XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.books.cs-lewis, rec.arts.books.childrens   
   XPost: rec.arts.sf.written   
   From: hayesmstw@hotmail.com   
      
   On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 22:23:21 GMT, "Christopher Kreuzer"   
    wrote:   
      
   >Steve Hayes  wrote:   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   >> I did not suggest or imply that it was an allegory, and your   
   >> inference is mistaken.   
   >   
   >Sorry about that. What would you call your comparison of the deplorable   
   >word with the threat of nuclear war and mutually-assured destruction in   
   >the Cold War? [At least I think that is the comparison you were making.]   
      
   Internal evidence.   
      
   >> Perhaps the word "allegory" should be banned, since so many people   
   >> seem to mkisuse it.   
   >   
   >   
   >Let's wait a bit longer and see if anyone else jumps on my inadvertantly   
   >contentious use of the word...   
      
   Quite recently I read a book by Neville Shute, and was struck by the frequent   
   references to the characters smoking, lighting cigarettes and so on. You don't   
   see that kind of thing in books written more recently. Now for all I know the   
   publishers were being paid by the tobacco industry, and were demanding that   
   authors include such things, as in the 1980s and 1990s they demanded the   
   obligatory fuck.   
      
   Such things indicate the preoccupations of the people in the time in which the   
   work was written, and are used to help in dating ancient documents. They are   
   NOT allegories!@   
      
   Lewis also included several warnings of the "don't try thi8s at home" variety   
   -- it is very foolsih to lock yourself in a wardrobe. ve the years several   
   children have suffocated to death in abandoned refrigerators by getting inside   
   and shutting the door and not being able to get out. This is not allegory.   
      
   The "deplorable word" in "The magician's nephew" is no more an allegory of   
   nuclear destruction than the One Ring in "Lord of the Rings". At most you   
   could say that either could be interpreted by the reader as a sign or symbol   
   of nuclear power, but a symbol is not the same as an allegory.   
      
      
      
      
   --   
   Steve Hayes   
   Web: http://www.geocities.com/hayesstw/stevesig.htm   
        http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Methodius   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)