Aslan and the Divine

[rthstewart]

lady_songsmith and her reflections on divinity in TSG

Aslan and the Divine

I really like that you refer to the Divine fluidly -- Him, Her, Aslan, God, Allah -- rather than trying to cram all of this strictly into the Christian theology alone.

Impressed that you keep the mystic/divine on a level that is subtle and understated enough to be wholly believable. Your characters may be hearing the Voice of God, but it is done so delicately that we as readers are not bashed over the head by Great Revelations. One could, if one chose (and were perhaps of a mindset like the Col's), read all of the Aslan-moments as the voices of the characters' subconscious minds rather that any manifestation of the Divine.

I also love L's -- 'casual' is the wrong word, but I lack the vocabulary for what I do mean -- relationship with Aslan, and the way E accepts this a matter of course although it seems he doesn't hear A so clearly nor does he really seem to expect to, ever. Of course, later in QSiT he does have a conversation with A, so perhaps I misread that; my impression in Pt1 was that he sensed A much the way P did in the garden with RR, rather than the solidity of L's conversations.

I can't help thinking that if P makes Asim's inner eye squint, L will probably blind him.

Re: RR and AP's discussion of suicide/euthanasia: this very short interaction has a ton to be unpacked in it, but I’ve tried about a dozen times to take a stab at explaining why I find it both irritating and very fitting and gotten nowhere.

Comments

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

I will go ahead and comment on this one, as I'm actually working through some of this again in Chapter 17.

My decision to try (as best as research and some personal experience could afford) to incorporate different faiths in TSG was a very deliberate one from the beginning. There is a very ugly element in this fandom that is, to my mind, totally antithetical to the inclusive messages found both in the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth and in the Chronicles themselves. Not that those ugly elements are likely reading what I'm writing anymore, immoral as I am. I am being deliberately didactic even though at this point I'm pretty obviously preaching to the choir for the ones who are reading TSG and like this element aren't the ones who need a broader, more compassionate view. Further, in the characters of the Russells, Digory Kirke, and Polly Plummer, I wanted "evolutionists" who are also people of faith, for I do not view faith and science and mutually exclusive.

As to Lucy hearing Aslan and the others, yes, she does and yes, that's a part of who she is, and why she will be so astounding when she unleashed on an unsuspecting England, even for the short time she has. In this scene, Heart and Mind where Edmund hears Aslan more clearly, I'd not thought until now that it is a bit inconsistent with the assumption that only Lucy hears him so clearly. I do assume that Lucy's connection is solid and always present; while it's not said, a part of something I toy with her is that during this period of the return from Narnia, Aslan is very much "in the neighborhood." In fact, Aslan says as much in the chapter to come.

Edmund may also be hearing more clearly at this particular moment because he is newly returned, more attuned to Aslan than is usual, and because his own trauma at the Wall of Water and Lilies was so great. He is asking and listening and Aslan is responding.

If you can articulate the suicide point a little better, I'd like to hear it for I've got Richard returning to that issue in the next chapter I'm working on.

[lady_songsmith]

If you can articulate the suicide point a little better, I'd like to hear it for I've got Richard returning to that issue in the next chapter I'm working on.

I can try, but I'll probably ramble. Without going into my own religious background, I have some issues with the whole concept of suicide-as-sin. It's perfectly in character for Polly to object to Richard's proposal, since I can see her as very much a solid CoE Christian despite the world-traveling libertine lifestyle. But at the same time, suicide-as-sin sorts ill with a god who values free will, and in the case of fatal illness, sorts worse with a god who - as Aslan does - values sacrifice. Particularly when the fatal illness in question will cause a great deal of suffering not only to the person dying but to those around him. And in Richard's particular case, an illness that will steal his mind from him... it raises issues of whether one can even be in faith if one is not in one's right mind.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

One could, if one chose (and were perhaps of a mindset like the Col's), read all of the Aslan-moments as the voices of the characters' subconscious minds rather that any manifestation of the Divine.

I had meant to comment on this earlier as well. One concept I have been playing with is that different people, of different cultures, education, and background, see Narnia in the Pevensies, though they get there differently and come to different conclusions. After introducing the Tarot and Agnes' ambiguous use of it (which I keep deliberately ambiguous), and hearing Hev speak of Lucy in Jungian archetypal terms, I thought of pushing the Colonel into that mindset -- the spy master trained in psychoanalysis.

I am not sure if Colonel Walker-Smythe is a person of faith or not -- I suspect, traditional man that he is, that there is old COE in there, tempered with a lifetime of seeing very odd, mystical, and unexplained things. Watson said to Holmes in the recent film, "I once heard a man precisely predict his own death." I heard the Colonel speaking in that moment.

It is very likely that the Colonel would consider talking to God and dead people a manifestation of the subconscious. It is an excellent idea. He is not, as Richard is, able to take the mystery on faith. He does, I think, see the miracle of the divine in the complexity of the human mind even if he would not believe the divine to operating through that mind. It's an interesting thought to ponder.