It's a term from Sherlock Holmes fandom. A 'Watsonian' explanation is one that tries to make sense of something in in-universe terms. The opposite is a 'Doylist' explanation, which tries to explain it in terms of what the author was doing, deliberately or not. A Doylist explanation for the change in tone between 'Perelandra' and 'That Hideous Strength' would be that Lewis became friends with Charles Williams and wanted to pay tribute to him.
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regna
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Date: 2016-05-19 09:28 pm (UTC)It's a term from Sherlock Holmes fandom. A 'Watsonian' explanation is one that tries to make sense of something in in-universe terms. The opposite is a 'Doylist' explanation, which tries to explain it in terms of what the author was doing, deliberately or not. A Doylist explanation for the change in tone between 'Perelandra' and 'That Hideous Strength' would be that Lewis became friends with Charles Williams and wanted to pay tribute to him.