Some books have left an indelible mark on my life. The ones that come to mind are “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S. Lewis, “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Hitchhikers Guide” by Douglas Adams, “Lamb” by Christopher Moore, “City Boy” by Herman Wouk, “Little House on the Prairie” by Laura Ingalls Wilder & “A Prayer For Owen Meany” by John Irving.
I think I was in fourth grade (or was it fifth) when I was introduced to Narnia. My parents had stopped to visit family friends near Oshkosh, Wisconsin. We left their house to head home to Milwaukee but it was snowing too hard. We turned back and our friends let us stay the night. (These friends, though Christian, didn’t believe in having Christmas symbols around their house. This didn’t sit well with my parents who brought them a little live Norway pine complete with tiny ornaments. Seriously, why would my parents do that?) While sitting out the storm our friends introduced me to a slim book entitled, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” The magic and imagination of the story instantly got me — I was at the perfect age to completely lose myself in this type of book. At the time I really wasn’t thinking about books in terms of symbolism and allegory that would be drilled into my head much later by Mrs. Jones in High School. I knew the scene where Aslan dies and is resurrected was an awful lot like the crucifixion and resurrection story in the bible, but I didn’t love the story because I knew it was a lot like “the story in the bible” but because it was a great story.
I tore through the rest of the books in the series as fast as I could get my parents to buy them. They weren’t some sort of movie tie-in and they weren’t nearly as popular as they are today, so it took some doing to find some of the books at the end of the series. I feel lucky to have been introduced to the books at that lovely inflection point before I grew up and started thinking about money and politics and ideas — when playing hide and seek was still a good use of an afternoon.
So fast forward to this year — Disney is making a movie. I’m irked right away since everything Disney touches turns to pot. In addition it comes out the Disney hires the same firm who created the buzz among evangelical Christians for the movie “Passion of the Christ”. This kind of stuff makes me want to vomit in two regards. First of all you can’t make the Chronicles of Narnia not be a story of redemption with strong parallels to the Christian faith tradition. As such, when someone wants to make money off of that story I feel nauseated. (Yes, I’m aware that churches are a funny kind of big business that also makes money. That fact makes me a little queasy too.) Secondly, I didn’t want to see a story I love bastardized. I didn’t want the Mr. & Mrs. Beaver of my imagination to be replaced by something less than what I pictured all those years. I didn’t want the story in my mid ruined by Disney. I don’t want to go into the store and see mugs with Aslan’s face looking at me. I hate movie tie-in merchandise and it makes me want to vomit all the more when it’s got spiritual overtones.
There might be some spoilers, so be cautioned if you keep reading.
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