Heavens to Murgatroid or Aslan vs. Snagglepuss

June 11th, 2008 · 29 Comments · Gryffindor Common Room

By Matthew

Red Rocker made the following comment on another post:

Returning to Matthew’s point, the depiction of Aslan - and thereby of Christianity - as defanged, lame and uninspiring: I blame not the movie makers but how Lewis positioned his Christ figure. Making him a lion reduces the possibility of being able to relate to him as a human. Making him a playful lion diminishes his ability to inspire awe and fear. Giving him so much air time makes him too familiar, further reducing the awe factor.

It takes my mind a while to think things through and then things come, unbidden, to the fore. While I don’t completely agree with Red Rocker’s comment it did get me thinking. I believe that the problem is not with Lewis’ choice of the lion but rather our 21st century understanding of the lion.

We’ve been educated into thinking the lion a cartoon character (Kimba, Snagglepuss, Simba, Lion-Team Voltron), soft toy or coward with no heart. I think someone from Tanzania where lion attack is a reality (563 people killed since 1990) would have a very different appreciation for the character of Aslan. Even in the early to mid 1900’s the understanding of the lion was very different to ours. It was a target for the great white hunters who risked their lives to stalk the deadly creatures. It symbolised empire and the power of the monarchy for close to 1000 years. A dreadful beast to be feared.

Even though we see lions regularly on nature documentaries and see their dominance of their world I think most of us would find the awesome reality of a wild lion approaching mind-buggering.

If we escaped with our lives we would thank Aslan.

Tags: Aslan·cartoons·cowardly lion·Narnia

29 responses so far ↓

1 revgeorge // Jun 11, 2008 at 10:58 am

So, you’re saying it’s not Aslan who’s gotten too tame & civilized but us in our modern culture? If so, I agree with you. I think it’s our imaginations which have gotten too small, not Aslan.

And Lewis did say that perhaps only young children & old people should read fantasy or fairy tales. Perhaps the adult mind is too rational & too cynical to think much beyond itself. And perhaps because Lewis was addressing modernistic materialism. And nowadays we may be addressing something else.
2 revgeorge // Jun 11, 2008 at 10:59 am

PS, you forgot to mention Aslan’s appearances in South Park.
3 Red Rocker // Jun 11, 2008 at 11:32 am

Looking up the etymology of the word Aslan (it means lion in Turkish), I came upon this website with some interesting information about how LWW came to be:

http://www.evotional.com/2005/12/etymology-of-ideas.html

“C.S. Lewis traced the idea for Narnia back to a picture he saw when he was sixteen years old. He once wrote an essay titled “It All Began with a Picture.” He explained “the lion all began with a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood. This picture has been in my mind since I was about sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself: ‘Let’s try to make a story about it’.”

and about Aslan:

“All the ideas and characters in the book have an etymology. Lewis said he made Aslan a lion because Jesus was called the Lion of Judah. And he had been dreaming about lions when he started writing the story.”

Funny thing about that faun. Mr. Tumnus, and Lucy’s meeting with him in the snow covered forest, has always been the most powerful image in my mind associated with the book. For me, that is enchantment and mystery.
4 revgeorge // Jun 11, 2008 at 11:47 am

Yes, I agree. The scene with Mr. Tumnus is one of the best in the series. Just the whole setting is wonderful. A little girl finds a wood in a wardrobe & a lamppost with snow falling all around & then meets a faun. Only a little child could take that all in stride & think it perfectly normal. Childhood innocence at work.

It also goes to show that, because of childhood innocence, those of us who know better are responsible for protecting children. Mr. Tumnus eventually remembers this, after he’s entranced Lucy, & takes responsibility for her protection even though it most probably means his death.
5 Red Rocker // Jun 11, 2008 at 12:10 pm

Good point, revgeorge. That scene where Tumnus entrances Lucy is creepy, until he comes to his senses. He confesses and immediately lets her go, at considerable eventual cost to himself. But it always makes me feel uncomfortable to read it.

The evil in Narnia is Evil in the greater sense, the forces of the White Witch - a stand-in for the Devil - opposing the forces of Aslan. But in that one scene with Lucy and Tumnus, it is as if everyday evil - lightly brushes the reality of the books. I don’t know if there are any other points in the saga where that occurs.
6 Beth // Jun 11, 2008 at 3:12 pm

And let’s not forget there is even more to the lion imagery than some of us postmoderns see on the surface. Lewis was addressing modernists, yes, but doing so through the lens/grid of medieval cosmology. I’m reading Michael Ward’s “Planet Narnia” and he’s really persuaded me that the choice of a lion, for Lewis, was not only made because of the Christological/Biblical allusion (”Lion of Judah”) but because a lion is “kingly” and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is saturated with kingly imagery because it’s the “Jupiter” book of the septet — the story that Lewis permeated with imagery associated with the medieval understanding of the planetary influence of Jupiter.

And let’s not forget the centrality of Aslan for Lewis himself in his creative process of writing Narnia. Everything began with the image of the wood and the faun, but we wasn’t sure what to do with it until “suddenly Aslan came bounding into it. …Once He was there he pulled the whole story together, and soon He pulled the six other Narnian stories in after him.” I’ve always loved that quote!
7 revgeorge // Jun 11, 2008 at 4:17 pm

Red Rocker said, “The evil in Narnia is Evil in the greater sense, the forces of the White Witch - a stand-in for the Devil - opposing the forces of Aslan. But in that one scene with Lucy and Tumnus, it is as if everyday evil - lightly brushes the reality of the books. I don’t know if there are any other points in the saga where that occurs.”

I’m sure there are lots of other points in the series when moments like this occur. Just maybe not as noticeably & intensely as the scene in Mr. Tumnus’ cave.
8 revgeorge // Jun 11, 2008 at 4:20 pm

Great comments, Beth! You must be further along in your reading of Planet Narnia than I am. I’m still in the introductory material. I’ll have to look for those comments in the book as I read.
9 Beth // Jun 11, 2008 at 5:43 pm

Oh, it’s a great read. I got off to a slow start, but am now eating it up. I’m on the chapter about “Sol” and all the sun (and alchemical!) imagery in *Dawn Treader.* It’s a wonderful book.

Hmm…I couldn’t let myself have that dippy little character (cute as he is) for an avatar, so I just tried to sign up for one. We’ll see if it’s come through or not yet. It may also come through with a nickname (I had to use befus, which is the ID I use on sites where I write book and film reviews — I usually just post as Beth here and at HogPro…)
10 korg20000bc // Jun 11, 2008 at 6:15 pm

The Mr Tumnus scene with Lucy is a bit creepy but it is important in the rules of fairy tale to have real peril, otherwise it don’t work.

revgeorge, you wrote:
“So, you’re saying it’s not Aslan who’s gotten too tame & civilized but us in our modern culture?”

Yes, I am saying that we don’t grasp Aslan because of our cultural familiarity with woosy lion characters.
11 Black Angus // Jun 11, 2008 at 8:45 pm

I agree that our urbanised culture has defanged lions. Seeing a real one with no fence or moat between you and a hungry look in its eye would be truly ‘mind-buggering’ (thanks Korg). It has to be added that Korg is from Australia and that term is not as offensive here as it may be in other parts of the world…
12 Black Angus // Jun 11, 2008 at 8:46 pm

…And as a large slab of Australian prime beef I find the idea of lions terrifying…
13 Travis Prinzi // Jun 11, 2008 at 10:36 pm

Beth, I’m always glad when someone brings Michael Ward into the discussion. I’m in the “slow start” phase of reading Planet Narnia, but I’m already very intrigued, and my initial skepticism about finding the hidden interpretive key to Narnia so many years after its composition has crumbled.

Black Angus, as a large slab of Australian prime beef, you should find the idea of my grill terrifying.
14 Red Rocker // Jun 11, 2008 at 11:03 pm

I love the avatars. Thanks Travis, and whoever else worked on it. Having them gives things an extra zing.

At some point, we should have an avatar contest. Cutest avatar. Funniest avatar. Scariest avatar. Wittiest avatar. Not yet, though. People have to have a chance to sort themselves out.

Having said which, my vote would be for the brothers from Oz.
15 Black Angus // Jun 11, 2008 at 11:08 pm

Travis,
If I’m ever invited to a BBQ at your place it will be exit, stage left!
16 korg20000bc // Jun 12, 2008 at 1:12 am

I’m trialing a different gravatar.

Feedback?
17 Black Angus // Jun 12, 2008 at 5:29 am

Korg,
Gort is my favourite robot ever.
And fitting, seeing he’s from an allegorical movie - much to ponder.

And I feel better knowing I have a safe word ready to go if you keep using terms like ‘mind-buggering’:
Gort! Klaatu barada nikto! (or something starting with N).
18 korg20000bc // Jun 12, 2008 at 5:38 am

You just stopped me from destroying the world.

There were Star Wars figures named Klaatu, Barada and Nikto.

There also was a band called Klaatu who did a cover or that “Welcome occupants of interplanetary craft” song. Was it The Carpenters who did the original?
19 Black Angus // Jun 12, 2008 at 7:01 am

If we’re going to vote on Avatars, mine goes to Red Rocker.
I’ve always wanted those boxers.
20 Red Rocker // Jun 12, 2008 at 10:17 am

Red Rocker prefers Kong to Gort. Maybe it’s envy -
maybe he secretly wishes that he too were 7′7″ tall and capable of destroying the earth with a single glance - but Gort just lacks that visceral menace that Kong brought to the site.
21 revgeorge // Jun 12, 2008 at 10:43 am

I too prefer Kong. More gravitas.

I’ll stick with my gravatar for now. But my other choice, if I change, is that patron of screen & stage, Godzilla.
22 Beth // Jun 12, 2008 at 3:18 pm

Stick with the Ward book, Travis…it picks up and is very much worth the read. I too felt slightly skeptical initially, but my resistance has completely crumbled by now (I’m now on the Luna chapter, about The Silver Chair). It’s a beautiful theory AND a coherent one, and it’s making little light bulbs go off for me about the Chronicles. Considering how many times I’ve read them, and for so many years, that’s just marvelous.

I’ve had to pick up speed, by the way….I couldn’t afford to buy the book, so had to get it through ILL. That gives me six weeks, tops (it turned out to be a generous library and allowed a renewal) if I want to finish it before turning it back in!
23 korg20000bc // Jun 12, 2008 at 6:23 pm

Actually, it’s not Kong- just a gorilla yawning. Looks ferocious, though.

What about The Giant Claw?
24 Black Angus // Jun 12, 2008 at 7:41 pm

You’ve just made all my Gort refrences redundant and confusing.

revgeorge wanted grvitas and now you have it again with the Giant Claw.

Just pick one and stick with it! You’re playing with my mind.
25 Red Rocker // Jun 12, 2008 at 10:21 pm

Here’s a description of TGC:

‘And oh, what a monster – part vulture, part Looney Tunes Dodo, and all puppet, the Giant Claw glares at us with its googly eyes, flares the nostrils on its mushy beak(!), and mocks us with its shock of black hair. It speeds through the sky at impossible speeds, downing innocent airplanes as it fills the air with its horrid cartoon screech.’

Not sure if gravitas is what TGC is channelling here.

From the site:

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.stomptokyo.com/img-m7/giantclaw
26 Red Rocker // Jun 12, 2008 at 11:24 pm

Korg,

You’ve got to stay with an avatar long enough to allow for the players to exhaust the inside jokes that give our miserable lives meaning.

I, for example, have been sitting on a Gnut joke that I can’t use anymore because we’re now into TGC humour.
27 korg20000bc // Jun 13, 2008 at 5:12 am

I’m back baby!
28 korg20000bc // Jun 13, 2008 at 5:15 am

Red Rocker,
What’s a Gnut?
(I sell a punchline coming)
29 Red Rocker // Jun 13, 2008 at 12:43 pm

Funny you should ask,

Harry Bates wrote the story “Farewell to the Master” on which “The Day the Earth Stood Still” was based.
In the story, the robot’s name is Gnut. It was changed to Gort for the movie because that was easier to pronounce.

The story ends this way:

“You misunderstand, I am the master.” says Gnut.

Klaatu barada nikto nothing.

PS Welcome back generic yawning gorilla. Nice teeth.