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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

"what a pedophile lion" wtf??? Narnia sullied forever

51 replies

Evelight · 22/04/2017 15:32

last night I was reading "The Horse and His Boy" to DS- which is one my favourite childhood books and favourite from the Narnia books.

I got to the part where Aslan is walking quietly by Shasta on the mountain pass and "breathing heavily".

DD14 saunters by and makes some comment regarding "ugh that creepy pedophile lion".

I keep on reading and it seems to become even more sexual (perfumed mane... glowing light sweeping Shasta up and he didn't know what was happening...) By this time they are both in hysterical laughter at that "inappropriate creepy old lion"

A part of my childhood is destroyed.

Do ppl feel Aslan the High King Emperor-over-seas is a creepy old pedophile lion?

Did ppl feel he was creepy and inappropriate when first reading the books as a child?

OP posts:

Lumpylumperson · 22/04/2017 15:34

Noooooooo.

Asian isn't creepy at all!

He's brand and wise and tolerates silly, moany, giggling children who should no better than to take sweets from witches.

Lumpylumperson · 22/04/2017 15:35

*Aslan

HarrietKettleWasHere · 22/04/2017 15:36

I thought Aslan in the LTWATW story is meant to represent Jesus/the second coming...

I feel a bit mixed up about all this now

Lumpylumperson · 22/04/2017 15:37

*Brave not brand.

Wow. Clearly I must proof read more.

TBF I don't see anything sexual at all in those lines either. Maybe the breathing heavily but he was out walking but as for the perfumed mane and sweeping light. Totally not seeing the innuendo there

ollieplimsoles · 22/04/2017 15:38

chantico · 22/04/2017 15:38

No, he's part of a Christian allegory, and things like using the most perfumed oils as an honourific is a normal thing in that context. The breath of God is, in Christian allegory, a reference to the Holy Spirit.

I shows that DD does not know much about Christianity, nor much about the allegory in these books.

crazymissdaisy · 22/04/2017 15:39

It's the last book that sullies Narnia, where Susan doesn't get to go to heaven as she "is no longer a friend of Narnia", as she is said to be interested in boys and stockings and lipsticks (ie an adult woman). So if anyone was a creepy old perv, it wasn't Aslan.....

lizzieoak · 22/04/2017 15:39

Aslan was meant to represent Christ. No-one thought he was a pedophile lion - partly because people did not think that way and partly because he's a bloody lion (& a noble and kindly one) in a children's story. Ignore your 14 year old, I expect she thought she was being amusing.

OrlandaFuriosa · 22/04/2017 15:40

Oh noooo.

I love The Horse and his Boy, including the title.

Rubbish. Utter rubbish. He's kind to loathsome unkind dwarves, he's liked and respected by wise trees, oaks and beeches. He's kind to a remarkably stupid but sweet donkey who has to imitate him. He can be a comforting cat when you are scared in a graveyard.

Rubbish.

Will have to unthink that.

crazymissdaisy · 22/04/2017 15:41

Quickly adding: I love CS Lewis: his sci fi and his lit crit, and his popular theology as well as the Narnia books, it's just that final bit about Susan that I am uncomfortable with, it's very excluding and a bit weird.

OrlandaFuriosa · 22/04/2017 15:41

Ollie, you got them.

OrlandaFuriosa · 22/04/2017 15:41

Miss daisy, I agree.

AuntieStella · 22/04/2017 15:41

You don't have to be Christian to know that these books are Christian allegory!

Nor to know some of the major features of how Christianity is represented in literature and art (nigh on impossible to study at degree level without some knowledge of the symbolism, and depending on your set texts, pretty inescapable at A level too)

Lumpylumperson · 22/04/2017 15:41

Wow. Never see

Forgot that all groups of people must be respected on MN except the Christians of course. They are stupid Sky-fairy believing weirdos.

ollieplimsoles · 22/04/2017 15:43

Wonderful missdaisy my thoughts exactly, really spoiled the books for me too at the end, especially when I thought back on it when I was older.

lizzieoak · 22/04/2017 15:43

So many of these stories are coming of age sagas. The parents are conveniently absent and the children go through tests to mature. Susan had aged out and her priorities had changed and she may have not been able to enter via the wardrobe as she would not have been able to believe in the possibility (as with adulthood comes disenchantment). Nothing pervy there either, just normal coming of age stuff.

chantico · 22/04/2017 15:44

My post crossed with ollie's

Don't actually see why it's a problem to say that books which are a famous Christian allegory are a Christian allegory .....

Original poster

Evelight · 22/04/2017 15:45

TBF I went to a seriously Christian private school for a few years as a kid and became a devout christian for a few yrs as a result (My parents weren't christian but they felt that was the best school around)- and I failed to pick upon the christian allegory too when reading Narnia as a kid... only learned about it later as an adult.

Once you have the sexual innuendo planted in your brain, it's very hard to read that scene NOT sexually.

OP posts:

ollieplimsoles · 22/04/2017 15:45

Forgot that all groups of people must be respected on MN except the Christians of course. They are stupid Sky-fairy believing weirdos.

No religion is worthy of automatic respect.

lizzieoak · 22/04/2017 15:46

Seconding Auntie Stella. I'm not Christian but it doesn't stop me knowing Christian allegory, knowing Lewis' personal history etc.

upperlimit · 22/04/2017 15:47

Yeah but ET was definitely a paedophile

Lumpylumperson · 22/04/2017 15:47

No religion is worthy of automatic respect.

I said groups of people not religions.

AuntieStella · 22/04/2017 15:48

"Wow. Never see "

Well, you wouldn't expect that on a thread about an avowed Christian allegory.

It would however be totally appropriate on an allegory pertaining to their faiths. Have you actually seen a thread about such a Muslim/Sikh/Buddhist allegory which expected comments from Christians rather than from the faith relevant to that particular thread?

ShiroiKoibito · 22/04/2017 15:51

"It's the last book that sullies Narnia, where Susan doesn't get to go to heaven as she "is no longer a friend of Narnia", as she is said to be interested in boys and stockings and lipsticks (ie an adult woman). So if anyone was a creepy old perv, it wasn't Aslan."

agreed - i read these recently as as adult (mostly) and was really upset to notice all the Christian references that i had missed as a child

Lumpylumperson · 22/04/2017 15:52

Well, you wouldn't expect that on a thread about an avowed Christian allegory.

No of course you wouldn't expect to see it on this thread as this one is about Christianity. However you never see comments like that on threads about other religions or belief systems.

Like you never see comments about stupidity/Sky fairies etc on threads about other religions.

It is always the way on MN that Christians are the only group of people with faith that are mocked and sneered at.

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