Writing a fantasy story criticizing Christian themes

[Trailofstardust]

For some time now, I've had an idea in my head of a story that's basically a deconstruction of the "Chosen One" trope and specifically a criticism of the religious themes in CS Lewis' fictional works. It also takes great inspiration from The Wizard of Oz.
While I've never read any books by CS Lewis, I did read the tv tropes page for The Space Trilogy and found the theme that "questioning and disobeying god is a bad thing" very oppressive and antithetical to my personal views.

I want to write a story where questioning authority, independence and disobedience are held up as a good thing, and that there is nothing that shouldn't be questioned.

A rough outline of my story ideas:
A group of children end up in a fantasy world. They meet a beautiful elf queen who tells them that they have been chosen to save the kingdom from a threat who could destroy the entire world. The children initially see her as a benevolent figure and trusts her, but over time it becomes apparent that the she isn't telling them the entire truth and more and more secrets are discovered. They begin to realize that to survive, they need to be disobedient to the queen and find the truths on their own.

It's a deliberate inversion of the themes in Perelandra, where disobeying god which leads to the Fall is depicted as the source of all evil and obedience to divine authority leads to living in a perfect Utopian paradise. Here disobedience and disrespecting "divine authority" is what helps the kids survive.

One of the antagonists is blatantly based on Jadis, she is also an elf warrior queen and ruler of an icy realm who opposes the "good" elf queen. She has been demonized by the "good" elf queen as a "devil" figure and the rest of the Fantasy world fear and hate her but in reality she is an anti-villain whose villainy stem from circumstance.

The names I've currently chosen for the "good" queen is Amara and the "evil" queen is Aylin. My idea is that they are in fact sisters and some mix between fair folk and demi-goddesses. Amara is themed around fire, summer and the sun whereas Aylin is Winter, cold and the moon. I want to draw inspiration from Yakutian, Mongolian and imperial Russian fashion when designing Aylin and Ancient Egyptian, Indian and Thai fashion for Amara. Amara is dark-skinned while Aylin is very pale.

The in-story explanation for their different appearance and cultural inspiration might be that their father was an emperor who ruled over a territory encompassing fantasy-equivalents of those real world cultures. Being non-human their genetics don't work like that of humans resulting in the difference in skin color. The sisters were each sent to govern one part of the empire which eventually fell and decentralized (being fey or demi-gods the sisters live for centuries, if not millennia).

I'm aware that Philip Pullman already wrote the His Dark Materials series to criticize the christian themes in CS Lewis' writings and I want to know if my story can stand out on its own, if subverting Christian themes is inherently offensive and/or tedious and how I can be culturally sensitive when drawing inspirations from those cultures when creating my designs. I also want to hear some opinions on my planned themes.

 

[Righmath]

I like it I don't even link Christianity to what you've just relayed me? Sounds good!

Christianity is becoming less and less now. Where I'm from, in the 2020 census, there were more atheist/agnostic people than Christians. You're not blatantly mocking any religion, you're just spinning a story of a patriarchal society being questioned. I wouldn't worry about it!

 

[pmmg]

You never read his book yet you want to write one to criticize him?

Do you think Mr. Lewis would have opposed any notion about questioning things?

Anyway...Just about every story is secretly about a chosen one. Someone has to be the MC. I think you will find many will support this idea, and Christians will mostly ignore it. Otherwise, I think it is as good an idea as any.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

You don't have to be sensitive to anybody. The question is whether you want to be. Harry Potter pretty much disobeys everything and gets rewarded for it, heh heh. Disobedience is old hat. Going after Christianity is old hat. Dead horse calling. I would also say read the books, Narnia was a good collection of children's books, and I don't give a damn about Christian themes. Then, consider going after them in a creative way.

In fact, the whole idea doesn't seem particularly controversial. If you want controversy, go after the prophet Muhammed.

 

[Righmath]

Or Greta ^

 

[Trailofstardust]

I like it I don't even link Christianity to what you've just relayed me? Sounds good!

Christianity is becoming less and less now. Where I'm from, in the 2020 census, there were more atheist/agnostic people than Christians. You're not blatantly mocking any religion, you're just spinning a story of a patriarchal society being questioned. I wouldn't worry about it!

Im not sure about patriarchal though, because the authority figure being questioned is a queen.

 

[Trailofstardust]

You never read his book yet you want to write one to criticize him?

Do you think Mr. Lewis would have opposed any notion about questioning things?

Anyway...Just about every story is secretly about a chosen one. Someone has to be the MC. I think you will find many will support this idea, and Christians will mostly ignore it. Otherwise, I think it is as good an idea as any.

Ive read the page on tv tropes which seems like enough.

 

[Trailofstardust]

You never read his book yet you want to write one to criticize him?

Do you think Mr. Lewis would have opposed any notion about questioning things?

Anyway...Just about every story is secretly about a chosen one. Someone has to be the MC. I think you will find many will support this idea, and Christians will mostly ignore it. Otherwise, I think it is as good an idea as any.

In the Space Trilogy, Satan wants to tempt the Eve of Venus into disobeying god to bring about the fall. He clearly sees obedience to god as a good thing. The devil makes initially perfectly reasonable arguments about questioning why god would place such a rule and thinking for yourself, indicating that in Lewis worldview questioning god is the ultimate evil.

 

[Trailofstardust]

You don't have to be sensitive to anybody. The question is whether you want to be. Harry Potter pretty much disobeys everything and gets rewarded for it, heh heh. Disobedience is old hat. Going after Christianity is old hat. Dead horse calling. I would also say read the books, Narnia was a good collection of children's books, and I don't give a damn about Christian themes. Then, consider going after them in a creative way.

In fact, the whole idea doesn't seem particularly controversial. If you want controversy, go after the prophet Muhammed.

What about depicting the devil as a misunderstood figure and a product of a shitty environment with very human wants and motivations rather than the source of all evil?

 

[ThinkerX]

What about depicting the devil as a misunderstood figure and a product of a shitty environment with very human wants and motivations rather than the source of all evil?

Take a look at Miltons 'paradise lost' sometime.

Or just take a look at the Bible. The biblical god ordered or committed multiple atrocities. The devil, his great antagonist...not so much.

Or Greco-Roman mythology. The vast majority of the Greco-Roman deities are narcissistic sociopaths who came to power by killing or imprisoning the Titans. Yet, many of the Titans were beneficial.

 

[Queshire]

The Christian aspect of Narnia flew overmy head when I read them as a little baby Que, though I remember being disappointed in the last book and thinking the Dwarves in it got a rough deal. Also it was weird that everybody was just okay with their rough deal???

Anyways, this sounds like a good starting point. I think you should move away from being a 'take that!' to a particular story. It's got good enough bones to stand on its own. Focusing too much on someone else's story risks hurting it.

 

[Penpilot]

Ive read the page on tv tropes which seems like enough.

In general, if you're going to take a swat at something, it's best to hear it from the horses mouth. Reading TV tropes is equivalent to my friend's buddy's cousin said this about that. It can end up with you being critical of something that wasn't said or was taken out of context, which will result in your story losing all credibility in what it's trying to say.

At the end of the day, it's up to you if you want to do the work or not, but if you take shortcuts, it will show, especially to those who know a thing or two about the subject matter.

 

[Finchbearer]

Apparently LOTR is also heavily Catholic, and is about good winning over evil bla bla bla, but I did not get that from reading the book or watching the movies, as Queshire also said about CoN I also didn’t get any religious overtones from it. So you could be ambiguous with yours too and no one may even notice.

I’m writing a Robin Hood retelling for example that is set in the early 1200’s around the time of King John when the legend of Robin Hood was first thought to have appeared, and centers around a young woman who is a novice nun in an Abbey. In this story I explore the religious fervour of the historical era, along with the fact that it was entrenched in law with extreme consequences for heresy. I delve into what that would have been like for women and men alike and how Catholicism at the time would have had both it strengths and weaknesses, along with the continuing persecution of the ‘pagan’ and ‘heathen’ old ways.

I do not think there is anything wrong with exploring religious themes as long as you understand them, but every writer will have their own personal bias, so you have to be okay with that.

 

[Finchbearer]

Im not sure about patriarchal though, because the authority figure being questioned is a queen.

Is it a matriarchal society?

 

[Trailofstardust]

Is it a matriarchal society?

I think that gender roles might not matter much in this society, but you might call it matriarchal cuz its ruled by a queen.

 

[Trailofstardust]

Apparently LOTR is also heavily Catholic, and is about good winning over evil bla bla bla, but I did not get that from reading the book or watching the movies, as Queshire also said about CoN I also didn’t get any religious overtones from it. So you could be ambiguous with yours too and no one may even notice.

I’m writing a Robin Hood retelling for example that is set in the early 1200’s around the time of King John when the legend of Robin Hood was first thought to have appeared, and centers around a young woman who is a novice nun in an Abbey. In this story I explore the religious fervour of the historical era, along with the fact that it was entrenched in law with extreme consequences for heresy. I delve into what that would have been like for women and men alike and how Catholicism at the time would have had both it strengths and weaknesses, along with the continuing persecution of the ‘pagan’ and ‘heathen’ old ways.

I do not think there is anything wrong with exploring religious themes as long as you understand them, but every writer will have their own personal bias, so you have to be okay with that.

Ok. What about blending aesthetics from different cultures for character design? How can I be culturally sensitive while doing so?
Since Amara's design is meant to be a mix between ancient Egypt and Thai, do I need to base her Kingdom on Ancient Egypt and Thailand too?

 

[skip.knox]

>Ive read the page on tv tropes which seems like enough.
Oh my.

You go right ahead. Especially for a first-time author, I wouldn't discourage anyone from attempting anything, because the completion of the attempt counts more than almost anything.

But I would encourage all readers to read actual books. Treat that tv tropes article as nothing more than a summary (and just one person's summary at that). Ask yourself this: how would you feel if, after you've written your book and published it, someone came along and said they didn't like your book because they read an article on tv tropes, so they don't need to read the book. Would you think they had a proper perspective on your work?

 

[pmmg]

Ya know...I think this thread got off to a bad start.

It presupposes stuff that just isn't true. CS Lewis, or Christians don't have an issue with questioning stuff (in fact, that's what CS Lewis did all his life). And old testament notions of punishments from God (or the gods) for disobedience is not the lesson of the New Testament. The story of the Bible, and Christianity is one of love and forgiveness. While I think it is fair to write anything you want, and certainly in favor or questioning, independence and disobedience, if you are trying to use this as a 'take that' to Mr. Lewis, or to Christians in general, I think you will more likely misrepresent them.

Mr. Lewis is considered once of the great philosophical and theological thinkers of recent times. To think you read a summary and now know how to deconstruct him seems very unlikely to me. I heard Neitzsche said 'God is dead', what else is there to know, I bet I can rip that apart.

I would invite you to study the works of Mr. Lewis, and others, and see if it does not challenge some of your questions.

I would also assert that having a queen does not make something Ipso-facto a Matriarchy. There would have to a be whole set of extra organizational principles and attitudes that went along with it.

This strikes me as a lazy approach to the subject matter. I am open to being wrong, but I think you need more grounding than 'I read a summary'.

I also would take issue with the comment that because there seem to be less Christians around, they are fair game, as another seemed to comment. God is a big thing, it is always fair to question and challenge, but if I picked a different group and made a similar comment, I bet that would not fly.

Anyway...While I do see some merrit in this story concept, since this rings to me of having "take that' behind it, I am going to let others have it.

 

[Queshire]

Nah, you just get to spend eternity in a shack with the illusion that it's the afterlife of your choice because you didn't believe in the magic talking cat. Sure open to questions there.

 

[Righmath]

Nah, you just get to spend eternity in a shack with the illusion that it's the afterlife of your choice because you didn't believe in the magic talking cat. Sure open to questions there.

I'm not sure I understand this