1. Literaturelady says:

    In my ten years of loving and reading Narnia, I had never noticed this aspect! Narnia drew me, but I didn’t know why, and I didn’t question it either. Thank you for posting your observations!

  2. Unfortunately I believe the filmmakers don’t recognize this aspect as much: that we love and delight in Narnia because of the world. It is such joy, such magic itself, that we don’t want to see it kept in a hundred years of winter, or dominated by Telmarines, or invaded by enchanted earth-gnomes, or deceived by a beastly Ape.

    The Dawn Treader film invented a crisis for Narnia that was foreign to the book. But apart from that change, viewers really had no reason to “root” for Narnia other than familiarity with this place because of the last films (which showed its magic a little better, especially the first) and, for book readers, familiarity with and love for the “true” Narnia as told in the seven stories.

  3. Litlady (if I may call you that 😉 ), thanks for your comment.

    I know I hadn’t thought about why we love the books so much until recently. I guess since I’m writing fantasy, I’m more prone to ask, Why does this work?

    Plus, I’ve talked with a friend who “read the books out of order” (chronologically, not in the written order my set put them in), and she said she didn’t find Lucy particularly engaging. As I mentioned, I early on identified with Lucy and wasn’t so happy when later books didn’t feature her — except, I still read them, still found them captivating, especially on subsequent readings.

    That background is undoubtedly more than you wanted to know. 😀

    Becky

  4. Stephen, as I was writing the post it dawned on me that this was, above all else, what the movies got wrong.

    Yes, Lion, Witch, Wardrobe did a better job than any of the others, but I’ll never forget the look on Lucy’s face when she stepped into snowy Narnia. It was a look of amazement and wonder. It was good acting, except I remember thinking at the time, she shouldn’t like it so much. Where is the concern for a Narnia always experiencing winter if winter is beautiful and amazing?

    Granted, I haven’t gone back to see how Lewis wrote her reaction, so the movie may have been spot on, but that feeling has stayed with me — that the movies didn’t capture the essence of the place and the tragedy of the various threats to the country itself.

    But I still want to see them keep trying. 😉

    Becky

  5. Galadriel says:

    Beautiful. I mean, LWW starts with  “This is a story about–” one of the oldest cliches in the book, but really, it works.

What do you think?