whee!

[flamingophoenix]

Life is real, life is earnest
and the grave is not its goal
"Dust to dust thou art returnest"
was not spoken of the soul.

So much going on in my head these days. So much.

Also, what the hell kind of sentence is "art returnest"? Crazy Emerson.

Google tells me it was, in fact, Longfellow, and the actual line is thus:

Life is real! Life is

Comments

[hamalkah]

Not only moronic--not possible. Take out Christian stories and themes from the Narnia books, and you HAVE no stories and themes.

Now, to take out the more explicitly Christian references would be possible, certainly, but wouldn't really do much, in my opinion. I remember reading the Narnia books when I was 5 or 6 and missing the explicit references entirely, but still getting the intuitive understanding of the story.

Wouldn't there be some serious copyright issues, anyway? Surely Lewis' estate is better protected than this.

[flamingophoenix]

I don't think I figured out the Christ metaphor until I was 13. Well, maybe earlier--I figured out Gandalf pretty quick, and that was when I was 10--but it was never central to my love and understanding of the stories. The themes in them go far beyond Christianity, but I agree that they encompass it. You can take the themes out of Christianity, but you can't take the Christianity out of the themes.

Or maybe I just need to go the hell to bed. :-P

[cardsaysmoops]

What is there to figure out about Gandalf? I don't think there's any solid thing to base him on (yes, changing from Grey to White is similar to the resurrection of Jesus, but other than that it's not like he's a straight up Jesus allegory) and I don't think JRR meant for any direct character allusions.

[farrow]

authors don't have be writing a complete allegory to draw on biblical themes. yes, gandalf is a Christ figure.

[toridethewind]

That is a "what the fuck?"! Are they now going to "secularize" all of Western (European-origin society) literature and art to take out Biblical themes? Because if they try to do it to Narnia, they might as well attack the rest.

Christianity is such an historically integral part of Western society that it is ridiculous to pretend it doesn't affect everything at some level. And then what about all other allegory that refers to mythology of various nationalities, or is that safe because it isn't "real religion" anymore?

[flamingophoenix]

The "not real religion anymore" is a really fascinating comment--a while ago I read a slate article about Romney and religion and the presidency, and a lot of people on the Fray said (I paraphrase) that the LDS aren't respectable because their religion is only ~150 years old, while the Abrahamic religions have all existed for at least 1400 years. (I say this in complete ignorance of how much Mormonism builds on Christianity, because I honestly don't know. I should, but I don't.)

So what this says to me is this: At first, religions are seen as wacky nutjobs talking about stupid things. Then, they gradually become accepted, more or less, into society. Then (still gradually), they stop being accepted any more and are just discussed in history classrooms as "mythology."