My family has started reading through all the Chronicles, and I was struck by a similarity between Uncle Andrew is Chapter 10 of Magician's Nephew and the Dwarves in the Stable at the end of The Last Battle.
----------------------
>>Spoiler Alerts!<<
Uncle Andrew convinces himself that Aslan could not possibly be singing (that is singing as an act of creation of Narnia) to the point that when he finally speaks, all Uncle Andrew "hears" is a growl and roaring. His closing off his mind to the reality of what was really happening versus constructing an alternate reality in his mind became so set that before long he could not hear any words from Aslan or any of the talking animals either, even if he had wanted to understand them (which of course he didn't).
Similarly in The Last Battle, the dwarves who were disillusioned by being duped by the Ape and the Calormenes, become so bitter that they blind themselves, not only to the reality of the inside of the Stable, but the even cannot accept the gifts of Aslan. The feast he gives them with the rich foods and rare beverages they construe to be hay, dirty water from a trough, et cetera.
----------------------
(This revisionist versions of reality which are so tragically myopic and limiting, seem even more poignant in light of the different conflicting spins of "news" that one reads or hears lately. >Sigh< )
----------------------
>>Spoiler Alerts!<<
Uncle Andrew convinces himself that Aslan could not possibly be singing (that is singing as an act of creation of Narnia) to the point that when he finally speaks, all Uncle Andrew "hears" is a growl and roaring. His closing off his mind to the reality of what was really happening versus constructing an alternate reality in his mind became so set that before long he could not hear any words from Aslan or any of the talking animals either, even if he had wanted to understand them (which of course he didn't).
Similarly in The Last Battle, the dwarves who were disillusioned by being duped by the Ape and the Calormenes, become so bitter that they blind themselves, not only to the reality of the inside of the Stable, but the even cannot accept the gifts of Aslan. The feast he gives them with the rich foods and rare beverages they construe to be hay, dirty water from a trough, et cetera.
----------------------
(This revisionist versions of reality which are so tragically myopic and limiting, seem even more poignant in light of the different conflicting spins of "news" that one reads or hears lately. >Sigh< )
