Part I

When reading Narnia to my unborn son (who is now born), there was one concept in particular that has really made an impression on me, and that I think about every day.

The magician himself (the selfish uncle) in The Magician’s Nephew could not hear the animals speaking in land of Narnia. This is because when we first heard them speaking, he assumed it was absolutely preposterous, and that there was no way an animal could possibly speak. Then, from there, slowly, it turned from refusing to believe that they could speak, to not actually being able to physically hear them speaking at all, and only being able to hear growls from them.

I believe the intended message here is about God and the religious world, and being unable to hear God anymore if you have refused to believe anything you see or hear has to do with him. (Excuse the small h, it is what I am comfortable with.)

However, it doesn’t have to just be about God, and I think it can be a general statement about being caught up in a way of thinking that other phenomena get ignored. To get all Kuhnian, it would be ignoring what our paradigm considers anomalies. (After writing this though, I am not sure how similar these two ideas are though, and I will be sticking with the Narnia one when in doubt.)

Anyways, regardless if it is about science or religion, the concept that there are things that make us physically unable to see or hear the Truth (excuse the big T) is something that I have been thinking about a lot.

I group it all under alienation, but I am not sure if this is Correct.

For example, alienation from reality due to not seeing the trees and the sky and the concrete outside your window, but only short form videos on your phone.

Or alienation from history and humanity due to have experienced so much fiction that history and humanity do not feel any heavier than any other story.

The idea from Narnia is that this isn’t a matter of just needing to look up from your phone, or from your TV show or video game, the idea is that even when you look up, you are no longer physically able to see the Truth.

As an aside dear Reader, I have alluded to it, but I am more comfortable with Truth than I am with God. Feel free to judge on that what you will.

I mention phones and TV shows, but it can be painted with a very wide brush by just saying “modern society” (too wide?). Are there Truths that modern society has influenced us into not being able to see? Is this why we go hiking and camping?

A sticking point in all this is that it is saying that there are some things that humans can consider as the Truth if unimpeded. A more Materialist (as in only the material world exists, not consumerist) approach would be there is only a combination of instinctual nature, and learned nurture. This approach is more comfortable for me, and it paints any human predisposed notions of Truth as perhaps a cognitive mix of instincts and societal norms.

This is where I always bring up Robert Pirsig’s Lila in my head, but I am not ready to go there yet, so I will leave these thoughts unfinished for now.