The Chronicles of Narnia

[Tinker Gnome]

Well, i have heard a lot about these books. I know they were written as childrens books. But i am sure older people have read them as well. So, for those of you who have read them, did you enjoy them?

 

[kingpaul]

I've read the series multiple times, and have enjoyed it every time I did so.

 

[CrusaderX]

Truly wonderful books. They're right behind The Lord of the Rings as my all-time favorites.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

I've read them 4 times at very different stages of my life, and find that I enjoy them each time.

 

[Wombat]

I read the first two books at exactly the wrong time in my life. I was in my Junior year in High School and in my deeply anti-religious phase (thanks to multiple forces), so Narnia just stuck in my craw. I have subsequently read several of Lewis' books and have found them enjoyable and/or intriguing (even when I disagree with him); maybe now that I have nieces and nephews getting up in years I should try Narnia again.

 

[nikolai]

Well, i have heard a lot about these books. I know they were written as childrens books. But i am sure older people have read them as well. So, for those of you who have read them, did you enjoy them?

I dislike them. I never found them interesting when I was a child. And I just think they're trite now.

Some people really love them, and others hate them just as much. Phillip Pullman who wrote His Dark Materials has been really, really nasty about them.

I realised that what he was up to was propaganda in the cause of the religion he believed in. It is monumentally disparaging of girls and women. It is blatantly racist. One girl was sent to hell because she was getting interested in clothes and boys.

[And]

CS Lewis comes from a different tradition: in the Narnia books he struggles with big ideas. I dislike the conclusions he comes to because he seems to recommend the worship of a god who is a fascist and a bully; who dislikes people of different colours; and who thinks of women as being less valuable in every way.

And it is a god who hates life because he denies children life. In the final Narnia book he gives the children the end-of-term treat of being killed in a railway accident so they can go to heaven. It's a filthy thing to do. Susan is shut out from salvation because she is doing what every other child who has ever been born has done - she is beginning to sense the developing changes in her body and its effect on the opposite sex. For all those reasons I profoundly disagree with Lewis and with the conclusions he reaches.

I couldn't confirm or deny any of this, though he has said some things about Tolkien that I think are misguided. And even if it's true it doesn't mean you won't enjoy them, there are plenty of things which are a worthwhile read even though some of the subtext is uncomfortable. They're also slightly dated.

For what it's worth, my favourite piece of comparable literature is The Once and Future King by T. H. White, which really is fantastic. (And comes from a different perspective than both Pullman and Lewis.)

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Damn. I didn't know the old girl went to hell, I thought she just lost interest in Narnia. Guess I'll have to read the books again. Isn't Once and Future King the one with the talking animals and the ridiculous Merlin? The one Disney's Sword in the Stone was based on? The one with all the philosophy?

 

[nikolai]

Isn't Once and Future King the one with the talking animals and the ridiculous Merlin? The one Disney's Sword in the Stone was based on? The one with all the philosophy?

The Once and Future King consists of five books. The Sword in the Stone, The Queen of Air and Darkness, The Ill-Made Knight, The Candle in the Wind and The Book of Merlyn. The Sword in the Stone was made into the Disney film, and is the one with the talking animals (and the shapeshifting - a pretty significant contibution to the list of fantasy cliches). The film does take some liberties; so don't base your opinion just on that. And I quite like the way Merlyn's presented in the book!

The other four books veer sharply away from the earlier tone into a much darker and more tragic arena, a bit like the progression from the Hobbit to the end of Lord of the Rings.

Oh, and I looked on Amazon for the titles and it seems the book's got a recent boost due to being plugged repeatedly in X2, which must have passed me by when I watched it in the cinema. But if it's one of Professor X and Magneto's favourite reads it can't be that bad.

 

[Storm Raven]

I couldn't confirm or deny any of this, though he has said some things about Tolkien that I think are misguided. And even if it's true it doesn't mean you won't enjoy them, there are plenty of things which are a worthwhile read even though some of the subtext is uncomfortable. They're also slightly dated.

He's full of crap. In the books, it is ambiguous as to whether Susan goes to Heaven or Hell, because she hasn't died yet. Assuming that she will go to hell, without any indication one way or the other, is just evidence that he has an axe to grind with Lewis, rather than any substance to his claims. The rest of his claims are crap too: if Lewis is so misogynistic, for example, why is it that the typical character who is tempted by evil is one of the male protagonists?

 

[CrusaderX]

Pullman sounds like an ignorant, anti-Christian bigot.

Just my opinion, of course.

But regardless, he's clearly wrong about Narnia and Lewis' beliefs. Susan definitely does not go to hell. In Christian theology, not immediately ascending into heaven does not equal going to hell. Anyone with even a minimal understanding of Christianity can tell you this.

And you can read more about Pullman's incorrect accusations here.