by Stanley Anderson » April 23rd, 2008, 8:59 pm
I just read a review of the book in the current issue of First Things (I was hoping it might be online on the First Things website so I could link to it, but it is apparently not). I have to admit that the review and the examples it provided made the book sound quite interesting and feasible. I don't think an author has to be explicitly conscious of a process in order to incorporate it into his work, although something as ambitious as the Ward suggests would likely have to be pretty conscious (just as I'm convinced my "chessboard" theory of THS would have to be a pretty conscious effort on Lewis' part to have it all work out in such amazing detail).
And Lewis was clearly enamored of the "character" of the various spheres since he embeds them so intergrally into the Space Trilogy (and elsewhere of course), especially THS. As a delightful and "deep" (to me at least) example of this, in my chessboard theory, the descent of the gods at St. Annes has its contrasting parallel in the Banquet at Belbury chapter where, in a very direct and rich way, the animals attacking the banquet guests correspond with the gods "influencing" the company downstairs at St. Annes (not to mention the contrast of the gods at St. Annes being "above" man, and the animals at Belbury "below"). I won't go into the whole thing except to note the wonderful capstone of the animal scene that so nicely parallels the coming, finally, of Glund (Jupiter) to St. Annes. Please read the whole paragraph or section in the Banquet at Belbury chapter about the entrance of the elephant and its almost gleeful or "jovial" path of wild and utter manic destruction into the room. The part I'll quote though, is the last line of that scene: "Here surely came the King of the world." Whew! the whole scene with all the various animals is exhilarating (horrible as it is of course) when "seen" as the counterpart to the descent of the gods scene at St. Annes. Compare them side-to-side to get the full impact.
Anyway, I don't know what all Ward goes into, not having read the book yet, but the First Things review gives many good and interesting examples and I'm now curious to read it. Since Lewis wrote the Narnia books after the Space Trilogy, if he was so very strongly enamored of the planetary character in SP, it is not a stretch to think of him making it all the more rich in the Narnia books (by the way, I don't know if Ward makes this point, but I seem to remember one of Lewis' letters talking about the Narnia books' creation and saying that he originally wrote LWW and then later was going to stop at VDT and saying it had to be three volumes, or, if not, then seven (maybe Sven can tell me if I'm remembering correctly). If this is true, he certainly must have had "seven-ness" in mind and it would flow directly out of the idea of seven spheres for anyone familiar with his fascination with medieval concepts.
As a side note, I have my own "key" to the books of Narnia, not just of the various volumes, but also to the order (the original published order of course, not that "mechanical" travesty of semi-chronological:-). I don't know if Ward's "planets" key also accounts for the written order or not, but one of the reasons I "like" my "key" to the books (I hope I can avoid the arrogance that bothers JatW:-) is precisely the fact that it suggests a "natural" progression for the order of the books. I originally posted the idea many years ago on these forums, and I think I even reposted it at carol's request years later (and yet that last time was still years ago), so I'm tempted to post it again here, just because it has been quite a while and it fits in (sor of) with this thread (at least the "key to Narnia" idea being talked about). So, anyway, here it is:
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[The “key] has to with a sort of "journey" that a typical Christian might take in going from unbeliever to believer to mature Christian (again, I say "typical" -- of course each person's journey is different, some radically so, but there are certain generalities that probably apply to many Christians' walk.) To me, the books, looking at what appear to be a different primary theme in each book, seem to follow this typical journey in a sort of symbolic way.
And when I say that, a flood of other lesser (but still important) themes and caveats and digressions enter my mind. But I have to limit myself to a rather simplistic exposition here. (And keep in mind that these primary themes or "steps" often overlap, so that one does not "end" before the next "begins". Still, there is a typical order of exposure to them, I think)
So. Typically a person's first encounter with the Christian Faith is his conviction of sin and subsequent confrontation with the Christ in his sacrifice on the cross and the Resurrection and redemption of the sinner. And this is exactly the primary theme of LWW as the "proper" first book in the series.
Lewis mentions in several places in his works that one of the first things that a new Christian will encounter after conversion, and one to be aware of in advance, is a sort of dry spell where the initial rush of joy or ecstasy that a Christian may have felt falls away, so that the determination of will to follow Christ can be strengthened. And this seems to be one of, if not THE primary theme of PC as we see when the children find themselves in the dilapidated ruins of Cair Paravel and begin traveling along so that they must "walk by faith" even though they cannot initially see Aslan as clearly as Lucy (who, even she, must take on faith for part of the journey)
As a Christian continues in the faith one of the things that most people begin facing is the confrontation of their life with Christian morals and the changes they need to start working on. I think VDT can be seen as a sort of episodic morality play where the characters are presented with various moral situations on the various islands and adventures.
Daily immersion in and memorization of Scripture is something that a Christian must eventually consider and is the next "step", if you will, in their walk. And this seems to be one of the main themes of The Silver Chair where Jill and Eustace are supposed to memorize and repeat to themselves and be intimately familiar with the four signs given to Jill by Aslan. It is precisely their laziness in this task and lack of perseverance that results in many of their problems in the book. Being so familiar with them that they become second nature would have helped them many times throughout the book.
As Lewis indicates, Pride is one of the hardest things for the Christian to let go of, and so often it comes as one of the "later" steps to be fully confronted and dealt with (though of course it is an ongoing battle with no "sharply defined" beginning or end). And the issue of pride seems, to me, to be the central theme that we see in HHB -- we see it primarily in Bree, but also in Rabadash, and in the other characters like Aravis and Shasta.
It seems a common enough idea among prospective Christians that the way they should investigate the religion is to read the Bible from cover to cover, starting with Genesis and going straight through to The Revelation. But this rarely works out that way (how many people have “eagerly” started that task and never got past the first few chapters of Genesis?). As indicated above, the first encounter is most often with Christ himself in the Gospels. Most "beginnings" tend to come rather late in the game. And so the juxtaposition of Old Testament with New and the intermeshing of prophesies in the OT with their fulfillment in the NT and the grand picture of God's hand running throughout the entire Bible is something that one doesn't get a very robust sense of until quite a ways into their Christian journey. It is only then that things begin to "make sense" with a sort of "ah, look -- we see Jesus' necessity even back here in Genesis". And of course this is the sort of thing we encounter in MN where we "discover" many things that were only hinted about in the earlier books, and LWW in particular.
And of course last things properly come last -- The Revelation of John, again is something new Christians like to "hover" over (and blessed are they for it! I wouldn't have anyone "hold off" on reading it), but it is something that is more enriching for the mature Faith with its all encompassing reassurance and "completion" of end things. And this is of course what we find in LB which starts out, and continues till nearly the end with such devastating events, until they are completely overshadowed by the glorious and powerful ending.
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Well that is the gist of it. End of side-track:-),
--Stanley
…on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a fair green country under a swift sunrise.