How are His Dark Materials and The Chronicles of Narnia related?

Question

I've heard many people comment that Pullman wrote His Dark Materials to counter Lewis' work. Do you agree with this? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Okay, both series were written by British authors and both series are Christian allegories (Narnia more so; Materials seems an outright attack on orthodox Christianity, although the author claims it's an attack on religion in general, which one could argue Jesus' earthly ministry is, e.g. driving the moneychangers from the Temple).

The main characters in both series are children (the Pevensies in Narnia, Will and Lyra in Materials). Both were written by professed agnostics (to my knowledge, Pullman still is, while Lewis became a Christian later in life).

Both involve travel between our own world and others (to Narnia, Charn in "The Magician's Nephew", and the new world in "The Last Battle" in Chronicles while among Lyra's world, Cittagazze, the mulefa world, death, and the Authority's realm in Materials).

Both utilize creatures common to fantasy realms (e.g. dwarves and fairies) as well as talking animals (Beavers in Narnia, bears in Materials) and Christ-figures (Aslan in Narnia, the Authority and eventually Will and Lyra in Materials), relating the story of original sin and Jesus' sacrifice for the sin of the world.

While it's true Pullman has claimed he wrote His Dark Materials to counter Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, you can see from the above they really have a lot more in common. The real trick is that neither series is a STRAIGHT allegory a la Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress"; which characters represent what New Testament figure or fulfillment of prophecy is highly debatable. They're still both excellent to read, though, don't you agree?

Answer 2

It's simply that Lewis was a christian writer and the Chronicles of Narnia are a Christian allegory.

Pullman is a militant atheist and wrote a story in which the forces of religion are seen as evil at worst and irrelevant at best.

Answer 3

Actually I think Pullman calls himself an agnostic