{"id":2671750,"date":"2026-09-28T08:47:57","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T12:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigngreta-gerwigs-glam-rock-aslan-is-a-shoddy-imposter\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T08:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T12:59:07","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigngreta-gerwigs-glam-rock-aslan-is-a-shoddy-imposter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigngreta-gerwigs-glam-rock-aslan-is-a-shoddy-imposter\/","title":{"rendered":"Greta Gerwig&#8217;s Glam-Rock Aslan Is A Shoddy Imposter"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigngreta-gerwigs-glam-rock-aslan-is-a-shoddy-imposter%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2671750&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The author recounts his experience as a school headmaster teaching the <em>Chronicles of Narnia<\/em> series to children across different grades, emphasizing the importance of introducing the books in the order they were published rather than chronologically.He highlights how young children perceive Aslan and the creation stories differently based on their age, and criticizes Greta Gerwig\u2019s adaptation, notably her choice of a visually unconventional Aslan resembling David Bowie, as well as the incorrect framing of Aslan as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/obama-says-he-once-broke-schoolmates-nose-for-calling-him-racial-slur\/\" title=\"Obama Says He Once Broke ...mate...s Nose For Calling Him Racial Slur\">rock star<\/a> rather than a Christ figure.The article discusses lewis\u2019s intention for Aslan to embody multiple allegorical images reflecting Christ\u2019s nature, rooted in medieval planetary symbolism, rather than being a straightforward allegory or idol. It warns against the modern tendency to reimagine sacred figures in a way that diminishes their divine importance, comparing this to educational \u201cconditioning\u201d that alters genuine understanding. The author stresses the importance of reading the original books aloud to children, allowing them to interpret aslan\u2019s true nature for themselves, rather than accepting superficial or distorted representations. Ultimately, he advocates for preserving the spiritual and moral depth of Lewis\u2019s work against cultural distortions that aim to trivialize or sensationalize sacred themes.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>When I was a school headmaster, I taught one <em>Chronicles of Narnia<\/em> novel each year to every grade from kindergarten through fifth, a scheduling trick that let me know every child in the school. I read them in the order C.S. Lewis published them, not the <a href=\"https:\/\/screenagewasteland.com\/narnia-the-magicians-nephew-first-look-images\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">chronological order Netflix has chosen<\/a>. A 5-year-old should meet Aslan the way the Pevensies do, as a rumor in a frozen country, years before he\u2019s ready to watch that lion sing a world into being.<\/p>\n<p>Fifth graders got <em>The Magician\u2019s Nephew<\/em>. They were old enough to perceive Genesis beneath its creation story and young enough to gasp when the tree Digory grew from a Narnian apple blows down, and its timber becomes a wardrobe. I\u2019ll never forget the face of a boy in the back row as the significance dawned on him. It was the same look I\u2019d seen on the kindergarteners when Aslan rose from the Stone Table.<\/p>\n<p>In the <em>Republic<\/em>, <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.broadviewpress.com\/lessons\/DramaAnthology\/PlatoRepublicLesson\/PlatoRepublicLesson_print.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Socrates says<\/a> that \u201cthe beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a young and tender thing.\u201d Greta Gerwig has chosen the wrong beginning twice over: the wrong book to start a child with and the wrong face for the lion. Her <em>Magician\u2019s Nephew<\/em>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.empireonline.com\/movies\/news\/narnia-magicians-nephew-greta-gerwig-rock-opera-fantasy-bowie-exclusive\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">which she calls a rock opera<\/a>, will introduce Aslan to millions of children. On <a href=\"https:\/\/religionunplugged.com\/news\/2026\/9\/23\/greta-gerwigs-rock-opera-take-on-a-cs-lewis-classic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Empire Magazine\u2019s new cover<\/a>, that Aslan has one blue eye and one amber, rainbow whiskers, dragon-scaled skin, and a red-striped face modeled on David Bowie. A woman, <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/film\/news\/greta-gerwig-narnia-david-bowie-meryl-streep-aslan-1236865755\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Meryl Streep, will supply the voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/greta-gerwigs-war-on-masculinity-narnia-and-c-s-lewiss-intent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Much of the right reacted<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/townhall.com\/columnists\/timgraham\/2026\/09\/25\/hollywood-feminist-makes-over-jesus-to-sound-like-meryl-streep-n2683581\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the way you\u2019d expect<\/a>, and some of it <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/HumanEvents\/status\/2100655693850087609\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the way you\u2019d hope<\/a>. But <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/aslan-isnt-jesus-hes-a-lion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tim Rice went to The Daily Wire<\/a> to tell conservatives to calm down. Aslan isn\u2019t Jesus, his headline said. He\u2019s a lion.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ifunny.co\/picture\/jrr-tolkien-noooooooo-you-can-t-put-obvious-allegory-into-4aIqMvNe7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">A popular meme<\/a> shows an indignant J.R.R. Tolkien protesting that you can\u2019t put obvious allegory in your writing, while a grinning Lewis replies, \u201cHaha, Lion Jesus goes rawr.\u201d The joke, though worth a chuckle, gets Lewis wrong. He denied that Narnia was allegory at all. Aslan, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegospelcoalition.org\/article\/why-narnia-isnt-allegorical\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">he told a correspondent in 1958<\/a>, was a \u201csupposal\u201d: what Christ might become if He were incarnate, died, and rose again in a world like Narnia. When an 11-year-old named <a href=\"https:\/\/www.narniaweb.com\/2022\/09\/a-child-asked-c-s-lewis-to-reveal-aslans-other-name\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hila Newman wrote to ask<\/a> Aslan\u2019s name in our world, Lewis told her to guess and reminded her of someone here who \u201cgave himself up for someone else\u2019s fault to be jeered at and killed by wicked people.\u201d Rice has it backwards. Aslan is not a lion who stands for Jesus; he is Christ, supposed to have become a lion. On Lewis\u2019 terms, Gerwig is choosing the face Christ wears in Narnia.<\/p>\n<p>Rice\u2019s deeper claim is that you can\u2019t desecrate what isn\u2019t sacred. His family, he assures us, doesn\u2019t kneel before a wooden lion on Sunday mornings. Nobody worships a flag either, but try burning one outside a VFW hall and telling the men inside it\u2019s only cloth. Desecration has never required an altar. In <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Abolition_of_Man\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Abolition of Man<\/a><\/em>, Lewis defends the old conviction that the man who calls a waterfall sublime is saying something true about the waterfall, and that education trains children to give things their due esteem. Christians have honored images of Christ for 2,000 years without mistaking the wood for God, and none has thought a man could spit on a crucifix without spitting at Christ.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.planetnarnia.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Planet Narnia<\/em><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Michael_Ward_(scholar)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Michael Ward<\/a> presented compelling evidence that each chronicle is keyed to one of the seven planets of the medieval heavens, and that Aslan takes on the character of each: the king in Jupiter\u2019s book, the warrior in that of Mars, the light in the sun\u2019s, the Word in Mercury\u2019s, and the judge at time\u2019s end in Saturn\u2019s. Lewis multiplied his images of Christ so none could harden into an idol, and each one points back to the One in whom, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Colossians%25201:17&#038;version=RSV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">as Colossians says<\/a>, all things hold together. <em>The Magician\u2019s Nephew<\/em> belongs to Venus, but to the fruitful Venus. The animals rise from the earth in pairs, and Narnia\u2019s first king and queen are told they will be \u201cfather and mother of many kings.\u201d The book\u2019s counterfeit Venus, dazzling and barren, is Jadis. An androgynous glam lion belongs on the witch\u2019s side of that book.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.empireonline.com\/movies\/news\/narnia-magicians-nephew-greta-gerwig-rock-opera-fantasy-bowie-exclusive\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cDavid Bowie saved my life,\u201d Gerwig candidly told Empire<\/a>. Bowie\u2019s genius was the persona: The androgynous rock messiah <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ziggy_Stardust_(character)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ziggy Stardust<\/a>, Aladdin Sane, the Thin White Duke, and so on \u2014 each mask retired once exhausted, with a Brixton boy named David Jones somewhere underneath them all, or nowhere. That is the gospel Gerwig is painting onto Aslan\u2019s face: salvation by self-invention. Lewis\u2019 seven faces cohere because there is a Person at the center; Bowie\u2019s masks thrilled audiences because there might be no one behind them. In 1970, a lyricist named Tim Rice reduced Christ to a rock star with <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jesus_Christ_Superstar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Jesus Christ Superstar<\/em><\/a>. Fifty-six years later, a different Tim Rice assures us the Bowie lion is harmless.<\/p>\n<p>Lewis had a name for people who do this. In <em>Abolition<\/em>, he contrasts teachers who deal with pupils \u201cas grown birds deal with young birds when they teach them to fly,\u201d with the modern educator, who deals with them as \u201cthe poultry-keeper deals with young birds \u2014 making them thus or thus for purposes of which the birds know nothing.\u201d His \u201cConditioners\u201d \u201cdecide what kind of conscience they will produce.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Christopher Nolan did it to Homer this year, turning Odysseus <a href=\"https:\/\/www.civitasoutlook.com\/research\/nolans-odyssey-and-the-search-for-wisdom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">into a trauma patient<\/a>. But Nolan\u2019s film is rated R; Gerwig\u2019s, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aceshowbiz.com\/news\/view\/00256406.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">expected to be PG<\/a>, is aimed at children, the Conditioners\u2019 real audience. Lewis explains why. \u201cThe little human animal will not at first have the right responses,\u201d he writes in <em>Abolition<\/em>; its loves must be trained long before it can give reasons for them. Children breathe a story in; they don\u2019t audit it. A Bowie Aslan will train them as surely as Lewis\u2019 did.<\/p>\n<p>There are wars and inflation, Rice reminds us, so save the outrage for things that matter. Rice concedes that the stories we tell ourselves matter. He just hasn\u2019t noticed that this one is being told to his children. <\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Silver_Chair\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>The Silver Chair<\/em><\/a>, the moon\u2019s book, whose Aslan is the obedient Son, the Queen of Underland makes Rice\u2019s case better than he does. Holding the children and Puddleglum captive underground, she throws a sweet-smelling powder on the fire, strums a slow, droning tune, and softly asks them reasonable questions. Isn\u2019t the sun just a lamp they\u2019ve imagined bigger? Isn\u2019t Aslan just \u201ca bigger and better cat?\u201d Puddleglum breaks the spell by stamping out the fire with his bare foot. Then, with the pain clearing his head, he gives her the only answer the argument deserves: \u201cI\u2019m on Aslan\u2019s side even if there isn\u2019t any Aslan to lead it. I\u2019m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn\u2019t any Narnia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The next generation\u2019s Aslan will be whichever one reaches them first. So read your children the books before the film gets to them. Tell them to guess the lion\u2019s other name. And when someone with a byline tells you Aslan is only a bigger and better cat, put your foot in the fire.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Christopher Lloyd Goffos is a former school headmaster, ABD in politics, and writes from Hillsdale, Michigan, where he lives with his wife and children.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Teaching Narnia in order reveals deeper truths<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4412,"featured_media":2671751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Meryl-Streep-Florence-Foster-Jenkins-Tokyo-Film-Festival-2016.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[53240,45847,86344,86343,34310],"class_list":["post-2671750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-aslan","tag-film-critique","tag-glam-rock","tag-greta-gerwig","tag-movie-review"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Meryl-Streep-Florence-Foster-Jenkins-Tokyo-Film-Festival-2016.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4412"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2671750"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2671759,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671750\/revisions\/2671759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2671751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2671750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2671750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2671750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}