false 805694 64995 11127 0066238501 9780066238500 2211 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166457868m/11127.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11127.The_Chronicles_of_Narnia 4.27 36097 The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis, is one of the very few sets of books that should be read three times: in childhood, early adulthood, and late in life. In brief, four children travel repeatedly to a world in which they are far more than mere children and everything is far more than it seems. Richly told, populated with fascinating characters, perfectly realized in detail of world and pacing of plot, and profoundly allegorical, the story is infused throughout with the timeless issues of good and evil, faith and hope. This boxed set edition includes all seven volumes.]]> 1069006 4.06 371340 21304 0 9 false Mon Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Fri Apr 20 00:01:07 -0700 2007 Wed Dec 16 18:14:02 -0800 2009 The Magician's Nephew is easily the best story of the Chronicles. First of all, it's the least overtly religious. There is a creation-of-the-world element, but it's not our world so it seems more fantastic than religious. Not only is there a veil over the religiosity, there's so much creativity in this story: the magical rings, the in-between place, the Deplorable Word, the founding of Narnia.

Starting with The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, the religiosity becomes noticeable, with the Witch as Satan, Aslan as Jesus, and the Emperor as God. And because of the talking, fighting animals, the fantasy seems aimed at children. I might have enjoyed it more at age 12.

The next story in the series, The Horse and His Boy, takes a dark, ethnocentric turn with its unfavorable depiction of the Arab-like "Calormen" (shoes turned up at the toe, scimitars, suffixed phrases of praise, "son of" lineage declarations). In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, we get a not-quite-positive summary of the Calormen:

"...they are a wise, wealthy, courteous, cruel and ancient people. They bowed most politely to Caspian and paid him long compliments...but of course what they wanted was the money they had paid."

Given that this book was published in 1954, it's possible to forgive the cultural insensitivity, but it's sad that children around the world still uncritically read such racist material.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader demonstrates the problem with using God (or Jesus) in a story: there are no real conflicts. When the Dawn Treader stops at Dragon Island, the boy passenger Eustace wanders off, encounters a magical spell, and is turned into a dragon. This raises all kinds of serious issues about how to keep Eustace the Dragon with them, but none of these problems matter because, within 24 hours, Aslan just changes Eustace back to a boy.

There was a similar deus ex machina (the term being used most appropriately) in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. To save Edmund's soul, Aslan sacrifices his life. But it wasn't Aslan's only life, he had another one ready.

One thing I found especially creative about The Chronicles is how a story involving talking animals justifies eating animals.]]>