Narnia

[poliphilo]

The trailer for The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe makes it look just like LOTR.

Same gorgeous New Zealand landscapes.

I used to want to visit New Zealand. I don't any more. It's so fuckin' empty.

Somehow or other I've managed not to read the Narnia books. I don't quite understand how this happened. But I've dipped into them in adulthood and not noticed any stardust. Lewis talks down to kids, he's so goddam preachy...

...And he's very 1950s (see last entry.)

I've read other books by Lewis. I enjoyed The Great Divorce. But, as with other "religious" writers, he leaves me with a taste in my mouth like I've been sucking on a horseshoe- a sour, metallic taste. He doesn't trust his own perceptions and feelings, but dresses up in pretty images the cold, nasty, unfelt doctrines he's been showered with from some Northern Irish pulpit.

He says in his Autobiography that his favourite mythology was the Norse, followed by the Greek, with the Judaeo-Christian coming in a poor third, but because he believed, against his aesthetic instincts, that the Judaeo-Christian mythology was true, he opted to become a believer.

Keats would have set him right on that- "Beauty is truth, truth beauty...."

But Lewis was an establishment man through and through. He went where he perceived the power to be.

Traitor.

Comments

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I love that trailer--the music is very exciting!

I've never read all the Narnia books. Lately I've tried, but keeping putting them down--which is a true review.

OTOH, every time the weather turns cold with coming winter, I have to get Tolkien back down from the shelf and lose myself in Middle Earth again.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Tolkien scorned Lewis (behind his back) for mixing up his mythologies and not really getting inside them. I think he was right.

[bodhibird.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, I have read an absolutely hilarious novel, actually a professional Dr. Who fanfic, which involves fictionalized versions of Lewis, Tolkien, and the sadly neglected Charles Williams, Tolkien's epic, and brightly colored talking poodles with rayguns. Mad Dogs and Englishmen is the title, and if you liked Time Bandits, you might find this book diverting for a few hours. Not Dickens, but laugh-out-loud funny.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That does sound good. Who's the author?

Yes, Charles Williams is sadly neglected. I'm not sure if his books are even in print these days. I read most (perhaps all) of his novels in my 20s.

Now why doesn't someone have a go at filming Williams? I'd be keen to see the results.

[bodhibird.livejournal.com]

The author, according to Amazon.co.uk, is Paul Magrs. There are many exceedingly cheap used copies to be had.

My husband also would love to see Charles Williams on film. It would require a very different touch than the Hollywood (or New Zealand) spectacle. I can envision it in black and white....

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Black and white- yes, quite possibly.

Charles Williams is probably too intelligent for Hollywood. Fun as they are, those books are primarily about ideas.

[ibid.livejournal.com]

I remember reading War in Heaven and feeling as though my brain had exploded! So good!