Chronicles of Narnia

[DavidC]

Is anyone interested in discussing this series, by C.S. Lewis?

I've just finished the first book, and there's a few things that I'm puzzled about. I don't have Lewis' academic background, and I haven't read the Bible, so I'm not going to understand many of the allusions, but I'm interested in learning a bit more.

Any takers?

--Dave.

[Jeff W]

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I've just finished the first book, and there's a few things that I'm puzzled about.

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What is the first book? You could be talking about either Magician's nephew(First in the story line) or Lion, witch, wardrobe(First to be written IIRC).

[DavidC]

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I've just finished the first book, and there's a few things that I'm puzzled about.

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What is the first book? You could be talking about either Magician's nephew(First in the story line) or Lion, witch, wardrobe(First to be written IIRC).

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Interesting. I'm speaking of Magician's Nephew.

I'm starting reading the other one tonight, hopefully, though.

[chezlaw]

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In 1957 an American boy wrote C. S. Lewis to ask about the best order for reading The Chronicles of Narnia. The boy's mother believed the books should be read in order of their publication, beginning with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. But the boy thought it would be better to read them in order of Narnian history, beginning with the creation of the enchanted world in The Magician's Nephew.

C. S. Lewis wrote back to the boy, saying, "I think I agree with your order for reading the books more than with your mother's," and soon afterward the publishers began to number them in this way. But Lewis, who had written bits and pieces of the books at different times, also noted that the order probably didn't much matter: "I'm not even sure that all the [books] were written in the same order in which they were published."


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from NarniaFans.com

[DavidC]

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In 1957 an American boy wrote C. S. Lewis to ask about the best order for reading The Chronicles of Narnia. The boy's mother believed the books should be read in order of their publication, beginning with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. But the boy thought it would be better to read them in order of Narnian history, beginning with the creation of the enchanted world in The Magician's Nephew.

C. S. Lewis wrote back to the boy, saying, "I think I agree with your order for reading the books more than with your mother's," and soon afterward the publishers began to number them in this way. But Lewis, who had written bits and pieces of the books at different times, also noted that the order probably didn't much matter: "I'm not even sure that all the [books] were written in the same order in which they were published."


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from NarniaFans.com

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I hear there was a CS Lewis conference recently at Oxford. Did you go?

Edit: And thanks for the info, too! /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Jeff W]

Best order to read Chronicles of Narnia. (http://www.aslan.demon.co.uk/narnia.htm)

I prefer to read them in order of publication. IMO, Magician's nephew spoils Lion, witch and wardrobe.

[NotReady]

What a coincidence. I just finished re-reading the series. The first time was about 30 years ago. I decided to read them again for various reasons, the main one being I recently became interested in Harry Potter, and thought I detected some influence in that series from both Tolkien and Lewis. I decided to read one Potter then one Lewis. Interesting experience. I didn't need to re-read Tolkien because I've read the trilogy at least three times and seen the movies twice.

I would be glad to discuss them in a thread. FWIW, I don't think it matters what order you read them, though I did begin with LW&W.

Also, FWIW, I did some brief research on Rowling. It turns out she has read Narnia many times and decided to write 7 Potters because there are 7 Narnia books. I found some critics who think there is a lot of Christian symbolism in Potter but I think they're reading that into the stories. There are a lot of Christian values in the books but I think you can read them without any clue they were written by a Christian. Not so with Lewis (his sf trilogy is also well worth reading), though I don't find much Christian symbolism in Tolkien either.

[Jim T]

I also began re-reading the Narnia books, but I'm doing it because I thought my 6 year old son would enjoy them, especially with the movie coming out in a few months.

LW&W was still pretty good, though not as exciting as I remembered. I don't think I had ever read the Magician's Nephew, and it was interesting to see how it fit in with and explained some things from LWW. I was a bit upset to read about the Christian allegory in the novels a few years ago, as I was oblivious when I read it as a child, but it wasn't obtrusive at all.

PS Tolkien is quite Luddite, IMHO.

[chomsky53]

yall are gay. like really [censored] gay. fags.

[nomadtla]

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Best order to read Chronicles of Narnia. (http://www.aslan.demon.co.uk/narnia.htm)

I prefer to read them in order of publication. IMO, Magician's nephew spoils Lion, witch and wardrobe.

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Hmm to me it's not a matter of Magician spoiling LW&W as a matter of how you enter the whole world. I find that reading them in the order of publication rather than the order of timeline to be similar to how most people aproach Christianity. That is why I advocate reading them in order of publication.

Many new christians first hear and learn the gospels (LW&W) and aproach God through that way then as they come closer to God they begin to see the differences in other religions and usually want to define themselves from other religions (Caspian). Then they begin to look in terms of the beauty of God and the idea of heaven (Voyage). Then begins the realization of one's imprisonment/slavery to (flesh, the devil, desires) whatever you want to call it(Silver Chair). We then come to realize the battles we are in and the deception of others even those who apear as "good" (THAHB). At some point durring our spiritaul journey we go back and educate ourselves about the history of things (Magicians Nephew). And finally the desire to know where it all ends (The Last Battle) which I think has some great points on the nature of other religions among many other things.

That is my explanation for my prefernce and while some of my analogy, or inferences of meanings may be stretched. I find that to be a sign of great litterature (open to many interpretations). I think I may have to go back through these again I forgot how amazing they were. Thanx Dave C

[Scotch78]

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some of my analogy, or inferences of meanings may be stretched.

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Most definitely. You just pulled that [censored] out of your ass. Funny though, it doesn't smell like bullshit. Interesting interpretation /images/graemlins/grin.gif.

Scott

[nomadtla]

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some of my analogy, or inferences of meanings may be stretched.

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Most definitely. You just pulled that [censored] out of your ass. Funny though, it doesn't smell like bullshit. Interesting interpretation /images/graemlins/grin.gif.

Scott

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I'll presume I can take this as a compliment /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[udontknowmickey]

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Many new christians first hear and learn the gospels (LW&W) and aproach God through that way then as they come closer to God they begin to see the differences in other religions and usually want to define themselves from other religions (Caspian). Then they begin to look in terms of the beauty of God and the idea of heaven (Voyage). Then begins the realization of one's imprisonment/slavery to (flesh, the devil, desires) whatever you want to call it(Silver Chair). We then come to realize the battles we are in and the deception of others even those who apear as "good" (THAHB). At some point durring our spiritaul journey we go back and educate ourselves about the history of things (Magicians Nephew). And finally the desire to know where it all ends (The Last Battle) which I think has some great points on the nature of other religions among many other things.


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Interesting view of things. I must confess I didn't really see the Christianity behind the other books apart from LW&W and Last Battle. Sometimes I saw brief allusions, but that was about it.

[DavidC]

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yall are gay. like really [censored] gay. fags.

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I'll admit, I'm confused, but that's hardly new.