I've read through all your posts and here are a few comments on them:
Elanorelle: You brought up the question of time. It's an interesting one and I'm not entirely sure we know the answer. It's clear that some time passes between when Polly leaves and Digory follows her, but exactly how much is hard to tell. We also don't know how much time the adventures in the Woods and Charn take place - how long did Uncle Andrew wait and did Polly get into trouble for being late or just for being dirty? We had a discussion on the old forum about "the muddle with times" and it's not quite as straightforward as you'd think, even when it just involves Narnia. For instance when Ed and Lucy enter the Wardrobe in LWW the timing doesn't coincide exactly. I think the point about time is that time does not run at the same speed in different worlds but that it is not a consistent difference. It's more like if you imagine each world moving along on it's own timeline and all the timelines are parallel and you can jump from one to the other at different points. It just happens that in most of the stories Aslan makes sure that no time is taken up in our world while the children are in Narnia (they are returned to the point where they left) so they don't miss out on any of their lives here. (Not sure if that makes sense - I could explain in more detail with diagrams if anyone really wanted to know how it works in my head - which is not necessarily how it worked in Lewis').
Eria: I also noticed the point you made about Polly's age where it talks about her putting the ring in her mouth. I do wonder how old she was? Old enough to come up with the smuggler's cave and not be scared on her own in the attic, and to be writting a story.
Swan and Ariel: I Swan's bit on the Uncle's Nephew and the similarities Digory and Andrew and what Ariel said about their curiosity/search for knowledge. I was wondering when I read the bit about him becoming a professor, what he was a professor of? Remember, in Britain, a Professor is the highest academic rank only given to the head of department in a university not just to any lecturer, so he must have been a very good scholarly man. I'd love to know more. I also thought it was interesting, having spent two years in a highly academic environment how true it is what Ariel said that the quest for knowledge through study can either lead you to God or lead you to think you're so superior you don't need God. I was struck by the fact that although Andrew had lots of books in his office, something we would think of as a good thing (books are good, right?) they didn't lead him to the right place. They either were "the wrong sort of books" (to quote VDT) or he was getting the wrong message from reading them. Makes you think...
SYorikson: I liked what you said about Aslan singing creation into being (it being a work of art). Tolkien does a similar thing by having the Ainur (angels) sing creation into being by following the melody devised by God (Illuvatar) in the beginning of the Silmarillion. I'm interested to know whether the idea of creating being sung was merely a Lewis/Tolkien concept or if it is part of an older tradition. I should do some research if I remember.
Swan: Loved the hill poem (and all your other poems too, as usual
)Ariel: I also liked Aslan's speech to the Cabby and the bit about him knowing him a long time. It is a lovely picture of how God knows us before we ever come to him.
Tenny: I was going to try explain why Andrew couldn't understand the animals but I think you figured it out. It's a bit like the Pharisees who's hearts were hardened against the gospel when they refused to recognise who Jesus was:
Happy: It's interesting what you said about the book not seeming as deep as you would have liked on a spiritual level. I kinda got the same feeling, at least compared to HHB and SC which we did the last two years there seemed to be less obviously spiritual content in it. I wasn't sure if it was really the case or just the stressful/busy circumstances in which I was reading it. It didn't bother me too much though, because I sometimes find overt spiritual content detracts from the story and I know that was something Lewis passionately tried to avoid.
Elanorelle: In answer to your question about the First Joke, I think I understand it though you need to know something about British slang. "No fear" is kind of British slang for something like "No worries". The joke was that here was Aslan being all formal and everything and the animals were answering him seriously. And then the Jackdaw came out with this informal "don't you worry" which was rather embarrassing and everyone laughed at him. That's why he was the first joke rather than making the first joke.
Finally, I just want to say well done to all the poets and artists, all your works were very impressive.
Well done once again!!
Statistics: Posted by Ajnos — Sat Sep 07, 2013 12:44 pm
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