Non-Christian Narnia: The C.S. Lewis estate and its publishers have started shaping a marketing makeover of Aslan and assorted Narnian habitués to expand readership and extend the brand. Most striking of all, they have developed a discreet strategy to avoid direct links to the Christian imagery and theology that suffused the Narnia novels and inspired Lewis. "They’re turning Narnia into a British version of Mickey Mouse," said John G. West, co-editor of The C. S. Lewis Readers Encyclopedia and an associate professor of political science at Seattle Pacific University. " The publishing strategy surfaced in a HarperCollins memo. "Obviously this is the biggie as far as the estate and our publishing interests are concerned," wrote an executive from HarperSanFranciso. "We’ll need to be able to give emphatic assurances that no attempt will be made to correlate the stories to Christian imagery/theology." (New York times 6/3/01)
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