When the Book's theme actually eludes you

[srebak]

Not sure if this is the best place to discuss this, but while i haven't read the Chronicles of Narnia books per se (i do remember skimming through the first one), i have seen at least five visual adaptations, and i gotta say; i never really noticed any of the religious themes in these stories, even though i'm told that they were basically what made them what they were.

All i saw when i watched The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was a story about 4 kids fighting an evil villain in an epic battle and saving an entire magical kingdom filled with magical creatures. I honestly did not see anything religious in the premise. The same goes for Star Wars; I honestly didn't see any political overtones to the story.
Has anyone else ever been in a situation like this before?

 

[2WayParadox]

i tend to read fast and read just the story
so underlying meanings and symbols are of less importance to me

 

[CupofJoe]

I only found out recently the David Gemmell wrote Legend while in treatment for Cancer, so the waning power of the hero is perhaps easier to understand and put in to context.
I didn't know that when I first read it and still saw old age and changing times as themes...
Some people look at a picture of a can of soup and feel hungry, others look at it and see art...
And I have to remember that critics and academics have the benefit of hindsight and distance as well as the need to make a living/point to find something to comment on.
CSL was well known as a Catholic [I think The Screw Tape Letters are about a crisis of faith] so with that in mind, it isn't hard to read in to the story that Aslan is Jesus. Crudely, and it is years since I read the first book, He dies to save the world, comes back to life, only to disappear at the end to return when he is next needed...
But you could do that with most Hero's journeys.
If the theme doesn't find you, who cares... you probably found something else in the story that no-one else has thought of...
I did enjoy the article I read that explained that LotR was actually a homoerotic treaties against women interesting [to say the least], but I didn't agree with all the author's arguments...

 

[Penpilot]

Of course. Books contain intentional themes and unintentional ones. Tolkien says LOTR wasn't a statement about war even though he fought in WW1. But that theme is there, intentional or not. People find many things in books that the author did not intend. People have gone up to authors and said your book is about X, and the authors don't know what they heck they are talking about.

So it's perfectly normal to miss themes in a book. Even the writers of the book miss them.

For myself, there are two stories where it took me a while to understand them. The first is Disgrace, by JM Coetzee. It took me years. Then one day, I was thinking about the book and it's ending and then it hit me. I finally understood what the ending was about. At least I think I do.

The second is No Country For Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy. I didn't understand the ending to that until one day as I was flipping channels, I paused to watch the ending to the movie. A few hours later as I was driving, it hit me, and I understood what it was about.

My point is sometimes you have to be in the right frame of mind to see certain things. Or sometimes you have to mature as a person before you understand something.

 

[Steerpike]

I think the Christian allegory in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is pretty hard to miss in the book, but they downplay it quite a bit in the movie, so that may be why you didn't recognize it there. By modern standards, the presentation in the book may be seen by some as heavy-handed.

I don't take any real political commentary from Star Wars, because the universe is set up in such a reductionist, and black and white manner that you can't really take any serious commentary from it. It's like Avatar - fun movie, and ostensibly it has a point to make, but if you're taking any serious political commentary from it I think you're giving it too much credit.

I tend to prefer the books that can simply be enjoyed on the level of the story and the writing, and that contain deeper commentary for when the reader wants to think about those things and puzzle out what the author is saying. Something you can put as much thought into as you want, but whether you put in a little or a lot you're still going to enjoy it.

 

[Mythopoet]

The allegory in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is blindingly obvious if you know the story of Jesus from the Bible. But if you don't know much about Christianity, sure you could miss it. Nothing wrong with that.