Narnia

Saw it last night with a friend.

I had read the Chronicles as a kid many times over. They had a strong impact on my development.

The movie was masterfully done. The little girl who plays Lucy is astounding. Amazing acting from one so young. All of the kids do a great job, really.

It does bring me back, and makes me ask questions. The path to evil is, in this story as with many others influenced by the Western Christian tradition, paved with pleasure. Turkish delight. A hot drink. And the White Witch's coaxing advances towards Edmund are a bit... improper.

So I wonder: Is pleasure inherently bad? Clearly things that give us pleasure out of proportion to their cost to attain can be dangerous. Here I think of chemical joy that can become addictive. And I'd add to the list, perhaps, crappy synthetic foods that taste great and are just terrible for our bodies. But there are other pleasures which we, as a culture, seem concerned to keep tightly controlled, and here I'm thinking of sex, which I'm not sure are intrinsically bad.

Yeah, it's nothing to be trifled with. Sex can lead to pregnancy, disease, death. It's a powerful impulse. It can confuse relationships just as easily as it can build and enhance them. But it feels great and can be a beautiful way of connecting, sharing and knowing. Yet as a culture we really try to pretend it doesn't happen. It's a secret, taboo thing.

So as I try to lighten up and cast off the repression I learned growing up, I do pause for a moment when I come face to face with a childhood myth that I embraced which is unabashedly Christian. I reject conservative Christian sexual ethics. I still like Aslan. Can I still fight along side the good guys?