned experiment in which Digory and Polly participated sent them, with the aid of the magic Atlantean rings, to another world. Or rather, to other worlds. But perhaps, what is most interesting about this travel through dimensional space-time is that the other worlds, according to Lewis through the guise of Uncle Andrew, are not merely planets or fixed bodies in space, but are themselves infinite dimensions, drawn together in a sort of dimensional nexus which takes the seemingly innocuous form of a forest dotted with pools or ponds. This "Wood between the Worlds", as the children describe it in the book, seems to be itself an infinite realm within which all other dimensional worlds are contained. Kind of like a central room which has doors all around it that lead into completely different places. My personal favorite author, David Eddings, addressed this concept in The Redemption of Althalus, making the "House at the End of the World" serve as this same sort of nexus.
Digression #2: Interesting. Very interesting. If this nexus theory were proven to be true, it would mean that a person could travel to any place, any time, and any dimension almost instantaneously, merely by gaining access to the central nexus. And so Stephen Hawking seems to find support for his wormholes in the literary world. After all, wouldn't wormholes be much the same thing as the pools in the "Wood between the Worlds" or the doors in the "House at the End of the World"? It is here that Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity and the work of Stephen Hawking would seem to be reconciled, wouldn't you think? After all, the Theory of Relativity would seem to suggest that there is no fixed value to time or space, that such concepts are merely relative. Certainly they are, and Newton's system of "A before B before C" seems to be discarded, if one could travel from point A to point C without ever travelling to B, i.e. one could travel from his living room to the surface of the first planet of Alpha Centauri without ever travelling through the space between to get there. If such a thing were proven to be possible, then it would stand to reason that time and space are completely non-linear, and the linearism of Newtonian physics is proven to be false. At least, that's the way it seems to me. But I could be wrong. It wouldn't be the first time. Probably won't be the last, either.
The children travel to other worlds, ultimately ending up in a world which has yet to be created. This, my friends, is Narnia, at the very moment of its genesis, the very beginning of its infancy. There, they witness the birth of Narnia, and that entire world, as it is created by the great lion Aslan, literary counterpart to the Judeo-Christian messiah, the Christ, the son of the Judeo-Christian God. It's a curious thing that in our world, the Christ is, according to established belief, not really seperate from God, but is rather part of a Holy Triune, merely one of the aspects or mirror images of one single deity. But in Narnia, the great Lion Aslan seems to be completely seperate from God, although clearly an instrument of His will. In Narnia, Aslan is "The Son of the Great Emperor over the Sea". He is not described, nor is he even implied to be the avatar or aspect of the Great Emperor over the Sea. Rather, he is a seperate entity entirely, serving the same great purpose. Could it be that perhaps there's even some Hindu in the great Narnian design? I don't know. It's possible. All things are possible, I suppose.
Wow, this post is getting pretty long. And I haven't even come close to setting down all the thoughts that I had wished to. It is obvious that I will have to spend more time on this project than I previously thought. By the way, I hope you all weren't expecting some sort of thesis, because I don't really have one. At least, if I do, I don't know what it is. The nature of a stream of consciousness is that one does not know what form it will take, and when I began writing this post, I had no clue that it would take the shape that it did. It just goes to show you that you never really know what form your thoughts will take until you express them in some way. I should hope that my thoughts have inspired others to think. And certainly, you should not think that this is the end of my project. I don't believe that I've even truly scratched the surface of the beginning yet. To the reader, this post may have seemed like a bunch of random thoughts loosely tied together by a central theme. To me, this post has amounted more than anything to me clearing my throat. Bear with me. And stay tuned for future entries. Thank you for reading this, and giving some attention to my poor and dimmunitive talent.
In The Magician's Nephew, the two main protagonists, a boy named Digory Kirke and a girl of the same age named Polly Plummer, are tricked by Digory's Uncle Andrew into taking part in a great experiment. The experiement, with a basis that is one part magic and one part of what seems to be, if I'm not mistaken, relativity theory. Uncle Andrew, having brought together the two great spheres of human understanding, i.e. the magical and the scientific, constructed from ancient "Antlantean" dust two sets of rings, each set containing a green one and a yellow one.
Digression #1: I find it to be quite interesting that two polar opposites such as the magical and the mundane could be combined to form one harmonious object, such as the magical rings of Uncle Andrew. It is almost as if, perhaps unwittingly, C.S. Lewis suggested in the Chronicles of Narnia that the principles of the Dao were interwoven into the very fabric of the universe, and that the physical and metaphysical essence of this universe was one of balance and harmony between polar opposites. At least, that's the way it seems to me. If this is so, then that would seem to suggest that each concept creates its own counterpart. That science created magic. And that magic created science. Or perhaps, maybe not creation so much as definition. That stands to reason, that without light, there is no dark. Without science, there is no magic. Or at least, no definition of such. How can one possibly define the magical without the mundane to compare it to? It is interesting, indeed, that while C.S. Lewis spent his life as a devoted Christian, the Dao is not only present, but prominent within the structure of his literary universe. Anyways, that's how it seems to me.
The aforementioned experiment in which Digory and Polly participated sent them, with the aid of the magic Atlantean rings, to another world. Or rather, to other worlds. But perhaps, what is most interesting about this travel through dimensional space-time is that the other worlds, according to Lewis through the guise of Uncle Andrew, are not merely planets or fixed bodies in space, but are themselves infinite dimensions, drawn together in a sort of dimensional nexus which takes the seemingly innocuous form of a forest dotted with pools or ponds. This "Wood between the Worlds", as the children describe it in the book, seems to be itself an infinite realm within which all other dimensional worlds are contained. Kind of like a central room which has doors all around it that lead into completely different places. My personal favorite author, David Eddings, addressed this concept in The Redemption of Althalus, making the "House at the End of the World" serve as this same sort of nexus.
Digression #2: Interesting. Very interesting. If this nexus theory were proven to be true, it would mean that a person could travel to any place, any time, and any dimension almost instantaneously, merely by gaining access to the central nexus. And so Stephen Hawking seems to find support for his wormholes in the literary world. After all, wouldn't wormholes be much the same thing as the pools in the "Wood between the Worlds" or the doors in the "House at the End of the World"? It is here that Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity and the work of Stephen Hawking would seem to be reconciled, wouldn't you think? After all, the Theory of Relativity would seem to suggest that there is no fixed value to time or space, that such concepts are merely relative. Certainly they are, and Newton's system of "A before B before C" seems to be discarded, if one could travel from point A to point C without ever travelling to B, i.e. one could travel from his living room to the surface of the first planet of Alpha Centauri without ever travelling through the space between to get there. If such a thing were proven to be possible, then it would stand to reason that time and space are completely non-linear, and the linearism of Newtonian physics is proven to be false. At least, that's the way it seems to me. But I could be wrong. It wouldn't be the first time. Probably won't be the last, either.
The children travel to other worlds, ultimately ending up in a world which has yet to be created. This, my friends, is Narnia, at the very moment of its genesis, the very beginning of its infancy. There, they witness the birth of Narnia, and that entire world, as it is created by the great lion Aslan, literary counterpart to the Judeo-Christian messiah, the Christ, the son of the Judeo-Christian God. It's a curious thing that in our world, the Christ is, according to established belief, not really seperate from God, but is rather part of a Holy Triune, merely one of the aspects or mirror images of one single deity. But in Narnia, the great Lion Aslan seems to be completely seperate from God, although clearly an instrument of His will. In Narnia, Aslan is "The Son of the Great Emperor over the Sea". He is not described, nor is he even implied to be the avatar or aspect of the Great Emperor over the Sea. Rather, he is a seperate entity entirely, serving the same great purpose. Could it be that perhaps there's even some Hindu in the great Narnian design? I don't know. It's possible. All things are possible, I suppose.
Wow, this post is getting pretty long. And I haven't even come close to setting down all the thoughts that I had wished to. It is obvious that I will have to spend more time on this project than I previously thought. By the way, I hope you all weren't expecting some sort of thesis, because I don't really have one. At least, if I do, I don't know what it is. The nature of a stream of consciousness is that one does not know what form it will take, and when I began writing this post, I had no clue that it would take the shape that it did. It just goes to show you that you never really know what form your thoughts will take until you express them in some way. I should hope that my thoughts have inspired others to think. And certainly, you should not think that this is the end of my project. I don't believe that I've even truly scratched the surface of the beginning yet. To the reader, this post may have seemed like a bunch of random thoughts loosely tied together by a central theme. To me, this post has amounted more than anything to me clearing my throat. Bear with me. And stay tuned for future entries. Thank you for reading this, and giving some attention to my poor and dimmunitive talent.
posted by Raspy at 2:25 PM
1 Comments:
If you've ever wondered, as I have, about C.S. Lewis and politics, here's a paper on it: http://www.logosword.co.uk/articles/politics.htm
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