Some very good TV......

Watched a fascinating programme the other day. I used to know Michael Ward in Oxford a little while ago and the BBC ran a documentary on his PhD resarch (something most doctoral students dream of but never achieve!). He was doing research on the Narnia stories of C.S. Lewis. They are a little odd in not being a proper series at all, with all kinds of different themes, characters, disjointed patterns, and people had wondered for a while what was missing. He seems to have stumbled on the answer. 'Planet Narnia' argues that each of the seven strires corresponds to the secen planets of medieval cosmology, with Mars, the planet of war being the theme behind Prince Caspian, with its wars and chivalry, Jupiter the one behind the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe etc. It kind of fits with Lewis' interest in plants (cf the Science Fiction books - Perelandra, Out of the Silent Planet etc.) It seems one of those rare literary discoveries - a eureka moment that rarely happens, but just occasionally does.

It also ended with some really interesting insights about our view of the world. Although the scientific account of the cosmos was 'true', the medieval picture was more beautiful to him. It gave an understanding of a world that made sense, that had purpose, meaning, shape, rather than the cold, empty world of rationalist reductionist science. It raises the question of what we mean by the truth of a version of the world, and how 'true' the stories we believe about the world are.

Look here for the website - http://www.planetnarnia.com/