I think where we fell of the track was the difference between reading and writing. I believe that everyone has a right to their own interpretation of what they're reading, particularly if they're reading for enjoyment. I know I missed most of the Christian symbolism the first time I read Narnia, and I was raised in a very Christian home....
When writing in a fandom, though, I tend to be harder on the purist angle. I know not everyone agrees with me that author intent matters, but to me it's important to get into the author/creator's mind in order to write a fic that is coherent within that world, no matter what the fic writer's own beliefs are.
Ah. Actually, you did not completely misunderstand me. I was talking about writing as well as reading.
I agree that implicit or thematic canon is in some ways more important than explicit canon -- in other words, there's a difference between a story that portrays Aslan as manipulative and evil and a story that asks what might have happened if Edmund, not Lucy, had entered Narnia first and met Mr. Tumnus. The first would bother me a lot, though I could probably tamp down my discomfort while reading if it were well enough written otherwise. The second could be either fascinating or awful, depending on how it was written, but it wouldn't induce an automatic 'but that's wrong!' reaction the way the first story would. So I definitely know what you mean about writing a story that works within the canon guidelines.
However, while I am reluctant to disregard thematic canon, I often find myself writing stories that challenge or reinterpret it, particularly when I find a theme morally unjustifiable, when an author has written an internal contradiction into a series (like J. K. Rowling, who shows the evils of prejudice and then proceeds to tar 99% of Slytherins as worthless scum even after the Sorting Hat says all four houses must work together), or when I think an author has missed the implications of a particular theme or element of his or her world-building. I do this because I care about themes. They are the part of a story that can change the way a person sees the world, and therefore they are the part I react to most strongly and devote the most thought to reconciling.
I think that if an interpretation of canon is valid for reading, it is also valid for writing. Fanfiction is a conversation with canon and with other fans, and while it's important to be respectful of the basic ideas that start the conversation, it's also useful to prod at the boundaries and see if the conversation can be led down new paths and into new areas. Fanfiction can be a way to work out problems a writer has with the canon of a series, and to share those problems and potential solutions with other people. It's a response to canon, not just an imitation of canon.
So I choose to think of Aslan as a deity of love and justice who is completely independent of Jesus and the Trinity... and to either ignore or very heavily handwave most of TLB. I also choose to see Aslan either as a character or as the focus of someone's belief, but so far not both at the same time (because of my cognitive dissonance problem).
And I suspect that at some point I will write one or more stories to explore my ethical problems with TLB, because I think that is a conversation worth having, and it's often easier for me to think in stories than in essays. I think I can, actually, manage to make most of the events of TLB palatable enough for me to swallow, but I'd have to do a lot of delicate tap-dancing over Lewis's phrasing of certain sentences and mentally embroider the edges of the story with various justifications Lewis does not bother to provide. (I still can't get past the removal of the Talking Beasts' wits, though. There is no justification I can see for that, and I suspect I will end up writing a story to either express my outrage over that, or try to reconcile that evil to the idea of Aslan as a loving and just god.)
on theology, ethics, and authorial intent, part 4
When writing in a fandom, though, I tend to be harder on the purist angle. I know not everyone agrees with me that author intent matters, but to me it's important to get into the author/creator's mind in order to write a fic that is coherent within that world, no matter what the fic writer's own beliefs are.
Ah. Actually, you did not completely misunderstand me. I was talking about writing as well as reading.
I agree that implicit or thematic canon is in some ways more important than explicit canon -- in other words, there's a difference between a story that portrays Aslan as manipulative and evil and a story that asks what might have happened if Edmund, not Lucy, had entered Narnia first and met Mr. Tumnus. The first would bother me a lot, though I could probably tamp down my discomfort while reading if it were well enough written otherwise. The second could be either fascinating or awful, depending on how it was written, but it wouldn't induce an automatic 'but that's wrong!' reaction the way the first story would. So I definitely know what you mean about writing a story that works within the canon guidelines.
However, while I am reluctant to disregard thematic canon, I often find myself writing stories that challenge or reinterpret it, particularly when I find a theme morally unjustifiable, when an author has written an internal contradiction into a series (like J. K. Rowling, who shows the evils of prejudice and then proceeds to tar 99% of Slytherins as worthless scum even after the Sorting Hat says all four houses must work together), or when I think an author has missed the implications of a particular theme or element of his or her world-building. I do this because I care about themes. They are the part of a story that can change the way a person sees the world, and therefore they are the part I react to most strongly and devote the most thought to reconciling.
I think that if an interpretation of canon is valid for reading, it is also valid for writing. Fanfiction is a conversation with canon and with other fans, and while it's important to be respectful of the basic ideas that start the conversation, it's also useful to prod at the boundaries and see if the conversation can be led down new paths and into new areas. Fanfiction can be a way to work out problems a writer has with the canon of a series, and to share those problems and potential solutions with other people. It's a response to canon, not just an imitation of canon.
So I choose to think of Aslan as a deity of love and justice who is completely independent of Jesus and the Trinity... and to either ignore or very heavily handwave most of TLB. I also choose to see Aslan either as a character or as the focus of someone's belief, but so far not both at the same time (because of my cognitive dissonance problem).
And I suspect that at some point I will write one or more stories to explore my ethical problems with TLB, because I think that is a conversation worth having, and it's often easier for me to think in stories than in essays. I think I can, actually, manage to make most of the events of TLB palatable enough for me to swallow, but I'd have to do a lot of delicate tap-dancing over Lewis's phrasing of certain sentences and mentally embroider the edges of the story with various justifications Lewis does not bother to provide. (I still can't get past the removal of the Talking Beasts' wits, though. There is no justification I can see for that, and I suspect I will end up writing a story to either express my outrage over that, or try to reconcile that evil to the idea of Aslan as a loving and just god.)