Recent Readings: Planet Narnia

Planet Narnia by Michael Ward reviewed by Miniver
(book published by Oxford University Press, 2008)

Its always fun to impose a framework on favorite stories. This is
confirmed by the intriguing fanwritten Narnia tales that equate each of the
Pevensies with one of the four seasons or one of the points of the compass.
But did Lewis himself envision a secret extra framework for the seven Narnian
chronicles?

In Planet Narnia, a densely textured scholarly work, Anglican priest Michael
Ward proposes that a hidden pattern based on the Medieval view of the cosmos
underlies the Narnia books. (Wards book also examines the Space Trilogy,
but Ill leave that material aside here.) Lewis clearly loved this older
view of the cosmos: he wrote about it in The Discarded Image. Im not
entirely sure if I agree with Wards thesis&but his proposed pattern is a
lot of fun to examine.

Ward believes that each Narnia book was intended to have a connection to one
of the heavenly bodies known to earlier eras: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon. To Medieval thinkers, each of these orbs was
associated with a presenceoriginally a god or titanfrom ancient
Classical mythology. So, for example, Jupiter was the ruler of the gods, and
Saturn had dominion over time and age (his Greek name, Kronos, gives us words
like chronology). Aspects and attributes of these beings are supposedly also
reflected within the Narnian tales, according to Ward.

Ward uses examples of language and imagery from the Narnia books to support
his claim. Some of it is forced, but some is persuasive. For example, The
Silver Chair is supposedly the book of the Moon. One substance associated with
the Moon is water, and significant watery images in this book include the
water of life that Jill thirsts for in Aslans Country, the River Shribble,
and the dead Caspian lying in the stream. And the metallic element associated
with the Moon? Silver&as in Chair. At moments when Ward points out
connections like these, readers might find themselves jumping about with glee,
because these discoveries are such fun. As Ward stresses, these associations
dont take away from the other connections Lewis makes in the Chronicles.
Ward, an Anglican cleric, is certainly not out to diminish the Christian
purpose of the Narnia books. Father Time blowing his horn in The Last Battle
may refer to Saturn, but he also signifies Gabriel blowing the trumpet. If
anyone can layer images with this complexity, its Lewisone of the great
modern scholars of Western literature. His lively intellect might well have
started creating these extra undertones for his books just because they were
always in his mind.

Mitigating against Wards thesis is the traditional view that Lewis wrote
the books quickly, almost haphazardly. Our best evidence shows that he
hadnt even planned to write sequels when he penned The Lion, the Witch, and
the Wardrobe. Also, Lewis used these stories as part of his mission to
communicate Christs love for humanity. Surely that indicates a wish to
write clearly, not evasively. Further, not a single page of his notes, not a
single remark by any of his associates, has ever revealed the possibility of
this planetary structure in the Narnia books.

The books complex, often academic language means that not everyone will
have the patience to plow through it. However, the fact that much of the
cosmic imagery is now associated with astrology should not put anyone off.
Lewis plainly wasnt interested in anyones astrological sign, or in
reading his daily horoscope. If you do decide to try this challenging book,
expect to find at least some ideas that will delight you, and some ideas that
you wont buy. But nothing in the book will detract from the joyous meaning
that the Narnia Chronicles hold for us all.

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