Revisiting C.S. Lewis

I have, I think it’s fair to say, an ambivalent relationship with C.S. Lewis. I loved The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a kid– that bit where Lucy crosses into Narnia for the first time and meets Mr. Tumnus continues to feel magical and evocative and resonant, even now– but I feel less charitably toward that book as an adult, given some of the weird, possibly creepy, probably manipulative stuff that’s salted through it. At the urging of my roommate, I read Surprised by Joy in college; there were things I enjoyed about it, but there’s a section, after his conversion, where he jumps from being open to religion to embracing a very particular form of Christianity that felt rushed and probably disingenuous. Again, I haven’t had any particular animosity towards Lewis, but I found him much less convincing as a thinker than others I know, particularly because I’m not at all swayed by his confessional allegiances.

But then I read Laura Miller’s Magician’s Book, a book I really love, and it gave me a renewed appreciation for Lewis. As a result of that book, I’ve been slowly revisiting many of the books of the Narnia series, some of which I hadn’t ever gotten around to as a child. I’m not fully in Miller’s camp on Narnia– the didactic bits are really ponderous– but there’s something to her argument that the Narnia books work much better as something like medieval allegory than as anything else.¹

I just reread Prince Caspian, for example, and it’s far from a perfect book: the didactic part about faith is pretty grating (even to someone who’s much more religious than they used to be), and the gender norms are obnoxious (even though Susan is clearly formidable with a bow). But the beginning is magical and evocative, the inner narrative that brings the children up to speed on Narnia is neat, and it’s great that it’s some weird syncretic amalgamation of Aslan and Bacchus and his followers that romps through the countryside and puts Miraz’ followers to flight.

I’m still no great fan of Lewis, that is to say, but I have enjoyed revisiting Narnia.