XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.books.cs-lewis, rec.arts.books.childrens   
   XPost: rec.arts.sf.written   
   From: hayesmstw@hotmail.com   
      
   On Tue, 24 Jan 2006 15:26:10 -0000, "westprog"  wrote:   
      
   >   
   >"Steve Hayes"  wrote in message   
   >news:0inat1h3rufn2dbdo210nn212352l5rauo@4ax.com...   
   >...   
   >> >To call it an allegory means missing the point totally. Animal Farm is an   
   >> >allegory. The animals represent people and groups from the Russian   
   >> >Revolution. Indeed, 1984 can be read as an allegory. TLTWATW is not an   
   >> >allegory because Aslan is clearly stated to _be_ Christ in a different   
   >> >world. Lewis considers the possibility that Christ might become incarnate   
   >> >somewhere else. That's why Aslan behaves differently to Jesus, and   
   >different   
   >> >things happen.   
   >>   
   >> "Animal farm" is indeed an allegory, but "1984"? I don't think so. It's a   
   >> novel set in the future (from the time when it was written), and the   
   >setting   
   >> is what the author thought the world could be like if certain trends in   
   >his   
   >> own time continued. In that respect Aldous Huxley's "Brave new world" was   
   >> similar, except he chose a different set of trends. Neither is an   
   >allegory.   
   >> They are just novels set in an imaginary future.   
   >   
   >I suggest a rereading of 1984. It contains clear portrayals of Stalin and   
   >Trotsky, and references the turnaround in Communist loyalties following the   
   >Nazi invasion of the USSR. It is as much an allegory of the 1940's as it is   
   >a speculation about a possible communist Britain.   
   >   
   >The fact that  a novel is set in the future doesn't mean that it can't be an   
   >allegory. In fact, it's quite a suitable setting for the form.   
      
   Yes, allegories can be set in the futrue, but one dictator is much like   
   another, so one shouldn't be surprised if fictional dictators resemble their   
   real-life counterparts.   
      
   Perhaps if the main character in a novel is a photographer, the novel is an   
   allegory because real life photographers take photographs. When everything   
   becomes allegory, then nothing is 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)