JKR & CSL continued

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 27896

Amy Z (replying to my comment below):

>> What I thought was particularly interesting was the comment that CSL 
>>is working from a Christian perspective of repentance and reform, 
>>which neatly explains his habit of one step transformations of Edmund 
>>and Eustace.  
>
>I'm not a Christian, but I'll venture to say that even from the 
>Christian perspective, repentance and reform are not a simple, 
>one-step thing.  That's CSL's own take.  He softens it a bit--Edmund 
>and Eustace don't become perfect little angels--but I agree, it is 
>more simplistic than JKR's.  He has other strengths, however, that she lacks.

Oo, yes, sorry, I wasn't meaning to imply that all Christians think "repent and let Jesus into your heart" equals a total personality makeover.  (I'm not a Christian either, obviously enough, but I did attend Sunday School and then church for about 15 years, and briefly considered myself a Christian, aged around 10-12).  I meant that CSL's "character growth" is a simplistic, fairytale style "character reform", and that these reformations seem to take the pattern of:

1.  Character is led into sin (by vegetarian parents who subscribe to dangerous progressive education,  Turkish Delight, a message written under a bell, etc.),

2. Character is punished for the sin (by transformation into a dragon, being seized and exploited by anasty witch, etc.),

3. Character repents of the sin, aided by Aslan (Jesus figure)

4. The other Good Characters forgive the character and welcome him/her back into the fold, a new and better person.

Definitely a touch of the Biblical "Forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness", I think.

I also agree that CSL has other strengths that JKR lacks, the most obvious one (as someone mentioned) his self-discipline in controlling the length of his books.  His more simplistic approach gives his work a clarity and purity which HP lacks, and the world he creates has a freshness the wizarding world doesn't, perhaps because JKR's work is satirical and CSL's is allegorical (which may also explain why JKR's work is so much funnier...)

Tabouli.


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