C.S. Lewis: Reappraisal

I'm going through C.S. Lewis's letters right now, and frankly I find myself appalled at some of the things Lewis said. Lewis seemed to have a fairly virulent dislike of homosexuals, which was only matched by his disdain for communists and the laboring classes. I do understand that Lewis was tormented, possibly in homerotic ways, in his British boarding school experience, and frankly I would not be surprised if Lewis struggled with some sense of sadism or homoeroticism himself (not that I'm equating homosexuality with sadism, just saying Lewis might have.). But I don't think there's a similar excuse for his position on labor.
I'm going to an Episcopal church right now, and so you'd think I would feel closer to Lewis than I did before. And I still do have a certain fascination with the Inklings' charm. Whatever one might say about them, they were great novelists. But I can't escape the feeling that Narnia and Middle Earth were corrupted in some sense, by the very real prejudices Tolkien and Lewis exhibited in their works.

C.S. Lewis, Phillip Pullman and Childhood Indoctrination

Hey guys: Just an entry from my other blog that I thought was very applicable to this one.

I'm working on a class I'm teaching for the winter, about Lewis and Tolkien. I've been rereading essays on both men's works, and one issue that occasionally comes up is the Phillip Pullman\C.S. Lewis debate. Now, I like both Pullman and Lewis, though I think Lewis is a slightly better writer (that may just be childish preference talking, however). But I am disturbed that both Lewis and Pullman saw fiction as a vehicle for proselytizing to kids. I contrast this with Tolkien and J.K. Rowling, who did not seem to have the same goal. Both Tolkien and Rowling believed in certain values and morals and fought for those, but they did not believe in using children as religious pawns, so the issue of belief vs. nonbelief was largely kept to the side. It is no coincidence, in my opinion, that Tolkien and Rowling are better sellers and favorites. They express universal truths that we can all believe in, while not forcing people to subscribe solely to the author's point of view (this is particularly true of Rowling). I think the continued popularity of Pullman and Lewis speaks to the continued marginalization of children in our culture, where they are used as little more than political weapons by one religious\non-religious group against another.

Karl Marx and the Triumph of Libertarian Sci-Fi

One of the most peculiar aspects of the science fiction genre is that it has been dominated, not by liberals, as is traditionally supposed, nor conservatives, but libertarians. Poul Anderson, Greg Bear, Gordon Dickson, The Prisoner, H. Beam Piper, and Robert Heinlein, among many others, could all be labeled libertarian in their outlook. So far as I know, only Mieville and Kim Robinson, among major authors, are socialist in outlook. The picture becomes even worse when one looks at fantasy, though the situation in both genres is improving. Fantasy literature has too often been dominated by right wing ideologues, like J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. So what needs to change in the genre? I think, first of all, there needs to be a greater awareness of the plight of working class people, something Marxist fiction is particularly good at supplying. Secondly, publishers need to be challenged to diversify their production lines beyond the conservative\liberal, libertarian banners, to something more original, inviting voices from socialism and anarchism as well. Lastly, as the Sci-Fi Politico has pointed out before, the genre needs to accept individualistic voices, especially in TV and Film, rather than rely on retreads of old ideas. Only then will we have a genre that both Rand and Marx could be proud of.