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Showing posts with the label Chronicle of Narnia

Poor Liam Neeson

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Image via Wikipedia What Aslan Means to Liam Neeson From a  Daily Mail  interview with actor Liam Neeson, the voice of Aslan in the  Narnia films : Aslan symbolises a Christ-like figure but he also symbolises for me Mohammed , Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries. That’s who Aslan stands for as well as a mentor figure for kids – that’s what he means for me. Poor Liam Neeson. He can't win. He probably feels like he has to distance himself from the narrow, Christian message of The Chronicles of Narnia by recreating Aslan for himself in a more palatable, relativistic form to avoid upsetting the culture at large. And why not, if all that matters is what a text means  to us , rather than what the author intended that text to mean? But now he has upset Narnia fans, and with good reason. Neeson's image of Aslan as the god (or leader) of many different religions is quite explicitly argued against in The Last Battle when the Calormenes wrong