XPost: rec.arts.books.childrens, rec.arts.movies.current-films,    
   lt.books.cs-lewis   
   From: djanss@nospam.charter.net   
      
   Steve Hayes wrote:   
      
   >>Similar to when Lewis described one colleague who read Lucy's tea party   
   >>with the faun and said, "Aha, it's a *sexual* metaphor disguised for the   
   >>age group, isn't it?"   
   >>Lewis replied that, no, he just thought it sounded like rather a cozy   
   >>afternoon with tea.   
   >   
   > Yes, that sort of thing.   
   >   
   > Shorty after reading LWW for the first time, I went to England to a   
   university   
   > there, and experienced a cosy winter afternoon with tea in an academic   
   > setting. But perhaps those who like reading sex into everything might have   
   > taken the crumpets as a metaphor.   
      
   Well, was quoting it a *little* out of context:   
   ----   
   "A man who had children of his own said, 'Ah, I see how you got to that:   
     If you want to please grown-up readers, you give them sex, so you   
   thought, "Well, that won't do for children, what can I give them   
   instead?--I know, the little blighters like plenty of good eating!" In   
   reality, I myself like good eating and drinking.  I put in what I   
   would've liked to read as a child and what I still like reading now that   
   I'm in my fifties."   
   ---   
      
   (IOW, he was commenting on how he wrote the Narnia books to his *own*   
   tastes, rather than "pander" to imagined kids' tastes--   
   But, the "Susan" thing was getting so annoying, couldn't resist the   
   surface parallel.)  :)   
      
   >>>Lewis acknowledged that as a middle-aged adult, he enjoyed fairy tales. Not   
   >>>all adults do. He thought they were missing something.   
   >>   
   >>And specifically, that children who retain their tolerance of   
   >>fairytales--and the willingness to accept archetypal good-vs-evil   
   >>morality under unusual circumstances--on into middle-age adulthood   
   >>manage to keep their willing suspension-of-disbelief perspective well   
   >>intact towards certain *other* supernatural ideas of right and wrong in   
   >>our own world--   
   >>Much longer than those who spent their time wanting to rush out of   
   >>childhood and become "grown-up" as soon as possible, and finding nothing   
   >>but mature shallowness waiting for them...The "mature" Susan, of course,   
   >>now clearly being as shallow as they come.   
   >   
   > Perhaps it is far simple: Pullman may have shares in the cosmetics industry,   
   > and disapproved of any suggestion that that that and fashion are not the most   
   > provound and significant human endeavours.   
      
   Or--given the many other authors who couldn't resist the spotlight and   
   the refusal of those who do to come up with any new, original   
   arguments--it could be that Narnia-bashing is just the default   
   "Anti-Columbus rally" of the literary-fantasy industry:   
   Ie., you can't *truly* wear your Pretentious And Self-Absorbed badge   
   UNTIL...  :)   
      
   Derek Janssen ("Sorry, dude, it's hazing rules; gotta do the 'racist   
   Calormene' thing, or we cant letcha in the Club!")   
   djanss@charter.net   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)