Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Egan_BW]

Put the queen in charge of it. :/

[TempAcc]

Goddamn it youtube, just because I watched one live thing, doesn't mean you can fill my recommendations with unrelated live stuff just because it is live >:U

[Silverthrone]

My, oh, my... I do believe monarchy is not quite as awful as it is presented. There ought to be someone born, rather than elected, available to say "Absolutely not!" in some occasions. No one does well in an environment of full support. Of course, that goes for monarchs as well. And corporate executives. If a boardroom, throne room or office lacks a luddite being obstinate and causing the odd row and being a bother, things are not as they ought to be.

^{It has been a few days since I poked my head in. Awfully sorry.}

Inb4 USA rejoins the Crown

Long live the Queen!

Screw C.S. Lewis. Screw that guy.

Damn right.
Narnia is bad enough, but his other books are even worse.

Why the hate for C.S. Lewis
Chronicles of Narnia was dank

Because CHRISTUN BRAIN WASH! (I believe.) And, of course, he failed to be suitable progressive for the early 21'st century. Do, indeed, screw that man.

[Loud Whispers]

Long live the Queen!

Long may she reign over us!

Because CHRISTUN BRAIN WASH! (I believe.) And, of course, he failed to be suitable progressive for the early 21'st century. Do, indeed, screw that man.

That's pretty saddening, surely it is damaging to the soul to excise all dank arts that offend current political sensibilities

[Dunamisdeos]

I mean, you guys realize that's nearly all C.S Lewis wrote, right? He was very open about it.

That's like picking up A Brief History of Time and getting mad when it turns out to lack unicorns.

[Rolan7]

I haven't read much C.S. Lewis in a while, but I don't really blame him for using Christianity as a loose inspiration for a fascinating fantasy world.
Aslan does share narrative similarities with Christ/God, but he's also a lion in a world of fey.

And yeah, it's easy and disingenuous to blame writers of previous eras for not being modern-progressive.  Progressiveness is... a process

[Pancaek]

I was looking into getting a new pair of glasses since the coating on the lensen of my current pair is starting to show some wear and tear, and the paint of the frames is chipped in a few places. The part of the legs that sit behind my feet has also gone rough. I don't know why, maybe because of sweat or something. So I've been browsing around for a new pair locally and in the last 3 years the price of glasses has actually gone up instead of down. How even? It's the same lenses I got 3 years ago and a relatively simple piece of metal/plastic or what have you to keep them on my ugly mug. Surely there's no reason I have to spend the equivalent of a lower-end laptop for this?

I'd try to buy some from one fo those online webshops, but with my prescription (-5 on each eye, -0.25 and -0.5 cyl.) I'm just not convinced they could get it completely right.

[Silverthrone]

I mean, you guys realize that's nearly all C.S Lewis wrote, right? He was very open about it.

That's like picking up A Brief History of Time and getting mad when it turns out to lack unicorns.

That is what I really admire about old Lewis and his authorship. Just like his best mate Tolkien, he knew what engaged and interested him, and put it to paper. It is not exactly subtle, but it is quiet enough to be rather pleasant little stories on their own. It just seem so awfully... Modern, somehow, to dimiss him entirely for not being spotless in the current environment. I'd call it future blindness, if that was not probably part of the same effect.

[NJW2000]

Yeah, but when you're a kid, when a fantasy series you loved turns out to be a mass of obvious christian allegories and ideas from Plato taken very literally, while the last book completely and abruptly condemns one character you liked for pretty much no reason shown in the text, it's a bit of a letdown


Literally all the important main characters die in a train crash at the end and go to Narnia/heaven, except for Susan, a character who was only in one or two of the first books, barely mentioned by the end, and never did any harm to anyone or anything wrong

I haven't read much C.S. Lewis in a while, but I don't really blame him for using Christianity as a loose inspiration for a fascinating fantasy world.
Aslan does share narrative similarities with Christ/God, but he's also a lion in a world of fey.

And yeah, it's easy and disingenuous to blame writers of previous eras for not being modern-progressive.  Progressiveness is... a process

Except... there were writers hundreds of years ago who weren't arseholes. People get let off the hook for non-progressive ideas if the books were written in the past, true, but that is not the same as having very... unenchanting opinions on whether or not women should grow up, for example.

[MaximumZero]

Sometimes I think things would be better if, instead of polls and scandals and fake news and ad hominem, presidential succession was settled in a good old-fashioned gladitorial match

I don't think Hillary would have won that either

A third candidate might have though.

MaximumZero for two term president, effective immediately.

[Rolan7]

Well if you're running, I might need to drop this guy I met the other day.  Forgettable face, Irish.  O'Manney or something.

[Adragis]

Literally all the important main characters die in a train crash at the end and go to Narnia/heaven, except for Susan, a character who was only in one or two of the first books, barely mentioned by the end, and never did any harm to anyone or anything wrong

Susan doesn't die, though, so there's always the possibility she may in fact go the same way.

[Loud Whispers]

Yeah, but when you're a kid, when a fantasy series you loved turns out to be a mass of obvious christian allegories and ideas from Plato taken very literally, while the last book completely and abruptly condemns one character you liked for pretty much no reason shown in the text, it's a bit of a letdown

I had the exact opposite experience, one day I twisted my neck as a kid and so for a time was stuck indoors with a wealth of books at my disposal. Happened upon the chronicles of Narnia and was hooked, from all the characters, businessmen trying to sell iron with the powers of creation, talking horses wondering if it would appear to be a stupid horse thing if they rolled around on their bellies, lions with all the might to fight refusing to protect their pride over their flock, the sheer and relentless march of time in both Narnia and Britain with characters never returning to find the same world or even their old friends still alive - discovering the allegories and ideas added a whole new dimension to my enjoyment in later years, and was a major contribution to my later studies of English Literature. Fantastic stuff! Also, my first introduction to Turkish delights.

Literally all the important main characters die in a train crash at the end and go to Narnia/heaven, except for Susan, a character who was only in one or two of the first books, barely mentioned by the end, and never did any harm to anyone or anything wrong

Susan was the most skeptical of the 4 first visiting children, being the first to doubt Lucy and in the end was the only one in the family to rationalize Narnia as having just been a silly childhood game. She spent her entire childhood trying to be a grown-up doing grown-up things, doubting herself and not allowing herself to just be herself, always trying to be grown-up Susan and not Susan Pevensie. There was more to her story, she was supposed to get her own book, but C.S. Lewis died before he wrote it

Except... there were writers hundreds of years ago who weren't arseholes. People get let off the hook for non-progressive ideas if the books were written in the past, true, but that is not the same as having very... unenchanting opinions on whether or not women should grow up, for example.

I can't help but feel stressed that even today, people still morally condemn writers throughout the ages for not sharing their narrow band of political beliefs :/

[ChairmanPoo]

My, oh, my... I do believe monarchy is not quite as awful as it is presented. There ought to be someone born, rather than elected, available to say "Absolutely not!" in some occasions. No one does well in an environment of full support. Of course, that goes for monarchs as well. And corporate executives. If a boardroom, throne room or office lacks a luddite being obstinate and causing the odd row and being a bother, things are not as they ought to be.

^{It has been a few days since I poked my head in. Awfully sorry.}

Inb4 USA rejoins the Crown

Long live the Queen!

Screw C.S. Lewis. Screw that guy.

Damn right.
Narnia is bad enough, but his other books are even worse.

Why the hate for C.S. Lewis
Chronicles of Narnia was dank

Because CHRISTUN BRAIN WASH! (I believe.) And, of course, he failed to be suitable progressive for the early 21'st century. Do, indeed, screw that man.

Ehh, no.   I had to read the Caspian prince for school, and disliked it in its own merits. In hindsight I heavily disliked the whole reek of slave morality of the story. I hated that kind of stuff even as a kid. 

I did not learn the books were Jesus-pandering until years later when I was at uni.

[Silverthrone]

Yeah, but when you're a kid, when a fantasy series you loved turns out to be a mass of obvious christian allegories and ideas from Plato taken very literally, while the last book completely and abruptly condemns one character you liked for pretty much no reason shown in the text, it's a bit of a letdown


Literally all the important main characters die in a train crash at the end and go to Narnia/heaven, except for Susan, a character who was only in one or two of the first books, barely mentioned by the end, and never did any harm to anyone or anything wrong

I haven't read much C.S. Lewis in a while, but I don't really blame him for using Christianity as a loose inspiration for a fascinating fantasy world.
Aslan does share narrative similarities with Christ/God, but he's also a lion in a world of fey.

And yeah, it's easy and disingenuous to blame writers of previous eras for not being modern-progressive.  Progressiveness is... a process

Except... there were writers hundreds of years ago who weren't arseholes. People get let off the hook for non-progressive ideas if the books were written in the past, true, but that is not the same as having very... unenchanting opinions on whether or not women should grow up, for example.

Well, it rather depends on one's interpretation of 'condemns'. I can understand why Susan's treatment can be upsetting, but I think it is less about her being condemned for exploring her sexuality (if that is indeed what using lipstick is supposed to meant), and if not dying and joining Aslan in the inner Narnia is supposed to be damnation. Perhaps, but it does not seem so. As far as I can tell, she has no need for Narnia anymore, and disconnects from it by telling herself that is was a game of make-belief. She locks that door herself, and while I suppose all that lipstick and stocking business is part of it, I did not get the open, immediate interpretation that it means damnation by sex. It is, of course, rather icky and unfortunate by modern standards. I do not like that passage very much. But it is a bit odd, and I think that in the current environment, that unfortunate implication is laden with a lot more extra luggage than is due.

I, quite simply, does not see how it is quite that clear cut and how it turns the author into an arsehole. Further, arsehole is a pretty damned strong term, and seem to imply that old Mr. C.S. Lewis co-wrote Der Ewige Jude or something, rather than a series of allegorical novels with a vaguely Christian theme that carries some very unfortunate and overly conservative implications towards the end.