Could Narnia ever be banned?

To be fair I think that if The Chronicles were ever to be banned then there would be a lot of other books on the banned list too. The Narnia books are pretty meek compared to some of the literature out there.
 
Recently the English Heritage society stated that Enid Blyton's books are racist and xenophobic. The modern human society is in a state of re-evaluation.
 
Copperfox said:
But if stubborn anti-Christians get their hands on copyright control of Lewis' work, they will fall all over themselves in their haste to make the kind of destructive revisions I have imagined.
Click to expand...
I guess the copyright will expire in a few years (in the UK at least, I think other countries have different rules). After that, I guess people who want the originals can always get hold of them, regardless of the estate's wishes, though on the other hand of course people are also free to publish 'edited' versions.

Peeps
 
HERMIT WROTE: Other religions, Islam especially, are romanticised while Christianity is implicitly criticised with very biased and one sided accounts of events such as the Crusades and the Inquisition. The inclusion of witchcraft or 'Wicca' in religious instruction is rather absurd, as it's a syncretic neopaganism that was invented in the mid 20th century, based on the now thoroughly discredited theory of Margaret Murray that medieval witchcraft was a survival of ancient paganism driven underground by the church.

Right you are, Hermit. Excuse-makers for the very worst elements of Islam stubbornly refuse to recognize the crucial fact that Islam was advanced by armed violence from its VERY BEGINNING, whereas it took many centuries for Christendom to become so politically corrupted that it even COULD practice unjust violence. Besides, the Crusades were only a delayed COUNTERATTACK against previous unprovoked aggression by Islam. As for Wicca, lots of people in Renaissance festival circles do pretend that Wicca is a foundation stone of Western civilization.
 
With regard to the original topic of this thread, it seems a library in Cambridge will be attaching 'trigger warnings' to various children's books and Narnia will probably be in their sights. See this article in the Daily Mail.

www.dailymail.co.uk

The children's books that could be next to be cancelled

With modern classics like such as Little House On The Prairie and the works of Dr Seuss dubbed as potentially harmful, Femail has examined other children's texts which have come under fire.
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk
 
It all depends on the framework and interpretation that people use and if the argument can be shown to have merit. The passage of time often does come with the changing of mores and norms, so we can't know what people are going to take away from the stories in the future. However, it's going to have to be done beyond a reasonable comprehension and that is a criteria that many people underestimate. It is very difficult to obtain.

So, yes, it could be, anything is possible, but I will say that it's probably unlikely because even in the Seuss situation, it is not just being accepted as fact.
 
I know there's been debate about the aspects of the Calormenes as racist. Well, when I read it as a ten year old girl, I actually didn't think about it. Maybe if CS Lewis had written the series today, maybe he would have had the dwarfs say "Calormenes" instead of "darkies." Some might find "darkies" a racist comment.

CS Lewis did point out some beautiful women who were actually good characters. Queen Swanwhite was described by Jewel as a beautiful queen, whose reflection shone in any forest pool for a year. Susan was known as Queen Susan the Gentle, and was described as a beautiful, gracious woman. Ramandu's daughter was beautiful, Caspian was drawn to her innocence as well.

Could Narnia be banned? That is something to be concerned about. However, I think we should enjoy the series as they are written.
 
Yes. I think the Chronicles of Narnia can and, at some point, probably will be banned.
The Bible is clear, persecution of Christians will come. It's already here in many places in the world and has been since Jesus ascended.
It began in the western world many years ago, but like a battery on a trickle charge. Eventually it'll be ready to go and any material advocating the concept of unmerrited salvation from a single Savior sent from God, i.e. Aslan and his father the great Emperor over the Sea, and any subsequent moral law arising from said God, will be considered defamatory hate speech.
Any literature with a Christian bent or with known Christian authors will be banned for infringing on the "rights " of the people to be as base and debauched as they see fit. And the authors themselves will most likely be dragged through the mud for any libelous reason anyone can dream up.

In the words of Augray, the Sorn, in Lewis's Perelandra:
" It is because everyone of them wants to be a little Oyarsa himself."

That's one of the reasons I'm glad I own this series in hard copy, not just digital. 😁 When they get to burnin' books, I'll have a secret stash!
 
I think the worse they try to ban them, the more people will hide and reproduce them. Seriously, there is a particular bookstore here with very broad views of freedom of speech that will sell you Hitler's Mein Kampf, the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, or Golliwog's Friends. Simply because they are books and if you want them you should be able to buy them.
 
I can see some reasons for the band here

At least some adaptations will try to avoid the negatives or have some changes to fix them
 
The aspects of Calormenes in Narnia has not been the only issue.

My all time favorite Shakespeare play is Othello: The Moor of Venice, and there's been debate if his depiction is racist. Well, I don't think we can know for sure what William Shakespeare's intentions were for Othello. Some might argue that a marriage between a dark-skinned Moor and a fair-skinned woman, Othello and Desdemona, could never work out. Then maybe the villainous Iago (not the parrot), would not have been successful or had to work harder.

The same arguement could be said with the Calormenes in Narnia. I don't think we can know for sure what CS Lewis's intentions were. Cor and Aravis probably weren't the first interracial couple, and most likely not the last. Susan was probably not the only Narnian monarch that had to deal with Rabadash wanting to marry her. There are things we just don't know about.
 
Racial, racial, racial. Tsk tsk. Ever think the major problem was CULTURAL? Everyone who grew up around my time was familiar with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz on the I LOVE LUCY tv show. They were married in real life too, only they ended up getting a divorce because, as Desi put it, having an affair is something men did back in Cuba...it doesn't really mean anything. Lucy didn't agree. Mind you, they still loved each other and called each other periodically, and Desi's last words were, "Forgive me, Lucy!" But she couldn't trust him. If in fact Calormenes were like Eastern or Middle Eastern people, it is entirely possible they felt like their women were highly valued...like their camels and other possessions. Could you imagine Susan ever not doing something because her beau said, "I'm your husband and I forbid it...that's why!" This is not a skin color issue either.
 
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