Chronicles of Narnia--Three

C.S. Lewis on the cover of Time

          The two books in this blog post represent the worst and best (well, tied for first) books in the Chronicles of Narnia series. The first, Prince Caspian, devolves into a bunch of "swell battle scenes," to quote my favorite movie, The Stunt Man. Caspian just doesn't sustain tension and lacks the marvelous imagery that carries the other books...it moves forward the plot, but not the themes. The second book in this review, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, is absolutely marvelous. The journey takes the children through what is probably the seven deadly sins or something (I didn't look it up--didn't need to validate my reading experience in that way), having Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace experience the pitfalls of human life, and through amazingly imaginative processes. The children are growing up morally as well as physically.


All aboard, now, for



Lewis, C. S., Prince Caspian

          This book is my least favorite of the series so far. It seems somewhat irrelevant to the overall story arc and is pat and episodic. What it lacks is character development. All of the children are flat and static. In the other books, they have struggled with serious questions of identity and self-awareness—in fact, struggled with sin and redemption. Not so with Prince Caspian.

          There are cool moments. Caspian’s story could have made a wonderful book all on its own. He is raised by an uncle who has cheated him out of his inheritance—the throne of Narnia. When the uncle’s son is born, Caspian is at great risk. His wise old tutor helps him escape and tells him the truth of his heritage. He advises Caspian to flee to the Old Narnians, remnants of whom reside in the deep woods. With their support, Caspian might defeat his uncle and bring freedom to the oppressed original inhabitants of Narnia.

          The tutor also gives Caspian the ancient horn of Queen Susan, which he recovered after much searching. The horn calls forth magical aid to whoever uses it. When Caspian’s fortunes are bad in his war with uncle, he blows on the horn.

          Another charming sequence is when the four Penvensie children are pulled away from a train station platform in England and end up on a mysterious island. They have been called by the horn. The island turns out to be the ruins of their former castle, Caer Paravel, and it is fascinating to watch the children put the story together—that although it has been about a year since they were in Narnia, in Narnia hundreds or even a thousand years have passed.

On the platform at the train station, being called to Narnia

         Lucy, Eustace, and Edmund are met by one of Caspian’s representatives and go to assist in the battle. This is where the book pretty much dies on the vine (it’s tomato-growing season here). For one thing, once Aslan appears, there is no doubt about who is going to win the conflict, so the battle sequences are silly. The last third of the book is clever, but not magical. Aslan appears more as deus ex machina than as the benevolent deity (and nudger) we have come to know. I hope this book grows in stature in the overall context of the series. We’ll see…onward to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. But first, a word from our Sidebar.

Sidebar: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien

          Lewis was famous well before he wrote the Narnia books. He was known as an agnostic who became a believer--and wrote persuasively about the process. The text of a Time article (and for which he graced the cover) discusses this aspect of Lewis's work.

http://good-report.com/4130/c-s-lewis-time-cover-story-from-the-archive-sep-8-1947

In one of the most intriguing of literary relationships of all time, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were colleagues and friends at Oxford. Tolkien, an engaged Catholic, strongly influenced Lewis's conversion to faith. You can see in their works the interests that they shared...allegory, metaphor, the conveyance of the ideas of Christianity in settings other than the bible (although I'm sure they distinguished between their own creativity and the bible's divinity), what brings meaning to a story and to people's lives. The fat they chewed over numerous pub pints must have been rich and flavorful. A nice article on this friendship can be found at: http://www.salon.com/2003/12/03/tolkien_lewis/

I have sat at the Tolkien/Lewis booth at the Eagle & Child in Oxford, England, and in a parallel that delighted me, my nephews repeated this pilgrimage a few years ago. Tom and Jake could sit right down with Lewis and Tolkien and join right in the discussions. Me? I'd probably be totally tongue-tied but would write about it eloquently later.

Lewis, C. S., The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

          I loved this book. Lewis is redeemed for the flaws of Prince Caspian. The ship Dawn Treader carries King Caspian (three years into his reign), Edmund, Lucy, and their cousin Eustace far to the east—to where the world ends. Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace enter through a painting of a ship and find themselves floundering in the ocean. They are picked up by the Dawn Treader. Caspian has solidified his kingdom and has undertaken a quest to find seven friends of his father who were ordered to explore to the east (by the bad uncle-king, who hoped they would die).

          The landscapes the group visits are awesome (arouse fear and wonder). On one island, a beautiful pool turns anything that touches its waters into solid gold. The children are swayed by the aura of greed arising in them. They want to protect the pool from others so they can be rich and powerful beyond their wildest dreams. Aslan intervenes and helps them to see the danger and evil of that way of thinking.

Reepicheep sailing to the very edge of east

          On another island, Eustace is turned into a dragon (dragons are the flag-bearers of greed and hoarding). Eustace has been judgmental, priggish, not really a good team player. His dragon experience is transformative of his inner as well as his outer self. Aslan assists him in shedding his outer skins of greed, self-interest, cowardice, sloth. This process is sad and beautiful.

          On yet another island, three of the old campaigners are in a permanent sleep. To wake them, the travelers must go to the very end, the very east, and they must leave someone behind there to break the spell. The sailing to the east is beautifully portrayed. The waters change, the light changes, and in drinking the water the people change. Eventually, the waters are covered with white water lilies (which would be mistaken for snow from above). Reepicheep the valiant rat volunteers to go all the way east, even if it means his death. It is a sad and beautiful moment. He is left behind.

          In Prince Caspian, Aslan tells Peter and Susan that they will not return to Narnia—they have gotten too old. In Dawn Treader, he tells Edmund and Lucy the same thing. He promises to always be with them, but in a different form and in a different name (Jesus/god, I presume). But, it’s lovely.

Lucy interprets the mysterious book in Dawn Treader

          And it makes a case for fantastical literature as a provider of images that children can relate to as a sort of transitional stage between faith in the warm and fuzzy and faith in a god or principle. It’s a very gentle thing, as are these books, dramatic as they may be.

          I do think that this book, in itself, does fulfill the criteria for a hero journey--certainly the children are greatly changed by their experiences and journey through numerous perils and places. And, I had the sense that I, too, had changed. My heart had grown along with my understanding.

          Lewis’s imagination is fully expressed in this book. All of his themes are there—redemption, forgiveness, love, courage, humility—the whole gamut. But the landscapes and locales described are fantastic and fantastical. I yearn to see them myself! The images are lyrical, odd, precious, and amazing.

Chronicles of Narnia--Two

Lewis, C. S., The Horse and His Boy

This picture captures the main ingredients:
Shasta and Aravis, the two talking horses,
and, over all, Aslan

          I enjoyed The Horse and His Boy greatly. It ranged over a large territory and involved enslaved people seeking freedom in Narnia. This book is a hero journey, with Shasta, an escaping slave, seeking his freedom, his heritage, and (unbeknownst to him) his destiny. Shasta faces trials of wit, courage, strength, and faith. His faith he finds through the lion-god Aslan, who he finds out was watching over him throughout his journey.

          Eventually, Shasta and his friends, Aravis (who is running from an enforced marriage to a tyrant) and the two talking horses, Bree and Hwin, find a way to save Narnia from invasion. Queens Lucy and Susan and King Edmund from LWW reappear in minor roles. This is the only book in the Chronicles in which the main character is not a human from outside Narnia.

Rabadash, often cited as a
example of racism in Narnia 

          Aslan is the underpinning of this book and its main tie to LWW. His presence both saves and menaces; his justice is absolute. Even to his enemies, he provides a way out. Rabadash, the invader, is turned into an ass (very funny and apt), but Aslan tells him how to change back. He must publicly pray at a certain temple. Then, he will stay a man unless he goes more than a few miles from the temple. In the wrap-up of the book, he has turned into Rabadash the Benevolent and rules over a time of peace in his land.

          That’s the Aslan way. Aslan is sort of like a warm, soft pillow, but one which will strike out against evil—a pillow with a sharp dagger. He often shows characters how to see the best things in themselves. Wonderful.

          I liked this one. The Narnia magic is working on me. And, I did find the first book, The Magician’s Nephew, so I can go back and catch that one. Interesting. The Narnia books are true fantasy, mythological Christianity, beautifully done, engaging, compelling. I was going to take them on my vacation to Houston next week, but I think I’ll be done with them on this long July 4^th weekend. Fun way to spend a long weekend.

Sidebar: Racism and Sexism in the Chronicles

          The Horse and His Boy is often cited as an example of Lewis’s bias toward light-skinned people and against Semitic (Arab) people.  For an interesting treatment of this topic, go to the website Narniaweb.com at http://www.narniaweb.com/resources-links/are-the-chronicles-of-narnia-sexist-and-racist/.

Here's a sultry version of the White Witch,
who is sort of a frosty version of
Galadriel

This writer rightfully points out that prejudice and sexism are almost entirely confined to bad, non-role-model characters and that the focus on a handful of negative images is ridiculous in light of the almost overwhelming number of positive images.

          I do question that true evil in a supernatural sense, as in the “Anti-Aslan,” is represented by women. But gee, it’s a 50/50 chance…if you flipped a male/female coin to decide the gender of the next evil character, you could get all women as evil just by chance! And, as the article points out, this book even features interracial marriage without an eye-blink or comment.

          Lewis's characters—good and bad, male and female, dark and light—are lively and interesting and certainly engaging. Whatever else these books are, they are darned good writing and darned good reading. In my reading in children’s literature for this project, the Chronicles of Narnia are paragons of fair representation.

Lewis, C. S., The Magician’s Nephew

          This is the first book, chronologically, and I had not read it before. In this book, the kingdom of Narnia is founded by Aslan as a sort of Garden of Eden--it is Lewis's creation story (complete with apple). Unwittingly, a human boy and girl bring an evil goddess from a dead world into Narnia, imperiling its future. The children use rings that have also come from an ancient world to move among worlds. The gold rings take you out, usually to a magic woods. The woods has numerous ponds, each opening to a different world. The green rings return you to the woods.

          My heart was touched by this book. The boy Digory’s mother is dying. He wants to steal fruit from Narnia to heal his mother. In the end, his good values and sense rule him and he gives the fruit to Aslan to found a tree that will protect Narnia from the evil. He gives up his mother’s life. Aslan grieves Digory’s mother too, with big, shining god-lion tears. And, he freely gives Digory an apple, which does indeed heal his mom. How I wish I had had this apple when my own mother was ill.

An evil queen from before the world was
born careens through Edwardian London
on a Hansom cab--a great image

          Polly, the girl, is a trooper as a sidekick, but this is really Digory’s story. Other characters include the evil queen, who will become the White Witch of LWW. She is wonderfully portrayed as a sort of evil-in-grandeur, and as coming from an earlier world (not the redeemed world). In the best scene, she comes tearing up the street standing on top of and driving a hansom cab. The cabbie and his horse (as well as the cabbie’s wife) end up in Narnia.

          Aslan gives the horse the gift of speech and wings and it is he who transports Digory and Polly to the hill of the magic apple tree. The evil queen serves as snake, trying to tempt Digory to take the apple for himself instead of for Aslan. The cabbie and his wife become the first queen and king of Narnia, vowing to rule with kindness.

          Digory lives with his uncle, Andrew Kitterling, a self-serving old man who dabbles in magic. It is Kitterling who acquired the rings but never fully understands them. (Maybe they come from Middle Earth?) He is put through several humiliations that are quite funny. Good comic relief for this book.

          A most beautiful sequence brings forth Narnia as a place. It starts, as in Genesis, as a void. Then Aslan’s voice sounds in the void and stars come, and sun, and water, and landforms, and plants, and animals, and then some animals are given the power of speech. I guess the cabbie and his wife become Adam and Eve, sort of. Narnia forms out of the song of the lion. It is quite ecstatic and I would love to see it animated. The rendering at the right does not do it justice.

          Digory becomes the old professor in LWW. He built the wardrobe from the wood of the apple tree that grew from the core of his mother’s apple. The wood of the wardrobe has Narnia in it. So, there are no loose ends in this series. Adding this book to my repertoire completes my knowledge and increases my appreciation of these beautiful books.

Chronicles of Narnia--One

          As I have been requested, this and the next few blog entries will present my impressions of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. The books are taken one by one; a summary is presented after the last book in the series, but most of the reviews contain references to and observations of the series as a whole. The Chronicles are so timeless that it is hard to believe that they are less than 70 years old. The titles are:

          The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950)

          Prince Caspian (1951)

          The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)

          The Horse and His Boy (1954)

                    The Silver Chair (1953)

                    The Magician’s Nephew (a prequel to the series) (1955)

                    The Last Battle (1956)

The White Witch from the musical Narnia: The Musical
Nazareth College Arts Center, 2009

          Unlike some other classic fantasy literature, these books have didactic purpose. Lewis had an agenda—to create imagery at the level of a child’s ability to process that would prepare their hearts and minds for traditional Christian instruction and traditional Christian character development.

          Lewis was far from believing that witches and fairies and ogres and other supernatural ephemera were Satanist, evil, or dangerous. Instead, he presents them as transitional characters to engage children in the processes of Christianity—forgiveness, compassion, sacrifice (to name a few)—in a manner of story-telling they can relate to. The great god-lion Aslan is the main guide for the many children who pass through Narnia and he helps them to understand sacrifice, death, resurrection, and the glories of heaven.

Aslan, from Kids Who Care Musical
theater, Fort Worth, Texas, 2006

          Thus, I don’t believe that these stories represent hero-journey or quest literature, in the classic sense. Tolkien also had a story-telling agenda, but his more metaphorical rendering of the act of Christian sacrifice made it entirely more universal as an experience. The characters in Lord of the Rings are much richer in their suffering and sacrifice—and they are for an older age group, an age group that supposedly is more able to deal with a sophisticated narrative. I wish Lewis had trusted his child audience a bit more.

          I love these books. I read them as a teenager and then again about a year ago as part of my Eager Readers book list quest. As a mature reader, I found them both more wonderful than ever and also a bit frustrating, as I was much more aware of the didactic aspect of the texts. I give an unqualified thumbs up to this set of books and hope you will read them to your children, read them for your adult self. Even adults need some magic now and then.

Travel with me now, to...

Lewis, C. S., The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

          The first Chronicle of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, last read 30 years ago. I found out after I read it that a different book is considered “first” in some approaches to Lewis—The Magician’s Nephew. I’m just going to read them all as I find them.

The four children and their uncle in front of the
wardrobe, Valley Youth Theater

          In LWW, four London children—Lucy, Edmund, Susan, and Peter—are sent to the country for safety as so many children were in Great Britain during World War II. The big old house they stay in is fun to explore and in one of the rooms, Lucy hides in a wardrobe. There is no back to the wardrobe—beyond the coats are fir trees and snowy ground. Thus begins the tale of winning back Narnia from the chilling White Witch. This can only happen when The Four (yes, those four refugee children) come to the land. The great god-king-lion Aslan can then return and free the land from years and years of winter (with never a Christmas!).

          The plot is a norm now, the standard-bearer for trips to mysterious places, but it is the characterizations that bring the book to life. Lucy is sensitive, and brave when it is in the service of others. Edmund is cranky, never satisfied, a trouble-maker. Susan doesn’t have much personality. Peter is a Head Boy sort of boy, brave and responsible. It’s nice that the children stay children, even in Narnia, and respond to events in that way.

Lucy and Faun
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniellegreveraars
/with/1296951186/

          This series of books has been allegorized to death, so I’m not going to go that direction. I found this book enjoyable, highly readable, fast-paced, fanciful, intriguing, scary, funny, and plausible (within its own assumptions). I liked reading it and it made me eager to read the next one. In other words, it is a great success as a book. The imagery is beautiful and meaty—easy to project your stuff onto and to work stuff out. Something to chew on, in other words. The children learn lessons about themselves and each other.

Sidebar: Narnia The Musical

          A few years ago my nephew was in a musical version of Narnia, called (with great creativity) Narnia: The Musical. Even with the cast’s fine performances, the musical is a bit flat…but worth a review. The photos in this blog are from the musical.

          The first link here goes to a general site with music samplings. The second one goes to a series of 20 YouTube videos of all the songs in performance. Enjoy!

http://www.dramaticpublishing.com/p1031/Narnia/product_info.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xy3vI1g7Go