I finally managed to watch The Narnia Code which has been sitting on my digibox hard drive since it was broadcast by the BBC in April. The Narnia Code is a fascinating story of the quest to discover a hidden layer of meaning behind C. S. Lewis’ Narnia Chronicles. I found the argument presented very convincing and there is a wonderful elegance to Michael Ward’s thesis that each of the Narnia books corresponds to one of the seven planets in medieval cosmology.
The documentary not only explores the thesis presented in Ward’s book Planet Narnia, but gives a short and insightful biography of Lewis. One of the most interesting aspects of the documentary was the reminder of the breadth and depth of Lewis’ interests and knowledge, as well as his extraordinary intellect. I was left with the conviction that our lives are impoverished by an ignorance of the wide range of sources which informed Lewis’ writings including the Bible and the Classics.
I agree with my friend and colleague Graham Tomlin that this was very good TV and there was something very important identified in the reminder that the why of cosmology is as important as the how.
I was at the conference at Magdalen, Cambridge where Michael Ward first presented his thesis (immediately after my lecture about the film adaptation of TLTW&TW) - and so he signifcantly upstaged me!
ReplyDeleteA fascinating thesis - I shall try to catch the TV show, now!