Of Lions, Witches and Wardrobes

Last night I finished reading "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe." I'm not sure exactly what age I would have been when I first read the book, but suffice it to say I'm pretty sure the number fits on my hands. When I finished the full set of books, I remember my parents telling me that not only were these books stories about kids going off to another world, they were also allegorically the story of Christianity. At the time I remember pondering this quite seriously, and my child's understanding of faith allowed me to see at least some of the parallels that existed.

It's probably a shame that I waited this long to reread this book (and I'll get around to the rest of them sometime as well) since I really enjoyed looking for all the allegory in the story. Lewis is actually very direct in much of the material, and although I won't go into details I was actually a bit suprised at how obvious some of the parallels are. Especially when you're looking for it, much of the book jumps out at you. This is the English student in me creeping out again, but frankly I'm OK with that, since I don't often get a chance to let that side out with 10 hours of immunology with the same professor in the same room over the last two days... but I digress.

My reason for resurrecting this book from my distant past is, of course, the upcoming film version of the story. In my mind before reading the book I particularly wanted to see how I thought the story might translate to film. Plot-wise I'm sure the writers will make their usual obtuse changes to the plot for the sake of making the story more film worthy, or to put their own stamp on it, or to change things for the sake of changing them... whichever of those options is usually invoked when perfectly good stories are modified for the sake of film. At this point I'm resigned to the fact that no story can make it to film in its written form. But I'm much more interested in how the Christian allegory in the story will be presented. I wonder if a secular movie going public would even notice many of the parts of the story that are thinly veiled portions of Christ's passion? Or Peter as Peter? My fear is that the allegory could be intentionally subdued to maintain the political correctness of the film. I think it would be a great disservice to the story to try and make it into a secular adventure film. Hopefully I'm not the only one.

I suppose only time will tell.