“But there’s one thing more to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things—trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Supose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play-world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.” Puddleglum’s speech to the green witch from THE SILVER CHAIR by C.S. Lewis
As usual, Lewis said it far better than I could. There’s been a usual suspects attack on LORD OF THE RINGS claiming it vastly inferior to GAME OF THRONES because it’s just a juvenile fantasy in which good and evil are black and white, and GoT is so much better because it reflects the real world where things are shades of gray. Hmm. More like a black pit of a kingdom, if you ask me, where everything is black or, well, black. But then maybe that is real word and mine is just make-believe, a play world. Well, to agree with Puddleglum it licks their real world hollow.
Besides, that black pit of a world doesn’t seem worth striving for. I am not going to be writing gray and dark gray — because, well, I believe there is real evil. Yes, there may be paths to it, and yes there can be redemption from it. But if there is black, there is light. Heroes come in many forms, from gloomy ones like Puddleglum, to jokers and tricksters. And if we’re going to face a world of gray… well, we need heroes. If all I can do is provide dreams of them, well, they’re better dreams than the black pit.
I’ve spent my life looking for Overland. I am not about to change that, not for all you may tell me it’s not real.
It’s better.
Mad Genius Club 
18 responses to “I will live (and die) as a Narnian”
I saw one idiot trying to make this case. But I forgot that fools move in flocks. (What is the word for a group of fools? A babble? A floundering? A ship?)
It was clear that the idiot has formed his opinion without ever bothering to read LotR. (Or SoIaF.) LotR is the opposite of simplistic. And SoIaF has no shortage of pitch-black villany. (I’d call it cartoonish, but cartoons are very rarely X-rated.) SoIaF did have characters who were noble and good (before they got slaughtered.)
Beg pardon, but I’m ignorant. What is SoIaF?
Song of Ice and Fire, which is the official name of the book series that inspired the HBO Game of Thrones.
Ah, thank you.
I admit myself that I’ve been turned off to Martin ever since reading his ‘Wild Cards’ stories. They were just too nasty and squalid.
“Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love… true love never dies. Doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in. ” -Hub (Second Hand Lions) by Tim McCanlies
Thing that turned me off from Game Of Thrones was consistently seeing virtue punished, and villainy rewarded. Started in the first episode and never let up.
To be fair (which is really hard to do because I don’t like Martin very much anymore), GRRM seemed to be trying to move away from that. Ned Stark was honorable and died, while Tywin Lannister was ruthless and prospered…but eventually Tywin died too. And afterward, everything Tywin had tried to build for his family fell apart, because he’d never valued his children enough to teach them what they needed to know, and his underlings were loyal only out of fear of him.
Meanwhile, Ned and Robb Stark might both be dead, but their bannermen honor their memory, and are still loyal to the Stark family.
Although I wonder if it’s entirely a coincidence that Martin seemed to lose interest in the series just when we were reaching the point that good needed to start triumphing.
I suspect that’s part of his “block.” He doesn’t need the money, and a lot of his writing goes dark and stays there. Granted, horror is dark, but there should be beams of light. What I’ve read of his earlier work has no light at the end.
I rather liked Sandkings and Nightflyers (I read it in Analog or Asimov’s when I was in high school, so not the longer novella) was OK.
While I have A Game of Thrones on my eReader, I haven’t read it yet. Having watched the first season on HBO, I was rather repulsed by the fact that there was no one to root for. It came off as nothing but S&M porn. I only watched through the end of the first season because I was expecting that there would eventually be someone to root for.
In fairness, books 1 and 3 were brilliant. (I found the TV show unwatchable. A lot of the smut It wallowed in was only implied in the books. Plus, the weirwood trees and the Stark’s castle were described in depth, but the visuals on the show were almost completely different.)
After that, it’s all downhill. And picks up speed rapidly. Dances with Dragons was (IMO) borderline unreadable.
I read the Haviland Tuf books, the first as an Analog serial. Tried to reread the series a few years ago, and realized that by the third book, Tuf wasn’t a terribly redeemable person, and that I had no desire to read anything more by or associated with GRRM.
Lord of the Rings is juvenile? In which universe?
If he wanted to ape the War of the Roses, he needs to remember that it ended in peace
How about a writer’s character quite different from anyone in Tolkien or Lewis?
Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is an illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and I am content.
Conan the Barbarian stating his philosophy in Queen of the Black Coast.
What I experience is real. If you insist on being a meat puppet, then I can safely ignore you since all you are is a meat puppet. You are not real whereas I am.
The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, Conan, and Memory, Sorrow, & Thorn (by Tad Williams) are my four favorite fantasy series. Just don’t interact with Williams on social media if you care for your sanity, his ability to twist the world into whatever he wants isn’t limited to his fictional stories. I like stories with a happy ending. Or at least a satisfying ending. Surprises and major character deaths can be good story traits. But I’m not a huge fan of anti-heroes, nor violence for just violence sake.
Puddleglum should have spit on her carpet, you ask me. 😡 I don’t know if I’d be the one to face down the witch like that, but I’d like to be. It is an aspiration of mine.
I have read not one line of Game of Thones, nor watched any of it on television. I have had the odd clip inflicted upon me by YouTube, I will admit the production values were very nice.
Once upon a time I read Sandkings when it first came out, and I concluded GRRM was a muppet. (I’m being polite.) Time has done nothing to disabuse me of my opinion.
GoT is no more the real world than Narnia. Disgraceful people doing disgraceful things is not Art, nor is it entertainment. It is however quite tiresome. I’ll have Narnia over whatever’s on offer from Hollyweird any day. Twice on a Sunday.
I still haven’t forgiven Martin for making me think of hobbit sex. And despite his claims, it’s far too easy.
It’s Hobbit-forming too!
One would hope so! Can’t see eagles dropping off hobbitlings… )