{"id":7231,"date":"2009-06-27T16:48:22","date_gmt":"2009-06-27T21:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/?p=7231"},"modified":"2009-06-27T16:48:22","modified_gmt":"2009-06-27T21:48:22","slug":"case-studies-in-greatness-uncle-andrew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2009\/20090627-7231.htm","title":{"rendered":"Case Studies in Greatness: Uncle Andrew"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Uncle Andrew is a magician.  He&#8217;s done much experimentation and explored many mysteries to get to where he is, and he&#8217;s quite proud of his accomplishments.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s more, he&#8217;s quite proud of himself in general&#8211;even without accomplishments to back him up.  He describes himself to Digory as a man &#8220;who possess[es] hidden wisdom.&#8221;  Once away from the terror of Jadis, he begins to think himself a rather &#8220;distinguished-looking man&#8221;. &#8220;&#8216;Andrew, my boy,&#8217; he said to himself as he looked in the glass, &#8216;you&#8217;re a devilish well preserved fellow for your age.'&#8221;  When he finds himself in Narnia (by no act of his own) and observing a miraculous creation event, he is still full of his own greatness&#8211;&#8220;Ho, ho!  They laughed at my magic&#8230;.I wonder what they&#8217;ll say now?  I have discovered a world where everything is bursting with life and growth. Columbus, now, they talk about Columbus.  But what was America to this?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, though, Uncle Andrew&#8217;s &#8220;greatness&#8221; (or at least his perceived greatness) is an excuse to do whatever he likes without regard for rules or relationship.  Digory had this figured out by the second chapter.  Uncle Andrew says &#8220;But of course you must understand that rules&#8230;however excellent they may be for little boys&#8211;and servants&#8211;and women&#8211;and even people in general, can&#8217;t possibly be expected to apply to profound students and great thinkers and sages&#8230;&#8221;  After hearing Uncle Andrew&#8217;s monologue, Digory reflects: &#8220;All it means&#8230;is that he thinks he can do anything he likes to get anything he wants.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Andrew selfishly regards himself as great, while taking liberties with the lives of others.  Asked why he did not travel to the other world himself, Andrew answers: &#8220;Me?  Me?&#8230;A man at my time of life, and in my state of health, to risk the shock and the dangers of being flung suddently into a different universe?&#8221;  For him to take risks for his magic would be preposterous&#8211;but he has no qualms with sending Polly and Digory where he himself would not go.<\/p>\n<p>In Uncle Andrews mind, greatness means being above the law.  For him, greatness means having the right to do whatever he pleases, never mind the consequences to others. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Uncle Andrew is a magician. He&#8217;s done much experimentation and explored many mysteries to get to where he is, and he&#8217;s quite proud of his accomplishments. What&#8217;s more, he&#8217;s quite proud of himself in general&#8211;even without accomplishments to back him up. He describes himself to Digory as a man &#8220;who possess[es] hidden wisdom.&#8221; Once away &#8230; <a title=\"Case Studies in Greatness: Uncle Andrew\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2009\/20090627-7231.htm\">Read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Case Studies in Greatness: Uncle Andrew<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[35],"tags":[208,251,508,1115,1185],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7231"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}