Does C. S. L. oversimplify politics, or is that just a Commie trope?

Prince Caspian · Does C. S. L. oversimplify politics, or is that just a Commie trope?

5 Pitfalls of Writing Political Fantasy and how to fix them
Just In Time Worldbuilding | 13 Aug. 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m1HFZXmW1s

10:33 You may have missed that C. S. Lewis on each occasion evaded your pitfalls of the rightful heir.

1) LWW, the rightful kings and queens are kings and queens of prophecy and have a messianic rather than narrowly political dimension (even if de facto they also rule politically).
2) Prince Caspian, the precisely allies of the rightful heir make for a real shift in power (again with a messianic dimension, since the Pevensies are on the side of Caspian X.
3) Having the rightful heir hostage would have so to speak demonically reversed Prince Caspian, in service of the Lady of the Green Kirtle rather than of Aslan. Here it is not so much the rightful heir that sets things in order as being prevented from acting in the service of foreign invaders.

You did miss out on two periods where a lack of an obvious rightful heir set the country into chaos.

1) Between King Frank's dynasty and the White Witch
2) Between the Pevensies and the Telmarine invasion.

This has a parallel in real history with the false Dmitriys and the decades when the Russian crown was up for grabs, and obviously in the War of the Roses and in the English invasion of France during the Hundred Years' War. In fact, the Pevensies in Prince Caspian function a bit like St. Joan of Arc in the French national revival.

What you argue for is pretty much analysing power on modern conventions, CSL analysed it on Medieval principles ... without actually losing the complexity.

10:40 It's purpose is not to serve as a metaphor for Christianity, that part purpose is rather exploring what Christianity would look like in another world.

10:58 Song of Ice and Fire also oversimplifies the distinction between Christian monarchy (War of the Roses) and Pagan Caesarianism (the mores of Nero, for instance).

By contrast, CSL does give examples of evil and overreaching (both internally and internationally) monarchy, in Charn and in Calormen (and no, Calormen is not a metaphor for Islam).

11:13 CSL shows up with other forms of governance too.

Hermit of the Southern March and Marshwiggles show self reliance, a kind of anarchy.

The complexities of Trade in Lone Islands are a nice showcasing of the failures of modern Democracy and Bureaucracy to show humanity.

For that matter, the rise of Miraz to power (featured in both Prince Caspian and in Voyage of the Dawn Treader, both occasions retrospectively) parallels the rise of Communist dictators, not least in Czechoslovakia.

12:29 What you have spoken of, Miraz is not omnipotent, just the biggest bully, in his own system.

He also is not aware of all that is going on, or he wouldn't have hired first that nanny and then Doctor Cornelius.

13:27 The religious history of Dune is about as unbelievable as that of Foundation after Hari Seldon dies, not to mention the inherent and obvious impossibility of Hari Seldon's psycho-statistics.

I quit Foundation after some paragraphs after Hari Seldon's death, since Mr. Asimov was basically naive enough to believe he had provided a model for the rise of Christianity.

But in the previous scenes, an alternative and not impossible reading of what happens is, Hari Seldon actually foresaw nothing, he just conveniently stated things like "oh, it was a 95 % chance of this arrest happening right now" in order to give his younger companion a sense of Hari Seldon having it all fixed.

13:43 Political entities in Narnia from death of Caspian IX to death of Caspian X involve:

• a Telmarine coloniser culture
• a colonised culture threatened with genocide
• an usurper within the coloniser culture
• a threat to the rightful heir coinciding with the genocidal threat
• overseas possessions left to themselves
• mercantile cities and shephard landscapes in the overseas possessions
• loyalists who were faithful to Caspian IX and who were dealt with by Miraz in various ways
• a secret presence of Old Narnians that could pass for Telmarines but weren't or weren't quite, making a liaison between the rightful heir and the colonised
• lots of militaries with their own ambitions (like the ones who bungle the drowning of Trumpkin or like Glozelle and Sopespian)
• threats from the North, giants and an evil witch who lives underground part of the time

I would say, for a children's story, duly taking into account that Prince Caspian, Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair are supposed to not be too confusing to an audience of nine, C. S. L. quite does rival GRRM and FH.

16:09 You have just done a good job of literarily justifying Nikabrik.

18:10 In CSL, as in Tolkien, Capitalism and Merchant Republics are not inherently good.

Check Governor Gumpas or Laketown for reference.

30:19 You have just given a great justification for the transitions between the books in the Narnia series.

King Frank's dynasty does not last beyond the tree of protection.
The Pevensies involve Narnia being ruled by people with some immaturity, like Queen Susan displays with the Calormene suitor.
Caspian X involves a man with more than just trace amounts of Telmarine greed, as VDD shows.
And his companions end up with a despondency about searching for the lost prince such that only a very secretive faction is able to forward Eustace and Jill. The ensuing development of the monarchy involves an appeasement with Calormen that ends up backfiring big time.