The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton, 1967) & Narnia (specifically LWW)
Today is supposedly the most depressing day of the year. [Explanation here in an article from last year when it fell on a Monday.]
Yesterday leaving work and today morning were both brighter than I'd been expecting. Because of the snow maybe?
I reread The Outsiders on the train today, and as I neared Harvard this morning I got to the part with the church and the fire. Tears streaming down my face. I kind of wonder how I looked to an outsider (wow, no pun intended).
Leaving aside the question of what the heck "Then leaf subsides to leaf" means (which of course prompted me trying to remember if we did this poem in mt's class) I got thinking about the line "So dawn goes down to day" and how they're talking about a sunrise (though he was talking about sunsets with Cherry) and day is bright and good, so what exactly is Frost getting at in that line?
Chatted with Emma tonight, about LWW (movie and book) among other things, and I was talking about how Edmund felt cardboard to me and just got slotted into the betrayer role and there had to be a Judas figure, and Aslan died for him just 'cause he (Edmund) happened to be there at the right time. Last time I reread it I knew the heavy allegory of that section and wanted it to be powerful because I think the original story Lewis is representing is so powerful, but because I didn't care much about Edmund it was hard to get into it. Telling Emma this, it occurred to me that it could be argued that that's part of the point -- that the Resurrection was for all people, not just the people any one of us happens to think is worth a second glance). I'm inclined to think it was just lazy writing on Lewis' part, but I'm okay with drawing more out of a text than the author put in.
I've really gotta reread that book (and the series) even though my main motivation is so I can read fanfic.
Later it occurred to me that I couldn't remember any Last Supper equivalent. Or rather, there is and there isn't. There's the meal at the beavers' -- during which Edmund slips off, which is very much an echo of the Biblical story. But there is no "This is my body . . . " equivalent and certainly no institution of Communion to recur throughout the books (this occurred to me particularly because I've had so many discussions with friends for whom Communion is a crucial part of their Christian practice). Throughout the books Aslan just shows up like he did to the disciples before the Ascension. The Narnia story seems to have no Ascension equivalent. Which makes sense as a narrative device -- having Aslan able to show up whenever it pleases him. But it still makes me curious as to what Lewis' thoughts about Communion were.
Yesterday leaving work and today morning were both brighter than I'd been expecting. Because of the snow maybe?
I reread The Outsiders on the train today, and as I neared Harvard this morning I got to the part with the church and the fire. Tears streaming down my face. I kind of wonder how I looked to an outsider (wow, no pun intended).
Leaving aside the question of what the heck "Then leaf subsides to leaf" means (which of course prompted me trying to remember if we did this poem in mt's class) I got thinking about the line "So dawn goes down to day" and how they're talking about a sunrise (though he was talking about sunsets with Cherry) and day is bright and good, so what exactly is Frost getting at in that line?
Chatted with Emma tonight, about LWW (movie and book) among other things, and I was talking about how Edmund felt cardboard to me and just got slotted into the betrayer role and there had to be a Judas figure, and Aslan died for him just 'cause he (Edmund) happened to be there at the right time. Last time I reread it I knew the heavy allegory of that section and wanted it to be powerful because I think the original story Lewis is representing is so powerful, but because I didn't care much about Edmund it was hard to get into it. Telling Emma this, it occurred to me that it could be argued that that's part of the point -- that the Resurrection was for all people, not just the people any one of us happens to think is worth a second glance). I'm inclined to think it was just lazy writing on Lewis' part, but I'm okay with drawing more out of a text than the author put in.
I've really gotta reread that book (and the series) even though my main motivation is so I can read fanfic.
Later it occurred to me that I couldn't remember any Last Supper equivalent. Or rather, there is and there isn't. There's the meal at the beavers' -- during which Edmund slips off, which is very much an echo of the Biblical story. But there is no "This is my body . . . " equivalent and certainly no institution of Communion to recur throughout the books (this occurred to me particularly because I've had so many discussions with friends for whom Communion is a crucial part of their Christian practice). Throughout the books Aslan just shows up like he did to the disciples before the Ascension. The Narnia story seems to have no Ascension equivalent. Which makes sense as a narrative device -- having Aslan able to show up whenever it pleases him. But it still makes me curious as to what Lewis' thoughts about Communion were.