Sunday 9 March 2008

Planet Narnia


Last week I (Christina) went to a lecture at New College by Michael Ward who is the author of a new book called Planet Narnia. The lecture was absolutely fascinating. Apparently the Narnia Chronicles have long been criticized as being a hodgepodge of ideas which Lewis hastily slapped together with no apparent order or reason. Tolkien himself was highly critical of Lewis in this regard. On the other side of the debate, many people believe there is some order or unity to the seven books which hasn't been discovered yet, although many suggestions have been made, including that the seven books correspond to the seven deadly sins, or to the seven Catholic sacraments, or to the seven steps of Anglican commitment, or to seven of Shakespeare's plays, and so on and so forth. However, none of these theories have been convincing to anyone.

Ward's book proposes a new unifying theme for the chronicles. He suggests that the the seven books correspond to the seven planets of the pre-Copernican universe. Each of the planets was associated with a god, and of course each god has specific characteristics which Lewis used to outline the basic plot of each book, but in particular to flesh out Aslan's character in each book. So, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe corresponds to Jupiter; Prince Caspian to Mars, Voyage of the Dawn Treader to the Sun, The Silver Chair to the moon, The Horse and His Boy to Mercury, The Magician's Nephew to Venus, and The Last Battle to Saturn. I know it may sound strange, but Ward's argument is incredibly convincing. I'm hoping to get his book soon and get a more in-depth look at what he's proposing.

Anyway . . . I had an idea for a homeschooling project in conjunction with this, and since I know some of our readers are homeschoolers, I thought I'd share it and you can tell me what you think. The idea is to study the Narnia Chronicles from this point of view, and in doing so you'd cover multiple subjects and all in a fun way. First, you'd do a study of the pre-Copernican view of the universe and what medieval people believed about the heavens and why, and how science was done, etc. Then you'd do a study of each of the seven planets and the god or goddess associated with each one. This would, of course, include studying Greek and Roman mythology. Then you'd read the chronicles of Narnia and have your students act as literary critics, examining the books for evidence for or against Ward's theory. Then you could use all of this as a jumping off point to discuss natural theology -- what it is, Lewis' affinity for it, why it can be dangerous and/or beneficial, what church traditions have embraced natural theology and which have rejected it, and so on and so forth.

So, that's my idea. I'd love to hear what you homeschoolers out there think of it!

6 comments:

Dianna said...

I'd heard of the Planet Narnia idea previously, via one of my friends having seen Michael Ward speak at his own college in Michigan. At first, I thought the idea to be complete bunk because it's a such a pagan influence that Lewis - the good, Christian, Lewis - would not have used. But thinking about it more, I have come to realize that Lewis is nothing if we do not recognize his pagan influences. Greek philosophy from Plato, myth from Homer, "scientifiction" as he calls it from H.G. Wells, and romanticism from Wordsworth and William Morris. Why not an idea reflecting the pagan ideas of the planets? After reading his space trilogy, I can see that Lewis would possibly be interested in such elemental ideas. Lewis was also a big fan of taking a pagan idea and turning it around into a Christian one, and he seems to do that in the Narnia chronicles especially. I have yet to read Ward's book, but I will probably be ordering it from amazon.com soon, considering it's been on my wish list since December. What I know of his argument I do find to have some merit, and I think it would put an intriguing spin on Narnia.

I hope things are going well for you guys in Scotland! I've been enjoying reading your updates - I'm glad you're doing this blog!

Have a great day!
-Dianna

(P.S. - Dr. Hitchcock, I should be hearing from Baylor sometime this week about whether or not I'm accepted there. I'll be sure to let you know.)

Anonymous said...

I'm not a homeschooler, but I think it sounds like a great idea.

I'm still fascinated by his lecture and argument.

P.S. I'm back in VA. Woke up at four in the morning because of the jetlag.

The Hitchcocks said...

I'm so glad you're enjoying the blog, Dianna! Good to hear from you. Yes, Lewis loves his pagans and his pagan ideas. He believed that all the pagan myths pointed to what he called "the myth that came true," meaning Jesus Christ. Given that, I was not at all surprised by this idea of the planets and their gods and goddesses playing a key role in the Chronicles and his development of Aslan in particular. Makes perfect sense, actually. This is why I think it'd be a great place to start looking into natural theology and Lewis' affinity for natural theology.

Glad you made it back, Susannah! I assume the train ride was good? No standing? We loved having you here!

Christina

Ann said...

I'd have to say that the idea has some merit because I just read the space trilogy this fall and those planets were a huge role. As for the homeschooling unit, sounds good. You write it, we'll be test users and then help you market it. OK?

Kathy Stegall said...

Writing homeschool study units could be your writing project...if others don't pan out. I bet you could come up with tons of good ideas. The advent book could easily be turned into a project/study also. Ann has volunteered to market! WOW! I see a family business.
Love, MOM

Meliss said...

I think it is a great idea. My kids probably are a bit young for a study like that at this point, but I would love to study it myself!

Melissa