Or maybe it’ll just turn out to be a big misunderstanding on my part.
And I’m hoping the topic is alright in this forum. Even though it’s just a third Tolkien, we can take Tolkien as a reference point.
First off, I had meant to wait till I had read/re-read some more, but this would postpone the topic to kingdom come, and it’s something that's been on my mind for some time.
I’ve recently re-read “The Lion, the Witch and the Warderobe” (and liked it much better than the first time round), but this is still the only Lewis I’ve read. What I can say about Tolkien and Rowling is also based on memory more than any recent re-reading.
But the aspects I’d like to discuss are anyway not just things I noticed from the books, but things I heard from other people about the books – so, here’s what’s been puzzling me.
These authors are often discussed side by side. Fans of one often are fans of one or both of the others. And yet, people seem to consider Lewis more of a relation to Tolkien than Rowling, who sometimes seems to be seen as more of an antagonist to him.
More particularly, the three authors partly receive praise and partly criticism for the morals of their books, and another issue seems to be the fantastic and magic world they create – and most astonishingly simply the use of magic in them. And these are the aspects I've been concerned with.
Whether it’s praise or criticism, I know it depends on the worldview of the people giving it, but what I heard can, roughly generalising, be summed up like this:
- - Tolkien is mostly praised for his morality. He sometimes gets condemned for his use of magic, but often the praise for the morality outweighs the concern about the magic. He is sometimes but not often banned where people are worried about books having some dangerous influence on their kids.
- Lewis is usually praised for his morality, too. Sometimes he is condemned for it, though. I don’t remember ever hearing a comment on Lewis’s use of magic, which I find particularly astonishing, because it would seem that some of the worldview that praises his morality is the same that generally condemns magic. I’ve never heard of him being banned for having a dangerous influence.
- Rowling gets a lot of flak for her use of magic, and with some people her books are viewed as morally deficient. I’ve never heard praise for the morality in her books, and they appear to be regularly banned for having a dangerous influence.
I have no problem with magic in general, it depends on how it’s portrayed within the world of the book.
The reason I love Tolkien’s work is because of the morality it propounds. It’s thoughtful, humane and does not gloss over the predicaments a discriminating ethic approach that does not deal in simplistic black-and-white characterisations inevitably creates.
I think there is hardly any magic in his books, what there is in terms of the supernatural hardly ever is of the conscious making of mortals (or even of immortals, for that matter).
I recently re-read “The Lion, the Witch and the Warderobe” and I thought it was a nice book. I could not detect any specific or deep morality. There was quite a lot of magic used by both the good and the evil side, but it’s restricted to the highest creatures.
I like Rowling very much because, for me, she combines a well-written, curious world with sound, thoughtful and humane morality. Magic is of course rampant everywhere, as it’s the subject of the story. It comes as something one is born with, thus dividing the world into those able and those not able to do magic. However, within the world of those having the gene for magic, the general world, with its divisions of friendly and malevolent, is simply repeated.
I guess that from these you can already see my problem:
If someone has a general problem with magic, considering it evil and harmful and something that children should not be confronted with, then I understand their condemnation of Rowling’s books. But in that case, shouldn’t they ban Lewis as well?
If, on the other hand, what you are looking for in a good book for your kids, is instruction in sound morals, it would seem to me that you’d have Rowling ranking right behind Tolkien.
So, basically, what I’m asking is: why do so many people seem to consider Lewis comparable to Tolkien, but not Rowling? What are the criteria they use to come to this evaluation?
And how do you feel about this? In comparative evaluation, who stands where for you, and what criteria do you use?
Or maybe you find I’m completely off with my assessment of any or all of the books or with my perception of how they tend to be received? If so, please explain, too!