Had been waiting for this analysis and it did not disappoint!
As someone with a dad who was raised catholic but left the church as soon as he could and a lightly-practicing spiritist mom, who raised me to choose whatever religious path I wanted and I opted for none (lol), the Christianism embedded in children’s story always felt boring to me and I have sometimes not been able to get into them because of it.
But one thing that I started realizing later in life, and that caught me by surprise, is the fact that I don’t mind stories embedded with (some) other religions and do find them to be very interesting. Maybe it’s because I was born in a 64,6% Catholic country (Brazil, as of 2010) and it was THE religion I was aware of and I couldn’t care less about it, and now I’m more open and also just truly think other religions that aren’t THAT one are more compelling.
To wrap this up I think it’s fitting to talk about my experience with Narnia, which was: I loved the movies, got my grandpa to gift me the books 15 years ago, read the first two stories and did not care for it (figured out later when my brain developed it was probably because of the whole religion thing), lost my grandpa a few years ago, decided I wanted to finish the book as a tribute to him and how much he always encouraged my reading, went in knowing it was Very Christian and was able to enjoy it more by ignoring it, but still wished it wasn’t so infused with it (especially since the allegory apparently wasn’t his intention? wild).
Anyways, I started reading The Way Back for the book club and, as expected, I’m already so much more captivated by it and that’s so refreshing! And I can’t wait to see the worlds you build on your own journey!!!!
This is so interesting to hear and so kind! Thank you for sharing your perspective --I love how we can come to stories at different times in our life and experience them in vastly different ways
Had been waiting for this analysis and it did not disappoint!
As someone with a dad who was raised catholic but left the church as soon as he could and a lightly-practicing spiritist mom, who raised me to choose whatever religious path I wanted and I opted for none (lol), the Christianism embedded in children’s story always felt boring to me and I have sometimes not been able to get into them because of it.
But one thing that I started realizing later in life, and that caught me by surprise, is the fact that I don’t mind stories embedded with (some) other religions and do find them to be very interesting. Maybe it’s because I was born in a 64,6% Catholic country (Brazil, as of 2010) and it was THE religion I was aware of and I couldn’t care less about it, and now I’m more open and also just truly think other religions that aren’t THAT one are more compelling.
To wrap this up I think it’s fitting to talk about my experience with Narnia, which was: I loved the movies, got my grandpa to gift me the books 15 years ago, read the first two stories and did not care for it (figured out later when my brain developed it was probably because of the whole religion thing), lost my grandpa a few years ago, decided I wanted to finish the book as a tribute to him and how much he always encouraged my reading, went in knowing it was Very Christian and was able to enjoy it more by ignoring it, but still wished it wasn’t so infused with it (especially since the allegory apparently wasn’t his intention? wild).
Anyways, I started reading The Way Back for the book club and, as expected, I’m already so much more captivated by it and that’s so refreshing! And I can’t wait to see the worlds you build on your own journey!!!!
This is so interesting to hear and so kind! Thank you for sharing your perspective --I love how we can come to stories at different times in our life and experience them in vastly different ways