Re: why do people hate narnia?
Posted: Oct 26, 2018 10:22 am
Cleander wrote:I think the main reason a lot of the people I meet don't like Narnia is because for them it was kind of eclipsed by Tolkien's works. Narnia seemed too simplistic and childish, while LOTR has a more complex, subtle structure and message.
Tolkien is actually one of the few people that comes to my mind as an actual person who hated Narnia.
I think most people who don't like Narnia are indifferent or dismissive of it, thinking that they are "just children's books" or heavy-handed Christian allegory, but Tolkien actively disliked it, despite the fact that Lewis loved The Hobbit and LotR. I've always thought that the clash in their tastes was interesting... I get the sense that there are certain personalities that just aren't going to take to Narnia as much as others. If you require a well-ordered fantasy universe, then Tolkien's works are definitely going to be more your cup of tea. This article does a good job detailing Tolkien's issues with CoN, although I don't agree with the author's conclusion about Middle-Earth containing a "deeper magic" than Narnia.