S8E32 – Narnia – “Narnia Month: Literary Narnia”, After Hours with Dr. Jem Bloomfield

Dr. Jem Bloomfield joins the show to discuss his books on the literary allusions that Lewis scattered throughout the Narniad.

S8E32: “Narnia Month: Literary Narnia”, After Hours with Dr. Jem Bloomfield (Download)

Show Notes

Introduction

Quote of the Week

…in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.

C. S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism

Biographical Information

Dr Jem Bloomfield is an assistant professor of literature at the University of Nottingham, and a Reader in the Church of England. His research interests focus around detective fiction, the reception histories of Shakespeare and the Bible, and fantasy.

He is the author several books, but today we will be focussing on the two Narnian ones: “Paths in the Snow: A Literary Journey Through The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, and “Gold on the Horizon: A Literary Journey Through Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”.

Chit-Chat

• David praised the cover art on the books, which Dr. Bloomfield mentioned was done by illustrator Shirley Watson.

My wife has seen your books on my bedside for the last few weeks and she asked me to ask you – is Jem short for James, or is there a more complex story behind your somewhat unusual first name?

• Jem is actually a childhood nickname for Jeremy, but “Jem” is what stuck in college.

Toast

• David was drinking a West Coast IPA from Best Day Brewing.
• Dr. Bloomfield had a mug of Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire Tea.

Discussion

01. “Background”

Q. Would you mind telling us a little bit about your background and your history with Lewis?

• Growing up in southern England, Dr. Bloomfield’s first exposure to Lewis was not the books, but actually the Narnia BBC television series. He became convinced Maugrim, the wolf captain of the secret police, was living in the wardrobe in his bedroom. To be fair, the way he was first depicted in this series was a bit unnerving…

• Surprisingly, though he read the Narnia novels, the books that made the greatest impression on him as a teenager were “An Experiment in Criticism” and “Studies in Words”. He returned back to them when he grew up and rediscovered where his life philosophies originated from.
• During the COVID-19 lockdown, Dr. Bloomfield’s church found ways of getting people to participate while social distancing. They decided to do a book club over Zoom, and to kick things off, he chose to start with “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”. When things opened up again, he began a C. S. Lewis reading group at the the college, which his students called “Narnia Club”.
• Dr. Bloomfield never intended to write about Lewis, as his research was in Renaissance tragedy.

02. “Literary Narnia”

Q. How did you come to write several books about the literary nature of “The Chronicles of Narnia”?

• Part of training for becoming a reader for the Church of England was to write a short essay on a literary text. One of the options was “The Lord of the Rings”. This got him interested in fantasy literature that had a theological bent to it, so when he held the Narnian book clubs, he was picking up themes left and right.
• These were books that drew readers in and took them along the journey, without trying to make an alternative point, or bait and switch the reader. As it is said on embroidered throw pillows, the journey is the destination.

Q. What does it even mean to look at the literary nature of the Narniad?

• Reading in a literary way is to pick out and analyse the plot, narrative, characters, symbolism, tone and atmosphere. Rather than to delve into an overarching meaning, it is examined as an artifact would be, or a piece of artwork.
• The books are broken down by chapter, with each one a new point in the journey. As readers are taken along for the ride, they are invited to look around at their surroundings. It helps that the books that are analysed in this way are often centred around quests themselves.
• The Narniad is composed of very allusive books. Many of the quotes or environments or events in them are created in reference to other books, from across time, space, and genre.

Q. How might a literary approach to these books enrich our reading? In my humble opinion, the real strength of your books is that it offers an alternative to a common caricature of Narnia as thinly-veiled, simplistic allegory. Aslan is Jesus, and with that key, everything else can be decoded as simple religious propaganda. You book shows that Lewis is doing much more than that.

• Narnia does not always follow the biblical narrative. For example, in the scene most reflective of the Garden of Gethsemane, Lucy and Susan walk with Aslan to the stone table. Unlike the apostles who were asleep, they should have been tucked into bed, but couldn’t sleep, so they walked with Aslan.
• Lewis wouldn’t quite define an allegory in the conventional sense either. In “The Allegory of Love”, an allegory is a story that has dramatised abstract philosophical ideas or principles, in a way that is easily translatable by the reader. With Lewis however, much of his works cannot be so simply translated, emotionally or intellectually.

03. “Lewis’ Literary Formation”

Q. In what way was Lewis shaped by literature? We’re not going to be reading Surprised By Joy until probably Season 11, but I’ve always described it as Lewis’ life bibliography with a small conversion narrative attached.

• Dr. Bloomfield described Lewis as having an almost eidetic memory when it came to literature, due to his ability to recall very odd and specific examples. Often, if a reader feels that a Lewisian line is familiar, that’s because it is; he’s borrowing concepts from another author.
• Lewis lived and breathed literature, but he also lived through it. Even in his autobiography “Surprised by Joy”, or when he’s discussing the flavour of Christianity in “Mere Christianity”, he’s often talking about books. He is excellent at dramatising them, making the intersection of these books exciting.
• As we know, mythology and narrative were important to Lewis’ religious life. He dug into Norse and Celtic mythology along with that of the ancient Greeks, and of course was a consumer of classical literature and story by people such as Edmund Spenser.
• Myth in the 19th-20th centuries was spoken of in an anti-religious way. For example, J. G. Fraser studied comparative mythology in “The Golden Bough”, specifically discussing gods that die and resurrect, or heroes who were born of virgins. No matter the differences, Fraser uses these to explain – and subsequently dismiss – Christianity. However, for Lewis, these similarities show the opposite. Rather than Christians stealing from myths to create their own legend, these other myths are in fact refractions of the True Myth that became flesh.

04. “Paths in the Snow”

Q. Would you mind just quickly talking us through the structure of Paths In Snow? If listeners pick up a copy, what will they find?

• “Paths in the Snow” is a chapter-by-chapter slow and analytic look at “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, paying particular attention to what might be missed in a first reading, particularly the literary details. These can include allusions. For example, Dr. Bloomfield believes that the opening introduction to the Pevensie children was a riff on the opening of “The Tale of Peter Rabbit”.

Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were—Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter.

Beatrix Potter, Peter Rabbit

• Another thing the book looks at is historical context from Lewis’ era. What would Turkish delight have meant to a child in post-war Britain, when rationing was still happening? Most modern readers would not covet it so highly, with David being perhaps the sole exception. In this scene with the White Witch, Edmund is deliberately eating more than his ration, and by asking for more, he is cutting others out.

Q. Would you mind giving us a sample of some of the literary sources and motifs we find in LWW?

• When investigating Mr. Tumnus, Dr. Bloomfield dove into “The Wind in the Willows”. The encounter with the faun could be not unlike the run-in with Pan in that novel. Pan often appears as a satyr-like figure who is wild, yet has a tenderness for children. However, it is clear that in the beginning, Mr. Tumnus very clearly did not have Lucy’s best intentions in mind, and he required Aslan to redeem him from his fallenness. This sort of redemption from paganism is also found in “Prince Caspian”.
• Another book that Lewis might have drawn from could be “Puck of Pook’s Hill”. In one scene, the children of the novel are in a field by Pook’s Hill repeatedly reciting lines from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and Puck comes out of the bushes, a faerie summoned by their recitations of his name. However, he is taken aback by being called a faerie, and expresses his displeasure thus:

‘Ah, but you’re a fairy,’ said Dan.
‘Have you ever heard me say that word yet?’ said Puck quickly.
‘No. You talk about “the People of the Hills”, but you never say “fairies”,’ said Una. ‘I was wondering at that. Don’t you like it?’
‘How would you like to be called “mortal” or “human being” all the time?’ said Puck; ‘or “son of Adam” or “daughter of Eve”?’
‘I shouldn’t like it at all,’ said Dan. ‘That’s how the Djinns and Afrits talk in the Arabian Nights.’

Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook’s Hill

• There is actually sone literature that alludes to Christ as a sort of Pan. Milton includes him in the nativity ode “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity”. Some other authors who wrote about Pan during that time frame were Hector Hugh Munro (otherwise known as “Saki”) and Arthur Machen.

The shepherds on the lawn,
Or ere the point of dawn,
Sate simply chatting in a rustic row;
Full little thought they than
That the mighty Pan
Was kindly come to live with them below:
Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep,
Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep;

John Milton, On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity

• Besides children’s literature or fantasy, there are also medieval texts that Lewis draws from. One of these stories is “Adam Lay Ybounden”, which describes a dreadfully long winter, which Lewis takes and metaphorises.

Adam lay ibounden,
Bounden in a bond;
Four thousand winter
Thoght he not too long;
And all was fro an appil,
An appil that he tok,
As clerkes finden
Wreten in here book…

Adam Lay Ybounden

05. “Gold on the Horizon”

Q. Let’s turn to your second book, Gold on the Horizon. In this book, you discuss not just one of the Chronicles, but two – Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Please tell me you were mimicking the BBC Narnian adaptations which also grouped together those two books into a single season!

• Unfortunately, it’s not because of this reason, it’s more because of the practicality of it with publishers. Another reason the first book was a stand-alone was because LWW was much more eclectic than the others, inserting very odd characters such as Father Christmas. Later novels in the Narniad appear to be more focused and relegated to a smaller number of sources; for example, “The Horse and His Boy” draws heavily from “Arabian Nights”.

Q. What do you make of other approaches to reading Narnia, such as Dr. Ward’s Planet Narnia? Does this literary reading offer an alternative, or something to complement it?

• Dr. Bloomfield sees the books as complementary to “Planet Narnia”, not a separate theory. They offer more opportunities for discussion, and increase their complexity.
• There are other examples of literary criticism, including “The Lion’s World” and “From Spare Oom to War Drobe”. Dr. Bloomfield’s books are not meant to supplant other theories, or assert themselves as the “correct” way to read Lewis.
• David brought up the concept of allusions and historical context being like books “talking” to one another. Rather than the novels appearing as isolated, disconnected, stand-alone stories, they were interwoven with the past, shaped by their predecessors. T. S. Elliot described it as feeling a need to participate in tradition that has been handed down.
• Dr. Bloomfield described the moralisation of status words. Take the word “gentle”. Though today, it often means to be soft in appearance, behaviour, or tone, it was once a term that meant “one of us”, with “us” being a member of the upper class. Lewis uses these terms in their traditional way often; for example, Susan Pevensie is described as “Susan the Gentle”.

06. “Tweaking Myth”

Q. What are some of the literary sources and motifs that are found in the next two books in the Narniad?

• The storyline of “Prince Caspian” certainly reflects “Hamlet”, with Caspian’s uncle killing his father.
• When the Pevensies return to Narnia, the finding of the golden chess piece and the way that they treat it like bards contemplating the past is likely taken from Anglo-Saxon poetic elegies, such as “The Wanderer and the Ruin” and “The Seafarer”.

“Where has the horse gone?
Where are my kindred?
Where is the giver of treasure?
Where are the benches to bear us?
Joys of the hall to bring us together?
No more, the bright goblet!
All gone, the mailed warrior!
Lost for good, the pride of princes!

The Wanderer

• Another episode worth discussing is that of the romp across Narnia in “Prince Caspian”. With the wondrous events that happen here – from the healing of the old nurse, to the rescue of the tormented teacher – Lewis is probably drawing from the Gospels. The healing wine drunk by the old nurse ties back to the wedding at Cana, the nasty children berating their teacher turn into pigs like the Gadarene swine; even the stick turned into a flowering stalk reflects Jesus being the stalk of Jesse, from which springs forth freedom from oppression. Dr. Bloomfield also dove into some more ancient myth about dryads and nymphs.
• What Lewis might also be doing is retelling stories with his own special tweaks, in order to “fix” them. This is particularly evident in “Till We Have Faces”, with the myth of Cupid and Psyche. David also connected “Perelandra” to this observation. Near the end of the novel, Ransom is nurtured by the planet back to health, in a sort of inverse of the myth of Tantalus, whose food and drink are ever out of his reach.
• In a letter to an editor who requested that he write more apologetics work, Lewis once replied that he did not engage in that as much, and would rather catch the reader unawares.

07. “The Future”

Q. Do you have hopes of giving similar treatments to the remaining books in The Chronicles? Or perhaps some of Lewis’ other fiction, such as the Ransom Trilogy?

• More Narnian analysis is on the horizon, and in fact, the next book will be out by Christmas. Dr. Bloomfield is currently completing a manuscript on “The Horse and His Boy” and “The Silver Chair”.
• He might potentially write on Lewis’ other fiction, but for now, Dr. Bloomfield is keeping this series relegated to the Narniad, and is writing about Dorothy Sayers as well.
• He emphasises that the reason that Narnia is so engrossing is because it is tied to things outside of itself, and is animated by a higher power. This is made known by Lewis in “The Last Battle”, which is almost a rejection of Narnia itself, with how dark it becomes.

Wrap Up

Concluding Thoughts

• Check out some of Dr. Bloomfield’s lectures on the Narnia series on his church’s YouTube channel [insert link here].

More Information

• Dr. Bloomfield’s X Account
• Amazon Author Page

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