Sir Tom the Dragon Knight
Dragon Lord
I agree. This is something that has always bothered me about movies based on books- they almost always reinforce the emotional at the expense of the analytical. For a story to have true power, it must really have both in proper measure.All right. Step by step.
Hermoine, I agree about not PRE-judging; but my remarks come AFTER seeing the movie in question.
Identifying a very real defect is not negative, any more than a doctor figuring out what the illness is, is negative. The defect itself is the thing which is negative, so remedying the defect is as positive as you can get.
A defect may consist in having too much of one thing (emotionalism here) and too little of another thing (accurate thought here). If we say that the danger is having too much of the second thing, we'll never fix the problem. THIS is what my gold-and-silver illustration was about. But if the coin analogy doesn't help, ignore it. I'll just flat-out state the facts.
It is a fact that there never was, and never will be, a SHORTAGE of emotionalism in popular entertainment.
It is a fact that the popular culture is more likely to disrespect a keen analytical intelligence, than to admire it.
It is a fact that Mister Lewis wanted the adult Digory Kirke to be a man who HIGHLY VALUED analytical intelligence. That's why Kirke was concerned about what was taught in schools.
It is a valid inference that, if Digory Kirke really existed, and he got to see modern schools, the LAST thing he would say about them is that they had TOO MUCH logic being taught.
It is also a valid inference that, if Mister Lewis were still with us on Earth, he would have preferred to KEEP the logical element in Kirke's advice to Peter and Susan.
It is a fact that keeping the logical element would not have destroyed the concern for sibling love-bonds. And it is a fact that making Kirke appeal ONLY to emotion, was needlessly discarding something which Mister Lewis had purposely included.