\nI came to the Chronicles of Narnia quite late in my childhood reading. Unlike Middle Earth, Narnia was a place I felt immediately at home in, perhaps because it relies so on “simple, creamy English charm” as Anthony Blanche would say.\n<\/p>\n
\nI haven’t figured out why American fundamentalists are so anxious to introduce Narnia to their children. Although it is a Christian allegory (a story of death, resurrection, and redemption), the emphasis is on the allegory. Aren’t these parents afraid to let Narnia opens up the world of myth to children who have been taught that the only truth is literal?\n<\/p>\n
\nNarnia is a parallel world with portals into our own. So the first lesson Chronicles teaches us is that we earthlings, and indeed our entire universe, are just a tiny part of creation. Other worlds and other gods abound. And if God is God by any name, if he can take the form of a lion and be called Aslan in the world of talking animals, why can’t he take other forms and names in our own world?\n<\/p>\n
\nOur first glimpse into Narnia we see snow falling in the glow of a gas-lit London street lamp (incongruously stuck in the middle of a wood) and a faun. The vision of the movie is very true to the book. I held my breath a bit at the beginning, because the opening credits filled in the backstory of the war-time evacuations of British children to the countryside. And it took me awhile to decide if I liked the children. Peter and Susan seem a bit too old. And for some reason, I expected Lucy to be blond. Of the four children, she has the most complicated part, and 10-year-old Georgie Henley<\/a> does the best acting, despite being the youngest. Mr. Tumnus, the faun, is perfectly realized. And I couldn’t imagine anyone but Tilda Swinton<\/a> playing the White Witch. Overall, the movie is well done, indeed.\n<\/p>\n \nOne detail that did annoy me was that when Father Christmas appears, no one called him by name. Were the screenwriters afraid American children wouldn’t know the anti-papist British term for the patron saint of children and prostitutes<\/a>? And another scene confused me, for I have no memory of such dramatic crossing of the ice river. For the most part, the film avoids grandiose CGI-centered scenes and remains true to the scale of its protagonists and their small island nation in the tradition of “The Wind in the Willows”, Beatrix Potter, and AA Milne.\n<\/p>\n \nBetween Lewis, Tolkien, and Rowling, American children are getting exposed to new worlds of wonder and myth. Who knows where that will take them.\n<\/p>\n The power of myth.<\/p>\n
\nP.S.
\nIf you are new to the books, read them in the original order, not the chronological order in which they’ve been recently republished. Otherwise, you will ruin some of the most delightful surprises for yourself.
\nThe original order is:<\/p>\n\n
Recommended. Especially for literalists who want to understand the power of myth.<\/h4>\n
![Georgie Henley<\/a> does the best acting, despite being the youngest. Mr. Tumnus, the faun, is perfectly realized. And I couldn’t imagine anyone but](\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/gallery\/ss\/0363771\/2.jpg\"){kind=link}
![Tilda Swinton<\/a> playing the White Witch. Overall, the movie is well done, indeed.\n<\/p>\n\nOne detail that did annoy me was that when Father Christmas appears, no one called him by name. Were the screenwriters afraid American children wouldn’t know the anti-papist British term for the patron saint of children and prostitutes<\/a>? And another scene confused me, for I have no memory of such dramatic crossing of the ice river. For the most part, the film avoids grandiose CGI-centered scenes and remains true to the scale of its protagonists and their small island nation in the tradition of “The Wind in the Willows”, Beatrix Potter, and AA Milne.\n<\/p>\n\nBetween Lewis, Tolkien, and Rowling, American children are getting exposed to new worlds of wonder and myth. Who knows where that will take them.\n<\/p>\n\nP.S.\nIf you are new to the books, read them in the original order, not the chronological order in which they’ve been recently republished. Otherwise, you will ruin some of the most delightful surprises for yourself.\nThe original order is:<\/p>\n\nThe Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe<\/li>\nPrince Caspian<\/li>\nThe Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader’<\/li>\nThe Silver Chair<\/li>\nThe Horse and His Boy<\/li>\nThe Magician’s Nephew<\/li>\nThe Last Battle<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The power of myth.<\/p>\nRecommended. Especially for literalists who want to understand the power of myth.<\/h4>\nRead More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[189,196],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/wordsintobytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/wordsintobytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/wordsintobytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/wordsintobytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/wordsintobytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/wordsintobytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/wordsintobytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/wordsintobytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/wordsintobytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/gallery\/ss\/0363771\/25R.jpg\"){kind=link}