Our next author is someone you just might have heard of: C.S. Lewis. He is one of my personal favorites--hence the reason I'll be talking about him today.
If you haven't heard of him, then I'm pretty sure you've heard of his most famous series of books: "The Chronicles of Narnia."
Sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so. With Disney's recent releases of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" and "Prince Caspian," there are few who haven't heard of that series.
What few do know, however, is that "The Chronicles of Narnia" is an allegory about the Christian faith for children. Do you think that C.S. Lewis may have wanted to distance himself from pagan magic? You better believe it. Those who possessed "magic" were the witch and Aslan.
Magic was by no means the central theme of the books. And it was not attributed to nature, a "spirit realm," and could not be acquired through special worship or rituals. Instead, "magic" was attributed to the major players of good and evil.
Why is all this important? Well, as you shall see when I review my third author next week, how magic is presented is pivotal to the theme and feel of the story.
As a Christian author, I, like C.S. Lewis, do not want to be associated with paganism or spiritism, though I still do want to write fantasy. This genre is not closed to just those who write about magic wielding wizards and a group of gods and goddesses who play with the lives of the hero/heroine. There is a way to write strictly fantasy, but not abandon your morals. Tolkien and Lewis led the way in this and are considered the masters in the genre.
Stay tuned for a different perspective on fantasy by author, Terry Goodkind, next week.
Joe,
ReplyDeleteI remember that conversation. In fact, it was the inspiration for this particular series of posts. I see that my argument about Tolkien was not strong enough to persuade you. Perhapse I need another series. :)
~Emily