The Curse of C.S. Lewis

We here at the Emerald City Zen Center have to make a confession - we used to be fans of C.S. Lewis. When we were young, we found his Narnia books quite enjoyable and a damned sight more fun to read than Tolkien's Middle Earth stuff. But we were just children then. What did we know?

The Narnia books are Christian propaganda wrapped up in a package designed to lure young minds to it. There's epic quests, witches, knights, monsters and incredibly resourceful children saving an entire world of fantastic beings. It's like a delicious cake filled with every kind of western mythology with a great big dollop of Jesus in the center.

It's not that the stories are Christian allegory that's the problem, but it's the kind of Christianity that they promote that is most disturbing. Lewis is promoting Christianity at its most paternalistic and authoritarian - no better demonstrated in the last book of the series, The Last Battle, when we learn that Susan Pevensie can not enter the kingdom of Aslan (AKA four-footed Jesus) because of her interest in boys - hence punishing her for discovering and embracing the power of her female sexuality.

Tilda Swinton as The White Witch in the 2005 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe film

 In Lewis' Christianity women are to be chaste and meek little things that do as their told. It comes as no surprise that Narnia's greatest villain (appearing in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and The Magician's Nephew), The White Witch, is an ambitious, strong woman. Another popular Narnian baddy is The Lady of the Green Kirtle - the villainess of The Silver Chair, who like kinswoman Jadis of Charn (The White Witch's true name) is a powerful, ambitious woman who dares defy the natural role women are meant to play in society. To underscore how unnatural these women are, Lewis explicitly states in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe that Jadis is descended from a union between Adam and his first wife, Lilith.

The Lady in the Green Kirtle illustration by original Narnia illustrator Pauline Baynes

According to Medieval Jewish mythology and folklore, Lilith was created from the mud alongside Adam in Eden. Because they were both made from the same stuff at the same time, Lilith quite reasonably assumed that she and Adam were equals and refused to submit his will. Adam didn't take to kindly to this and rejected Lilith. To make it up to Adam, God plucks out one his ribs and creates Eve, who, because she is formed from Adam's rib, is naturally inferior to him and is expected to behave accordingly. The one time Eve does take the initiative, she gets her doofus of a husband to eat from the Tree of Knowledge and we all know how that played out. Meanwhile, while Eve was original sinning and condemning all women to menstrual cycles for her fruit picking ways, Lilith went off and became a demon/witch that goes around the world filling men with lustful thoughts and killing new born babies.

That darn Eve!

Lilith was a popular subject for European painters and poets. Being the educated man that he was, Lewis would have been very familiar with the common depiction of Lilith as a beautiful seductress using her sexuality to ruin men. So, when he says that Jadis is not a "daughter of Eve" he is saying that she and, by extension, all women like her are a separate, unnatural race from those of us derived from the union of Adam and Eve. Yikes!

Lilith by John Collier (1892)

This is pretty ugly stuff that is being delivered in the guise of a children's adventure story. So, while children may initially pick up the Narnia books for things like the swashbuckling mouse, Reepicheep,they are being indoctrinated with Lewis' seriously skewed views on women and sexuality. For this reason alone these books should be kept out of the hands of children.

But (like the used to say on the old TV commercials for Ginsu  Knives) wait there's more!

Not only is Lewis promoting an especially sexist form of Christianity, it is incredibly intolerant. This is demonstrated in how he deals with the people that live in the Narnian world that are not followers of Aslan - The Calormenene.

The desert nation of Calormen is inhabited by dark skinned people described as having long beards, wearing robes and turbans. Their money bears the image of a crescent and they have an opulent aesthetic sensibility. In every sense the Calormenene fit into the stereotypical image of Middle Eastern people and Lewis makes no attempt to hide it

An original illustration of Tash by Chronicles of Narnia illustrator Pauline Baynes

The Calormene  worship the god Tash - depicted as a multi-limbed, vulture-headed demon with a skeletal body. A key component to Tash worship is human sacrifice
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It's fairly creepy stuff but what makes it worse is that the worship of Tash is very similar to Medieval Europe's beliefs regarding Muslims. Several Christian sources stated that Muslims worshiped a monstrous entity that required human sacrifices as part of their ceremony. A common deity credited to be the god of the "Mohammedans" was Termagant - often depicted as a kind of goat-headed entity in long robes. Termagant is the seeming inspiration behind the depiction of the demon/god Baphomet. One of the key charges levied against the Knights Templar when they were being persecuted and suppressed by the Vatican was that they went native and began worshiping the goat-headed god of the Muslims, Baphomet.

Baphomet by Eliphas Levi

Termagant and Baphomet often showed up in Medieval and Renaissance literature, two things Professor Lewis was quite familiar with. By giving his Muslim stand-ins, the Calormene, a monstrous demon as a god, he was tapping into the same anti-Islam sentiment and fear that those much older works did.

A couple of Calormene nobles in an illustration by Pauline Baynes

It was bad enough that Lewis depicts the only other belief system in his fictional world as being corrupt and evil, but he goes further and plays into the racism and xenophobia of his day by having the dark skinned Calormene plot to destroy Narnia - which represents an idealized Britain filled with Aslan fearing, tea sipping White folks and their equally British animal and mythological creature pals. The dusky Calormene wish to wipe the worship of Aslan from the earth and replace traditional Narnian society with its own. This is essentially the view of contemporary Islamophobes the world over.

In Lewis' Christianity as presented in the Narnia books, there is no room for other belief systems. In fact, any other belief system seeks to destroy the very civilization in which his target audience was a part of. It is not hard to imagine that Lewis wanted this message to penetrate deeply into the minds of the little boys and girls across the English speaking world he wrote the books for.

As if Islamophobia, misogyny and racism were not bad enough, the Narnia books argue for a violent defence of Christianity by focusing on the faith as being under constant siege. Over and over again the followers of Aslan have to pick up weapons and kill in the name of their saviour. This bunker mentality of having to withstand steady assaults on their faith is a common trait throughout Christian fundamentalism as practiced in America. Christian conservatives are constantly harping on about there being a "War on Christmas" or that their religious freedom is being robbed of them by the Supreme Court making marriage equality the law of the land.

An original illustration for The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by Pauline Baynes, showing Santa Claus handing out weapons to the children with which to slay Aslan's enemies with. Christmas has declared war on you!
 

Perceiving oneself as being under attack and persecuted allows someone to justify any actions they take to defend themselves against these imagined threats. Religious fundamentalists (Christian, Muslim and Jewish) operate from this point of view and that is how they are able to justify the use of terrorism against who they believe are their enemies. Lewis' Narnia books feed into this delusional mind set.

Mike Huckabee and Kim Davis - This is what you get if you let your kids read the Narnia books!

To be continued . .  .



 

Why Oz Is Much Cooler Than Narnia.

On the surface, L. Frank Baum's Oz and C.S. Lewis' Narnia series appear to be rather similiar. Both deal with young, earth dwelling children being transported to magical realms where they have exciting adventures with the natives. If you take a closer look you will discover that the Narnia books are rather creepy. They are full of anti-modern, close minded, religious propaganda. Baum's 14 Oz books on the other hand, are stories about the importance of acceptance, diversity camraderie. Here are some reasons why Lewis' Narnia books are genuinely loathesome, along with why Oz is much more wholesome in comparison.
1. Sexism: C.S. Lewis, at least when he was writing his Narnia series, had a pretty dim view of what women were capable of. This sexist, though not uncommon view for a man of his era, is made more disturbing by his very obvious discomfort with female sexuality. Grown women are not to be trusted in the universe of the Narnia saga. Little Lucy Penvensie is the ideal "Christian" in the series but that's because she has not yet developed sexually. When her sister, Susan discovers her sexuality and begins wearing makeup and going out with boys, she is deemed not capable of coming to Aslan's world. She is banned from paradise for following her natural and essential biological urges! Let me add!!!! Likewise, look the grown women that are present in Narnia. The two most prominent are Jadis - The White Witch and The Lady of the Green Kirtle, both of them are evil witches representing Satan, the ultimate evil. So, when we meet grown women in Narnia they are all unworthy of Aslan's grace.
In Oz, on the otherhand, Baum provides us with a huge list of capable, independent and powerful female characters. In fact, Oz is almost entirely operated and protected by powerful, strong women. This list includes Dorothy, Glinda, The Goood Witch of the South and Ozma.
2. Racism: Lewis' Narnia books are racist and imply a racial hierarchy. To begin with, Narnia is very much an idealized England in which there are not racial minorities. It is a white country for white people and thier magical friends who also either appear to be white or at least act like proper white English folk. This is also very similiar to Lewis' close pal and fellow inkling, J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth (for more on this check out Michael Moorcock's excellent essay Epic Pooh). The races living outside of Narnia are depicted as brutal, thuggish and ethnic. The Telmarines are obviously meant to be a sea-faring, Medittereanean people. Much to swarthy for Mr. Lewis' taste. They are brutal and cruel, but are capable of being redeemed by the much more enlightened White-British Narnians. The Calormen are depicted as dark skinned, Arabic people who worship a demon, participate in human sacrifices and are in constant warfare with the rest of the world. They are described in the worst kind of stereotypical terms for an Arab person and are even less capable of being "saved". They are obviously well below the swarthy Telmarines, who in turn are quite a few steps down the ladder from the very English and White Narnia.
Oz is depicted as a land of great racial diversity. While these races do not directly correspond to real world racial groups, Baum's depiction of diversity and the need to accept it is a far cry from Lewis' racial hierarchy. All of the race's in Oz are valued for what they can offer and are worthy of respect from the rest of the land's citizens. Even people and creatures from other lands are welcomed and treated with respect. Oz accepts everyone and does not require you to convert to its religion, unlike another magical land we know.
3.Holy War: In the Narnia Chronicles, C.S. Lewis makes it clear that war in the name of God/Jesus/Aslan is not only acceptible but essential. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the Penvensie children are brought to Narnia in order to lead a holy war against the anti-Aslan (A.K.A. evil) forces of the White Witch. Santa Claus even shows up and hands out weapons for the children to kill with! Father Christmas is their arms supplier. The message to young readers is very clear - in order to preserve the faith it is sometimes neccessary to kill and even wage war. Very creepy. Creepier yet is the jihad-like aspect Lewis gives the war between the Narnians and the Telmarines in Prince Caspian. In a letter Lewis wrote a young fan, he stated that the book was about restoring the true faith. The method through which this is accomplished is war. Sounds a lot like some terrorist leader urging his followers on.
In Baum's Oz there is no organized religion. We learn that a faerie queen created the enchantment that transformed Oz in a faerie land, but that's it. On top of it, the rulers of Oz often search for non-violent answers to their problems. This is quite different from Santa handing out swords meant to cleave a "non-believer's" head in two.
4. Anti-Modernism: C.S. Lewis hated modernity. He thought it was souless and destructive. It was like a plight across the Western World that was replacing God with science and dehumanizing mankind. His disdain for modernity is readily apparent throughout the Narnia books. Susan's sexuality is associated with "lip stick and nylons", very 20th Century kinds of things for a young woman to be wearing. Lewis' disdain for the modern is most viruently demonstrated in the finale of his "Space Trilogy" - That Hideous Strength, in which modern art, architecture, science etc. are depicted as tools of the Devil looking to break mankind's will and use reason to cause people to cease believing in God. This view is expressed by Lewis in his handling of modern women (ie. Susan) and education. In The Silver Chair, Lewis attacks modern education theories and techniques in the form of Experiment House, a modern school where the Pevensies' cousin Eustace and his pal, Jill, attend. Experiment House allows children to learn through exploration and, OMG!, there is no religious education. The school is depicted as a terrible place with ineffective teachers and horrible bullying students. Of course, Lewis meant education in the doctrines of the Church of England and not some kind of comparative relgion course.
In Oz the modern world is reflected in the roles women play, technology and general attitudes towards the world. Baum, a feminist and son-in-law of a major feminist figure, allowed his work to disply his progressive views on women's rights. Likewise, his approach to racial diversity is quite modern compared to Lewis' hierarchy of races. Technology also exists in Oz and is just as much a source of wonder as any kind of magic. The greatest example of this is Tik-Tok the clockwork robot. Technology is not a thing to fear but is something that is capable of making the world a much more interesting and exciting place. Reason and the scientific method are promoted often in Baum's Oz books. While he often took shots at academia, Baum also obviously valued the importance of critical thinking, reason and scientific inquiry. Again and again, the characters in the Oz books have to rely on empirical reasoning to find their way out of the troubles they always end up in. Lewis on the other hand promotes blind faith throughout the Narnia books. The Pevensie children and their Narnian allies are expected to constantly just have faith in Aslan and not to question. In fact, questioning is a bad thing. Just accept what your religion/authority figure tells you to do and shut up! Questions and reason are for those that don't get to cuddle up with Aslan for eternity.

The difference between the two series is that Baum was a man who embraced modernity and viewed the world through more egalitarian eyes than the patriarchial, fundamentalist Christian Lewis. One was presenting a modern faerie tale and the other was creating heavy handed religous propaganda designed to help make children good little Christian soldiers. One had a more universal view of the world and the other had a very narrow one in which his culture and religion were the only true ones and that everything else at best paled in comparison and at worst were false, empty and destructive. These personality traits shaped the fictional universes they are most famous for. Unfortunately, Lewis' Narnia is built solidly on its creators bigoted, fundamentalist hangups