Disturbing things

I felt like I saw people suffering in hell, screaming and a devilish image in Narnia. I don’t know what to say as to avoid offending a lot more people but I don’t think Narnia’s ever that good. I mean it’s frankly a lot more disturbing than most would realise. But it’s something some should think hard about it. (There are some Christians who feel the same way too but most don’t really care about it.)

I think it’s best to pass over Narnia to something much better like the Bible. If not, then we might have to wait for a more wholesome alternative to it.

Hate to burst your bubbles

I did read Narnia before but that’s me being unsaved and stuff. So when I read Narnia again, I ended up hearing people screaming. I don’t know but I don’t really find Narnia to be all that entertaining or enlightening. (I even heard its author scream.) It’s really disturbing. I don’t know what to say any further as to avoid offending other fans but I think just reading the Bible’s enough. I don’t know but I’ve come to find Narnia really disturbing.

Jewish Narnia and self empowerment

I still think the real reason why so many Jews gravitate to the superhero genre more than practising Evangelicals do has to do with a need for self empowerment. Though not always consistently or exactly the case, it makes sense because of a history of persecution Jews would do anything to will to fight back whatever they can do about it. There needn’t a Narnia when they can come up with a superhero to address problems.

Whilst not all Christians like Narnia, I do think Christians do have a chronic world weariness that makes it harder for them to do superhero stories more often. There’s just Power Mark and Bibleman. Even that involved Bible stories and in PM’s case, not much violence at all. Maybe not necessarily world weary but practically the last to enjoy traditional superhero battles.

(Christians often despise anything too graphic. Even a secular superhero story could be too much for their taste.)

Again not always the case but not when there’s a dearth of Evangelicals writing superhero comics a lot, there’s got to be something for their apparent aloofness and cynicism to anything worldly. Hence either such a character would have to be portrayed suspiciously or move away from superhero cliches a lot as with Power Mark.

That also played a role in PM’s uniqueness in that he forgave his enemy a lot. But it still ties into Evangelical distrust of anything worldly so it’s either averted or in PM’s case, subverted in some manner. Jews unabashedly enjoy superheroes for self-empowerment, Christians are expected to be warier of anything worldly as far as I know from experience.

Talking to a Kryptonian

I still think the Superman stories seem Biblical in a way Narnia just couldn’t in the sense where it’s not just that the parallels are explicit but that in the 1990s Supergirl stories if you ignore the horse thing I get the impression that whoever wrote it got the idea of salvation better. The girl Supergirl fuses with yearns for a better purpose in life that she finally gets it in becoming Supergirl herself and goes on fighting as an angel.

Also the names Jor-El, Kal-El, Kon-El and Zor-El parallel that of actual names like Samuel, Michael, Gabriel and Daniel which often denote El/Allah/God. That the other two are angelic names makes it easy to reimagine Kryptonians as angelic. I also think Superman’s creators probably thought of the same thing when coming up with Superman.

If it sounds weird that Superman and Supergirl are angels, well angels come from outer space too with Bizarro being something of a fallen angel. It’s not that Narnia’s a bad work, it’s just not that good at articulating Christian theology as others expected to (I think CS Lewis might be in hell) and that lions were also looked at with suspicion in early modern belief before.

Especially as demonic animals (if you’ve read Candido Brognoli’s stuff and the Divine Comedy) whilst Superman stories succeed at conveying the idea of angels and salvation (especially the Peter David stories) better.

The Man in the Sky

I sometimes think Superman’s a better Narnia than Narnia ever was in the sense of being somewhat more explicit when it comes to paralleling the Bible and to some extent, Jewish angel lore and Christian theology. The fact that at least Kal-El, Jor-El and Zor-El have names paralleling those of Michael, Gabriel and Samuel (two of them are names of angels) gives the impression of Kryptonians being angels in the same unconscious regard. (The evil Kryptonians are practically fallen angels.)

The fact that capes give the impression of wings is enough to unconsciously imagine Superman as angelic and this is taken to a logical conclusion in the 1990s Supergirl stories where she actually becomes an angel, fuses with a girl who’s morally and spiritually lost (in other stories, Supergirl herself’s very flawed, gives into temptation and then matures out of it) and actually encounters God.

Whilst not always exactly the case, it’s not that hard to imagine Superman as an angel and he arguably is one himself. Not that Narnia’s any better or worse but it’s just a mere allegory whilst the Superman stories are like the real thing. (Which gets more explicit that Supergirl did fuse with a wayward girl and gets better along the way.)

The Sacred Kryptonian

If you wanted me to be honest, I actually think Superman is in some regards more biblical than Narnia is and sometimes more explicitly so given the parallels between him and Moses. Much like Moses, Superman was sent to another place as a baby with Supergirl (who’s retconned to be ironically older than him) being like Miriam/Mary in being made to look after him. Like Miriam, she finds him again only changed.

That’s not to say Narnia lacks virtue or Superman likes vice but that Superman seems more explicitly biblical. Superman got killed only to come back after having imitators (including Supergirl his most natural heiress) take his place for a while. It’s like how you have these people pretending to be Jesus Christ only to have the real thing come back. If Superman is Jesus, then Steel, Supergirl, Eradicator and Superboy are those phonies.

In fact several more if you include the Kryptonians from the Phantom Zone thing and Bizarro, who’s practically analogous to the Antichrist proper.

(If I’m not mistaken, Narnia just has two.)

It also helps that Kal-El actually means Voice of God and parallels names like Michael and Gabriel. In a sense, Superman’s practically angelic if angels dominate the Heavens and Superman’s from another planet altogether. As for Supergirl being Mary/Miriam, it makes sense that Mother Mary’s often depicted in blue and the one who mourns for Jesus.

So does Supergirl who did a good job of impersonating Clark/Kal at some point (at least in the 1990s where she’s changed to something else altogether) and her being his most logical heiress. Not that Narnia’s bad but I think Superman’s a much better metaphor for Christ and has more explicit Biblical parallels.

I’m going paranoid

I suspect another reason why not too many Evangelicals write superhero comics is that they’re often taught to be paranoid or at least cautious of characters like magic users, atheists and false teachers. There’s a reason why they can’t stand Harry Potter (to whatever degree) and even if Power Mark and Bible Man are superheroes, they don’t seem likely to willingly beat up people as often as Superman and Batman do. If the latter two are made by Jews, then Jews are drawn to self-empowerment and self-defence (in a way) as to avoid being heckled by Gentiles.

Christians either retreat or preach to chastise and if you will snark at people. Should Marvel’s Illyana Rasputina show up in Power Mark, she’d end up as a villainness. Same for DC’s Zatanna. Witches, even of the good variety, can’t be trusted or tolerated either way. No that there can’t be a good witch or wizard but if LOTR’s any indication, such a character like Gandalf only seems like a wizard because he’s supposed to be something like an angel. Or if there’s going to be a good wizard, they’ll end up as Dante’s Virgil.

Helpful but ultimately suspicious as Virgil’s not a Christian. There could never be a Thor because Christians are often taught to distrust pagan polytheism and see it as false either way. There could never be a Christian Stan Lee just as there could never be a Jewish Narnia. Such beliefs, though similar, can be incompatible. I’d say Christians are drawn to fantasy due to a chronic aloof malaise and paranoia about the world that they’d retreat real badly if preaching fails.

Jews are drawn to superheroes as to better their situation through very worldly things. Be it violence (at least in superhero media) or banking (as it had been condemned for Christians to do it). Jews go where Christians either ignore or abhor. The things that sometimes bother Christians are the things Jews willingly do for survival. So that’s my point about why Jews are drawn to superheroes.

It’s the need for self-empowerment for a really bad situation especially in the past. If Christians were in that position, they’d turn to God instead. That Christians are taught to thinking they’re weak and feeble should explain why superheroic self-empowerment and a desire to literally fight back doesn’t appeal to them (if I’m not mistaken Power Mark does forgive his sister).

If Power Mark’s any indication, it’s more appealing to be feeble yet on guard than to impulsively want to beat up your foes as in your typical superhero story.

Malaise with the world

I suspect part of the real reason why you don’t see Evangelicals and Pentecostals constantly writing for DC and Marvel (not that they haven’t done superheroes, they did Bibleman and Power Mark before) has to do with being trained to view the world with constant malaise and suspicion. In the sense of either so unholy it should be avoided or something so desperate as to be changed.

Anything that seems glamourous or appealing (something like living the Hollywood life) is often suspected of being anything less. Not that it’s wrong but it does explain why a Christian, rather than a Jew, would come up with Narnia. The constant malaise with the (present) world’s enough to warrant either nostalgia for a simpler, holier past or a need for a holier future as things worsen. (I suspect what attracts Jews to superheroes is the desire for self-empowerment.)

It’s not that the desire for self-empowerment’s lost on Christians but the more popular notion/meme’s to be saved by a much higher power that superheroes are going to bore them anyways because they’re redundant or something.

In search of the Jewish Narnia

There’s been some debate over why there’s nary the Jewish Narnia. Being non-Jewish, if I were to give a guess I suspect that it can give off a patronising vibe (same reason most Jews distrust Evangelicals). Not to mention that the Narnia characters tend to be withdrawn from the world they live in. That’s different from something where many more Jews are likelier to be drawn to: superheroes.

I mean, even if it’s not always the case, I get the impression that Jews are likelier to be drawn to superheroes than they are to Narnia because the former’s much more relatable. Jews for most of the part, aren’t readily physically identifiable and yet are very insular and lead double lives. It’s not hard to assume that superheroes also lead double lives would be relatable to Jews (and queers).

There’s no dearth of Jewish talent in the superhero genre and it’s that easy to do Jewish characters without being preachy. If between Superman and Narnia, I think more Jews would rather pick the Big Blue Cheese over the furry. Superman even has Jewish writers attached to him. It’s not that there should be a Jewish Narnia but rather Narnia’s not made for Jews. Superman’s made by Jews but is appealing to anybody else.

That’s the difference.

Magic…and the gathering of critics

That’s not to say writing about magic in stories is bad (although there ought to be morally grey characters or at least those who make mistakes and/or have good sides despite dabbling in something dubious). I haven’t read Harry Potter yet but I suspect the biggest real issue in creating fantasy works involving magic at all, especially if/when written by Christians, is having to compromise pagan innocence with Christian cynicism.

The former being young and dumb with what it’s doing. The latter being made wary of people’s intentions to the point of being bigoted (I’d say Evangelicals and Pentecostals can seem like massive hotheaded killjoys). Narnia seems like a decent enough compromise between the two conflicting sentiments. Maybe not entirely perfect but still possible.

Harry Potter’s another matter where although the author’s nominally Christian, it seems to indulge in heathen occultism enough to allow polarising responses to it. The magic in Harry Potter might not be real. Though the only other way to reconcile Christianity with paganism/magic is to study demonology and incorporate it into the story even with sympathetic magic characters.

Not to mention being influenced by Narnia and the Divine Comedy helps in allowing a bit of a loophole should anybody want a sympathetic magic character at all. But alas sometimes pagan innocence and Christian cynicism can never be reconciled neatly.