So welcome to the podcast. My name is Douglas Wilson. That's who I am. You are whoever you are.

But whoever that is, you're welcome. Good to have you. So this is podcast episode 371.

371. I want to begin by talking a little bit about an idea that has been floating around social media,

and I don't know if this is a substantive rumor or just a rumor or whatever. But apparently,

Merrill Streep was offered the role of Aslan in an upcoming Netflix Narnia thing. I want to sort of talk about this

without assuming anything about whether or not that will come to pass. The issue is not whether

it will come to pass. The issue is that somebody thought it was worthwhile to float the idea, right?

This is worth talking about.

Now, of course, the idea of Merrill Streep playing the role of Aslan is an abomination.

It's just terrible.

And it shows you how far certain sectors of our country, certain sectors of our

culture have sunk as to not recognize how abominable it is. It's just really perverse.

And of course, we've been primed for this sort of thing.

This is what radical relativism does when the bottom gives way, and nothing has any kind of coherence.

No sort of coherence to objective reality is required. So you could have a historical drama, Queen Elizabeth I first, portrayed by a black woman, or, you know, that kind of thing, where we don't have to

line up what we're doing with anything that is objectively true outside of ourselves.

Well, the whole point of Aslan's presence, his persona, is masculine.

It's wrapped in masculinity, a particular kind of masculinity. And there is absolutely no way that you can have a lioness without a main portray

Aslan. And now, of course, could someone have written a children's story that featured a

lioness as the central character of wisdom and whatever. Yeah, that sort of thing is done.

Fairy godmothers and such are a staple in fairy stories. So you could have a magnificent

children's story that had a key lioness figure in it. But that lioness could not represent the way Aslan represents

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