XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.books.cs-lewis, rec.arts.books.childrens   
   XPost: rec.arts.sf.written   
   From: jwkenne@attglobal.net   
      
   stephen@nomail.com wrote:   
   > In rec.arts.books.tolkien westprog  wrote:   
   >   
   >> I suppose one could come to the right conclusions if enough evidence were   
   >> ignored. Certainly lit crit where no background reading is required must be   
   >> less demanding. One could knock off by lunchtime.   
   >   
   > Actually literary criticism where no background reading is   
   > required is far more demanding, on both the reader and the   
   > author.  A book should stand on its own.  If you need the   
   > author to tell you what the book means then someone   
   > has failed as an author or a reader.   
      
   Inasmuch as what Lewis has to say about Narnia is no surprise to a good   
   many readers -- it follows directly from the plain meaning of the text   
   -- it is not hard to see where the failure is.   
      
   --   
   John W. Kennedy   
   "But now is a new thing which is very old--   
   that the rich make themselves richer and not poorer,   
   which is the true Gospel, for the poor's sake."   
      -- Charles Williams.  "Judgement at Chelmsford"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)