C. S. Lewis - Narnia, etc.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Narnia had its own time, different from that of our world, but C. S. Lewis was fascinated by medieval history and literature as well as ancient myths and legends (wasn't he a Professor of Literature?) so it was natural for his interests to be reflected in his stories.

Anita

[Bannerman65]

Especially, I guess, for the way the upper class and the aristocracy behaved. And for the system of honour, chivalry, etc, that they practiced.

[Stephen]

I loved 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' ever since our teacher read it to us in first school - but for some reason I never got into the other Narnia tales. She read us 'Prince Caspian' as well but that bored me to tears. Isn't a huge chunk of the story basically a character narrating another story to the children? Where's the dramatic tension in that?

She also started 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader' - isn't that where the children fall into a painting of the sea? Sounds quite fun, but for some reason she never finished it. Anyway, perhaps I should check out some of these films seeing as Lewis is becoming popular again.

[Somita]

Do any of u like "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader"? Well, there is a good news for those who like it (it includes me as well). The movie of this book is being made, though I don't know when it will be released. (most of u may already have known it, though)...
Cheers, Somita.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Hurrah - I hoped they would film Dawn Treader! I'd like to see films of all seven books if possible. Silver Chair is my second favourite Narnia book after Dawn Treader, followed by Magician's Nephew.

Anita

[Ming]

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader comes out in May 2010, with Will Poulter playing Eustace Clarence Scrubb. I'm looking forward to it! Also glad that Andrew Adamson is still involved, even if as a producer and not the director.

I think The Silver Chair will be filmed too, if I remember rightly, Ben Barnes has signed a contract which states that he will appear as Caspian in Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair.

Passing thought - who is Caspian going to marry? If Ramandu's daughter, whatever will happen to Susan?

[Anita Bensoussane]

Passing thought - who is Caspian going to marry? If Ramandu's daughter, whatever will happen to Susan?

I groaned at that part in the Prince Caspian film. I didn't think the film was a patch on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which really was magical, but then Prince Caspian is the book I like least of the seven (it's not exactly an action-packed story, as Stephen pointed out) so my expectations weren't too high. I love the portrayal of Lucy - the girl who plays her seems just right to me, capturing her friendliness and innocence.

Anita

[Ming]

Prince Caspian (the book!) itself was disappointing, so I didn't expect much from the movie! I did think, however, that the movie was better than the book. Peter and Caspian's characters seem to push themselves a lot, they were far better portrayed than in the novel.

I agree with you about Lucy - a very sweet person!

[Laura]

I quite liked Prince Caspian - the book, I haven't yet seen the film. It may not be that exciting, but I think that what I like about it is the fact that it is one of the few Narnia books to contain all four Pevensie children as main characters, and it is interesting to see how much time has past in Narnia since they were last there. I also quite like Caspian as a character. Having said that, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is by far the best, in my opinion.

[Philip Mannering]

I have now started reading these books--really enjoying them! I have now finished three out of seven, The Magician's Nephew, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian. My favourite is Lion, then Magician's Nephew and finally Prince Caspian (which, I felt, could've been better.)

Now I am on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and am loving it! It can be my favourite (only half so far) although I think Lion will stay in its position till the end. I really loved that book--one of the 'high' ones of children's literature. Magician's Nephew was really good too.

[RainbowJude]

"THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA": BOOK SERIES

You must have read the books of the series "The Chronicles of Narnia" written by C.S Lewis. They are absolutely fantastic.

I really enjoy the "The Chronicles of Narnia". I have a lovely box set of the books that I got when I was in primary school and I have read them again and again over the years.

Although the books are, for better or worse, famous for their allegory of Christian mythology, C.S. Lewis himself claimed that his books were not allegorical but suppositional; I think this pretty much boils down to semantics. However, the series as a whole can be considered more successful if viewed form a suppositional perspective, as the allegory is not as overt in each of the books (The Silver Chair, for example) as it is in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or The Magician's Nephew.

Allegory aside, I think there is much to enjoy in the series from a storytelling perspective. My favourites are The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (where I think the allegory/supposition and story are perfectly balanced) and The Magician's Nephew (which just has the most fantastically drawn characters). I also really enjoy the odyssey narrative of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and quest narrative of The Silver Chair. I always like Prince Caspian, because I think the central conceit of the story appealed to me, and I think my appreciation of The Horse and his Boy and The Last Battle has increased as I've grown older, although I still feel the final title gets a little too literally caught up in the allegorical/suppositional aspects of the series.

The Last Battle is a sad book with the exclusion of Susan from Narnia/Heaven. Taking Christian allegory too far maybe? After all it's just a kid's book!

I don't know if Narnia could be considered Heaven, Kate. That might be reserved for the Christian faith. It wasn't just the fact, that Susan had matured to the point, where she didn't believe in Narnia any more (hence her not being with Peter, Edmund, and Lucy), but also that Aslan shut down Narnia, and the fact that Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy, really were killed in a train accident. Hence why Peter's Edmund's, and Lucy's spirit's were in Narnia. I can only assume, that Susan's spirit went to God.

I don't think we can say that Susan was excluded from heaven (which is indeed what the inner Narnia represented to Lewis) in the last book, as she wasn't killed in the train crash and so would still be alive on earth. It does seem to suggest that she may eventually be excluded from heaven though, unless she changes.

In terms of Lewis's allegory/supposition, the inner Narnia represents Heaven, but I certainly get the feeling from the closing pages in the book that this is the same Heaven the characters would reach from Earth when they died. I feel quote strongly that, in Lewis's allegory/supposition, this inner Narnia is where the God of all worlds resides.

There does seem to be some debate about whether or not Susan died in the train accident. There's nothing in the book (either in Chapter 5 or Chapters 12/13 where the train crash is mentioned) that categorically states that Susan was there, although it seems that this might be logical, considering that it seems that all the Pevensies (including Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy's parents) are either on the train or at the station.

Ultimately, I don't think we can be conclusive about what has happened or will happen to Susan; the point to take away is that Lewis was alluding to the Biblical concept that to enter Heaven, one has to regain the innocence of a child. If Susan died in the train accident, then I guess that is a hard lesson to learn when taking the allegory/supposition into account - and this does raise other issues like those put forth by Philip Pullman, who certainly interprets the narrative from this perspective. If Susan didn't die at that time, then her spirit may still be reunited with her family depending on what happens in her life after the accident.

I don't know if Lewis is on record as confirming either interpretation; I certainly haven't read anything that sets it in stone.

Later days
David

[RainbowJude]

"THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA": FILM SERIES

Have you watched the latest movie made from one of the Narnia series, Prince Caspian?

The movie was pretty cool. Of course, there were a lot of updates and additions to the film, but overall I think it wasn't bad. It was a bit of a disappointment, though, after The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

I found the film of "Prince Caspian" was a wee bit too long and some sections dragged for me but the battle scenes were brilliant, I loved the first Narnia film though.

I didn't think the film was a patch on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which really was magical.

I enjoyed Prince Caspian much more than the film adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I found The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe couldn't decide on its status as an adaptation and found the film flagged as a result. The whole wolf chase scene was a dismal failure in attempting to extend the tension in the race for the stone table, which is so neatly depicted in the book. But, as I've said, I don't think the film took a strong enough stance on how faithful or not it was going to be to the books and ultimately it never came into its own for me.

Prince Caspian seemed comfortable to adapt the novel to make it work for the medium of film and, despite being about 15 minutes too long, worked much better for me on the whole. One of the things I really enjoyed about the film is how it begins to tackle the fact that the Pevensies just have to go back to their normal lives in Britain, having experienced growing up in Narnia and now facing the prospect of going through that process all over again without the benefits their royal status brings them. Of course, getting pulled back into Narnia shakes that all up again. It's something you barely consider when you're reading the books - indeed, because the gaps between visits to Narnia are less clearly depicted, you don't really need to - but it immeasurably enriched the film in terms of establishing the stakes for the Pevensies in the real world as well as upon their return to Narnia.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader comes out in May 2010.... Passing thought - who is Caspian going to marry? If Ramandu's daughter, whatever will happen to Susan?

Does it matter, since Susan is never going to return to Narnia? I think it creates a neat link to the information we receive about Susan in The Last Battle which, in the books, seems to come out of nowhere. That decision, to exclude Susan from the trip to the Shadowlands, is possibly Lewis's most controversial choice in the series; I'm quite interested to see how the filmmakers deal with that aspect of the narrative when (and if) the time comes to film The Last Battle.

Later days
David

[Yak]

I always presumed that Susan did NOT die in the train crash and have to agree with Pullman that there was a callousness in her exclusion - and not the least because it seems that the major crimes she is guilty of seem to pertain to being interested in 'lipstick and nylons.'

I also always felt that Lewis's claim that he disliked allegory and that therefore the books were not such was, at best, a semantic argument; they certainly seem allegorical to me! Each book apparently represents a stage of the Christian 'journey' though only LWW is a complete allegory of the Christian story in itself.

[Yak]

Just for the record I am rereading CS Lewis's 'That Hideous Strength', the third (and to my mind very much the best) of the Space Trilogy again at the moment. Is anyone here familiar with it who would like to discuss it?

[Daisy]

I read the trilogy many years ago and would have to re-read them before making any comments I think! I was in my late teens when I first read them and at that time was interested in space travel etc. so I much preferred the first two to That Hideous Strength then. I have read them several times but not for ages but have been promising myself I will do so soon! I've just finished the Adventure series for the Readathon so maybe these will have my attention next. By the way, I have read the Narnia books far more often and get more out of them every time I read them. The Last Battle needs to be read several times(at least for me) for its message to sink in. I love them!