How did this all began?
When “Mr Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street and the Bastables were looking for treasure in the Lewisham Road” (Ch. 1, The Magician’s Nephew), and when there was Polly and Digory, and Digory’s uncle and many others, and magical rings, and pools leading to different unknown worlds. Most of those who just saw the films wouldn’t know this (it’s a pity, because I think The Magician’s Nephew is the best of the seven books) since the films cover only the adventures of the children. Besides, this book tells us how the world of Narnia came into being and the process itself is quite cool, believe me (yeah, the mystery of the lamp post is revealed in it, hah!), with less killing and all that bloody war stuff. This is not really important in the light of what I really want to write about but I had to add this information as a kind of introduction, so you could somehow see The Chronicles as I see them: as mere fairy stories.
So how should I begin?
Perhaps I should give you some advice first: take a deep breath and forget all the fancy religious bullshit interpretation you’ve ever heard, read or just might come to your mind when you think about Narnia. Anything that has even a teeny-tiny connection to religion―and what I mean under religion here is exclusively Christianity―has an absolutely destructive force on what I’ll be trying to argue for. For a short while just pretend that you have no knowledge of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost and what the preachers told you, or what others heard from the preachers and you just accidentally know these things from the others, or from Facebook/Wiki/Google. Forget it. And when you’re done―quite hard, don’t you think?―open your heart and mind and believe in MAGIC, whether you are a believer in the Christian sense or not. (We should all believe in magic.) Think like a child, that might be the easiest way to get close to my ideas and don’t be such an ass (respect for those representing the exception). And NOW think about Narnia.
If you have some left-overs from your childhood deep inside your corrupted self (just kidding about corruption-am I?-, don’t be so serious!), you should feel great about Narnia (at least I hope you feel that way…) and consider it merely as world where one can feel special (because being part of something special makes you special), where everything is special and anything can happen.
Indeed, C. S. Lewis created this world for those who still believe in miracles and not as a proper reading for children with zealous or churchy background. Just look at this (if you google this quotation you will probably find more reliable sources; this is from http://www.greenbelt.com):
“Some people seem to think [when I wrote The Chronicles of Narnia] that I began by asking myself how I could say something about Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tale as an instrument; then collected information about child-psychology and decided what age-group I'd write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out 'allegories' to embody them. This is all pure moonshine. I couldn't write in that way at all. Everything began with images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn't even anything Christian about them; that element pushed itself in of its own accord. It was part of the bubbling.
Then came the Form. As these images sorted themselves into events (i.e., became a story) they seemed to demand no love interest and no close psychology. But the Form which excludes these things is the fairy tale. And the moment I thought of that I fell in love with the Form itself: its brevity, its severe restraints on description, its flexible traditionalist, its inflexible hostility to all analysis, digression, reflections and 'gas'. I was now enamoured of it. Its very limitations of vocabulary became an attraction; as the hardness of the stone pleases the sculptor or the difficulty of the sonnet delights the sonneteer. On that side (as Author) I wrote fairy tales because the Fairy Tale seemed the ideal Form for the stuff I had to say.” ["Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What's to Be Said," On Stories and Other Essays on Literature.]
Yeah, so that’s how everything began. In this sense the well-known allegory loses its strong basis generated by a sect of conservative dumbasses intellectuals. Let’s see another quotation (from Google Books):
“If Aslan represented the immaterial Deity in the same way in which Giant Despair [a character in The Pilgrim's Progress] represents despair, he would be an allegorical figure. In reality however he is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question, 'What might Christ become like, if there really were a world like Narnia and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?' This is not allegory at all.” (C. S. Lewis)
A much debated question whether Lewis really believed in this non-allegorical theory, or he was only pissed off at critics and he said something to close the matter. I guess, he didn’t succeed at all. But these quotations definitely support my argument that The Chronicles of Narnia are fairy stories and they don’t want to be anything more than fairy stories (at least intentionally). We should not look for explanations/interpretations in the stories because if we do then the magic will be lost―the worst thing that can happen. Not magic like STUPEFY, BIATCHES! or ONE RING TO RULE THEM ALL ETC. but its own distinctive magic.
And yes, there might be some similarities between The Chronicles and LOTR but come on, Tolkien and Lewis were close friends and mates in the Inklings, where writers discussed their works and read them to the others. Who you draw inspiration from, huh?!
Seriously, these are two different imaginary worlds and two different ways of writing and style. I like them both and the matter should not be like a Team Edward and a Team Jacob fight to the death since both are unique masterpieces. Even the devoted LOTR fans should give The Chronicles a try instead of judging it badly without knowing the whole of it.
You should be open to its magical simplicity and let yourself be carried away by these wonderful stories. Don’t bother about the deepest meanings in them, about Jesus and the strange mix of cultural traditions and characters from different mythologies. After all, these are fairy stories. Who cares about accuracy when ordinary children go into a wardrobe and find themselves in a world totally different from ours with talking animals, mysterious creatures, epic battles and even Father Christmas?
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