Quicky dialogue question...

[ffutures]

If I steal chunks of Aslan's dialogue from Rose Tyler's Bad Wolf speech - Especially "Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies." - will the Narnia purists complain? Or does it seem reasonably appropriate?

Am I right to think that there's a biblical source for this?

later - no, Shakespeare, of course, from Cymbeline

Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
Arv. Fear no more the frown o’ the great,
Thou art past the tyrant’s stroke:
Care no more to clothe and eat;
To thee the reed is as the oak:
The sceptre, learning, physic, must
All follow this, and come to dust.
Gui. Fear no more the lightning-flash,
Arv. Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone;
Gui. Fear not slander, censure rash;
Arv. Thou hast finish’d joy and moan:
Both. All lovers young, all lovers must
Consign to thee, and come to dust.

later - I've put the chapter on line, let me know if this looks OK if you review it.

Comments

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

I'd have said that was the exact opposite of Aslan's position, but that may just be the way I read the books.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Oh, they come to him afterwards. But they have to die first before they can enter the inner Narnia.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

They die, but they don't end, and dust may be what they come to, but it's not where they stop. At least I think that's what it means.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I rather suspect that Shakespeare may have lifted the "come to dust" idea from the Bible. ISTR that the funeral service in the Book of Common Prayer includes "dust to dust, ashes to ashes". I think that would be slightly later than "Cymbeline", but again was probably inspired by the bible.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Yes, it did turn out to be biblical.