From what you write, it seems clear that Lewis didn't manage to pull the effect off then or at any rate, not successfully enough for you, and others like you. For what it's worth, it's a particularly Christian paradox that he was aiming for:
1. Narnia-that-was mattered. Mattered terribly. Mattered so much that Aslan would allow himself to be tortured to death for it. We're expected to love it as much as Aslan did.
2. Narnia-that-was doesn't matter absolutely. The time will come that, like the Narnians and the children there, we will be required to leave those loves, set them aside (still loving them, mind you!) and say goodbye.
3. And it will, somehow, be worth it.
I think Lewis came as close as any writer since Dante (certainly as close as any modern writer) to nailing #3.
Only the man who shall give up his life, shall save it
I've never been comfortable with mysticism, myself, so I can sympathize.
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Re: Wandered in from metafandom -
Date: 2005-09-30 05:58 am (UTC)1. Narnia-that-was mattered. Mattered terribly. Mattered so much that Aslan would allow himself to be tortured to death for it. We're expected to love it as much as Aslan did.
2. Narnia-that-was doesn't matter absolutely. The time will come that, like the Narnians and the children there, we will be required to leave those loves, set them aside (still loving them, mind you!) and say goodbye.
3. And it will, somehow, be worth it.
I think Lewis came as close as any writer since Dante (certainly as close as any modern writer) to nailing #3.
Only the man who shall give up his life, shall save it
I've never been comfortable with mysticism, myself, so I can sympathize.