C.S. Lewis Narina exhibit

[Christine]

When I was in Montreal, I saw the Narina exhibit. It's been touring for awhile. While the exhibit makes no bones about the fact that it is tied to the movies and not the books, I found it a little distrubing.

What I found distrubing was the fact that whoever did the exhibit was trying to make Lewis into a environmentalist. The Narina books weren't about global warming, but about Christianity. Did anyone else see this?

[Mawgojzeta]

I have not seen this this, but a tie to the environment is not only ridiculous, it is disrespectful to Lewis.

[Christine]

I think what irked is that before you entered (though a warderobe, which was kinda cool), there was a little set up about Lewis, but all the Christianity stuff had been either downplayed or left out. The Narina books don't hold the same place for me that LOTR does, but to disregard the rather heavy allergory is, as you say, disrespectful.

[Tia]

Wow--what about the exhibit made it seem environmental?

[Christine]

There was no seems. The exhibit, at least where I saw it (if you are in Montreal, it is on the top floor of the Eaton Centre), was split into two sections. The second section was the battle props. This section was rather neat for kids and adults, enough that I forgave the obivious movie ads always playing in the background. There was a cataplut, actual swords, a nice bit about building a castle wall. Much of the stuff explained the science behind it.

The first part was where it got environmental. It compared the White Witch to ideas about global warming, threatened animal species and so on. It would be like here's the White Queen's throne. This is how it connects to environmental/global warming in our world. I'm not saying children shouldn't be taught about that; I'm not even saying you can't make that connection to the Narina movies. I am saying that if you are doing an exhbit about Narina and totally leave out the Christian allergory and make Lewis into an environmentalist is wrong. Really wrong and bad scholarship, to be honest.