Pullman has described The Chronicles not just as "propaganda in the cause of the religion [Lewis] believed in," but also as guilty of advancing views such as, "Death is better than life; boys are better than girls; light-colored people are better than dark-colored people; and so on." And those are just Pullman's G-rated charges. He also has blasted The Chronicles in public forums as "one of the most ugly and poisonous things I've ever read," "propaganda in the service of a life-hating ideology," "blatantly racist," "monumentally disparaging of girls and women," and marked by a "sadomasochistic relish for violence."
I'm always suspicious of charges of racism and sexism made against authors of a different era. And in this case, as Nelson points out, the charges are just plain wrong. No one comes off better in the book than Lucy Pevensie.
"Lucy proved a good leader," the narrator tells us, and at the end she is crowned a queen as "Lucy the Valiant." She's also tender, a quality that's on fullest display when she and her older sister Susan keep vigil with the about-to-be-slain Aslan, then return after he's executed to tend to his corpse.The racism charges are equally spurious. As I've written before, I never detected a trace of racism or sexism when I read the book, as an adult or as a child. But then, I didn't go looking for them, either. I actually feel sorry for people who are unable to put away their PC-detecting meter when reading a book. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, people. And not a symbol of the dead, white male patriarchy.
I wonder if anyone would pay attention to these charges if the producers of the upcoming movie weren't aggressively going after the Christian market? Obviously, the Disney folks can market the movie to whomever they want. But one can read and enjoy The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe without any interest in, enthusiasm for, or knowledge of Christianity.
I know I did.
No comments:
Post a Comment