Tag Archives: Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

We Need Disturbing Lit If We Are to Grow

By Robin Bates | Published: June 26, 2023

If we want literature to improve our lives, often we must read–and teach–works that unsettle.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Bluest Eye, C.S. Lewis, cancel culture, Cat's Eye, censorship, Clansman, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx, Light in August, Lottery, Margaret Atwood, Ruth Franklin, Shirley Jackson, Thomas Dixon, Toni Morrison, William Faulkner | Comments closed

Aslan as Eco Warrior

By Robin Bates | Published: August 26, 2021

Lewis’s Aslan is a bold creative stroke that opens up environmental possibilities for Christianity.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged animal rights, C. S. Lewis, climate change, Environmentalism, Imagination, John Gatta, Magician's Nephew, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, theology | Comments closed

Harris’s Literary Favs Reveal a Vibrant Soul

By Robin Bates | Published: November 16, 2020

Kamala Harris’s favorite lit reveals a woman engaging in foundational exploration, especially regarding race and gender.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Amy Tan, C. S. Lewis, immigrants, Joy Luck Club, Kamala Harris, Khaled Hosseini, Kite Runner, Native Son, race relations, Richard Wright, Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison | Comments closed

A Teacher, Lit, & a Jailed Student

By Robin Bates | Published: November 16, 2017

In “Reading with Patrick,” English teacher Michelle Kuo works with a student in 8th grade and then later after he has killed a man. The story brings up questions about lit’s impact.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Song of Myself", C. S. Lewis, Frederick Douglass, Gilead, Hansberry (Lorraine), Lorraine Hansberry, Marilynne Robinson, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, poverty, Prison, Raisin in the Sun, Walt Whitman | Comments closed

Pullman vs. C. S. Lewis on the Issue of Sin

By Robin Bates | Published: February 20, 2016

Philip Pullman loathes C. S. Lewis, despite the many similarities between “The Golden Compass” and the Narnia Chronicles. The reason may be the way handles sinning children.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged C. S. Lewis, Golden Compass, His Dark Materials, Magician's Nephew, Narnia Chronicles, Philip Pullman, Sin, Voyage of the Dawn Treader | Comments closed

Aslan and Cecil the Lion’s Death

By Robin Bates | Published: August 3, 2015

The death of Cecil the Lion conjures up images of Aslan in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” and of the lion in Ernest Hemingway’s “Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged big game hunting, C. S. Lewis, Cecil the Lion, Ernest Hemingway, hunting, Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber | Comments closed

Fantasy, Because Reality Is Unsatisfactory

By Robin Bates | Published: October 1, 2012

Fantasy is nothing in and of itself but takes its character in opposition to an unsatisfactory reality.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Lady of Shalott", "Lotos Eaters", "Passing of Arthur", Alfred Lord Tennyson, C. S. Lewis, Eve of St. Agnes, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

A John Bunyan Defense of Harry Potter

By Robin Bates | Published: July 24, 2011

Given how for years we’ve been witnessing certain evangelical Christians criticizing, banning and occasionally burning the Harry Potter books, what are we to make of their inability to appreciate Harry’s Christ-like sacrifice as the end of “The Deathly Hallows”?

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged C. S. Lewis, Christian Right, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J. K. Rowling, John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, Religion | Comments closed

Narnia, Much More than a Sermon

By Robin Bates | Published: November 29, 2010

Jason Blake, my Ljubljana colleague, set off an interesting discussion two weeks ago when he wrote a post on on reading nonsense poetry to his daughter. Many readers wrote in about children’s literature, and at one point in the discussion Jason posted a poem by Robert Lewis Stevenson that made a number of us, with […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Foreign Children", C. S. Lewis, Children's literature, Religion, Robert Lewis Stevenson | Comments closed