XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis, rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: hayesmstw@hotmail.com   
      
   On 15 Apr 2007 08:13:42 -0700, nystulc@cs.com wrote:   
      
   >   
   >Morgil wrote:   
   >> Calormen has too many similarities to Middle-East to   
   >> be dismissed as merely hypothetical, IMO, [...]   
   >   
   >You keep on subtly shifting the goal post.  You are apparently   
   >realizing that if you do not lower the bar, you won't be able to reach   
   >it.   
   >   
   >Nobody is denying that the Calormens are modelled after a Mesopotamian/   
   >Egyptian-style (Middle Eastern) pagan empire.  Nobody is trying to   
   >dismiss these similarities as merely hypothetical.   Indeed it was I   
   >who pointed out that their Turbans (formed from strips of cloth   
   >wrapped around a pointed helmet) resemble a design specifically   
   >associated with ancient pagan Persia   
   >   
   >What you keep FAILING to do is demonstrate your SPECIFIC claim that   
   >Lewis was trying to say something about Muslims, as distinct from   
   >other historical peoples and cultures of Mesopotamia.   
      
   And I don't think he was trying to say anthing about such people, because the   
   Calormenes are fictional people in a fictional world, some of whose   
   characteristics (real or imputed) Lewis borrowed for his fiction. But it's not   
   allegory. The Calormenes don't represent any specific ethnic group in our   
   world, and more than the Marshwiggles do.   
      
      
   >   
   >> [...] so the only   
   >> questionabe assumption would be that equating Tash   
   >> with Aslan mirrors Lewis' views of suggesting that   
   >> Allah and Christian God were one and the same.   
   >   
   >I am sorry, but you are CLEARLY barking up the wrong tree with that   
   >one.  "Allah" is nothing more nor less than the Arabic word for   
   >"God".  Arabs, including Christian Arabs, pray to "Allah", for the   
   >simple and sufficient reason that they speak the Arabic language.   
   >   
   >There are, no doubt, Christians who so ignorant that they do not   
   >realize this, but there is no way C.S. Lewis may be counted as one of   
   >them.  He was an educated man, and perfectly well aware that Muslims,   
   >just like Jews and Christians, worship the God of Abraham.  See, for   
   >instance,  "Mere Christianity" (1943), Book 2, Chapter 1 "The Rival   
   >Conceptions of God".  Here he contrasts the "pantheistic" view of God   
   >with the "other view" (of a Good God who devised a Creation separate   
   >from Himself) which is held by "Jews, Mohammedans and Christians."   
   >   
   >> Knowing how hostile many Christians, pseudo and not,   
   >> are toward that idea, it seems at least plausable.   
   >   
   >No-one who knows anything about Lewis' religious thought would   
   >consider this plausible.  He believed his religion was right and the   
   >Islamic religion (therefore) wrong to the extent in conflict.  But he   
   >was perfectly well aware of the common ground between them.   
   >   
   >Indeed, he was, if anything, a big believer in natural law and quite   
   >eager to emphasize the common ground between various religions and   
   >ethical systems, including even pagans (who, as I keep pointing out,   
   >are the real focus of his writing).   
      
   --   
   Steve Hayes   
   Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/litmain.htm   
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