Narnia

[Amy Z]

from the NYT:

>  They have struck deals to license plush Narnian toys. The series
> publisher, HarperCollins, revealed plans to create new Narnia
> novels by unidentified authors, to the outrage of some devoted
> readers. (What next? "Narnia Barbie in a school uniform?" asked one
> fan in a Lewis electronic forum.)
> 
>  Most striking of all, they have developed a discreet strategy to
> avoid direct links to the Christian imagery and theology that
> suffused the Narnia novels and inspired Lewis.

My dad reported this to me with great horror the other day.  Now that 
I read the article, it isn't as bad as I feared.  From what he'd said, 
I thought they were actually rewriting the original 7 books to tone 
down the Christian connection.  I was getting ready to chain myself to 
the steps of Canterbury Cathedral.

The additional books are depressing, but I doubt they will ever come 
close to the artistry of the original.  This has been done with lots 
of books (Oz e.g.) and in my admittedly limited experience, the fans 
usually say "they're okay, but they're not Baum," or "Lewis," or 
whomever, and that's that.  

As for marketing, well, same old same old.  I don't much like it, 
either with HP or with Narnia, but I don't worry about it damaging the 
experience of reading the books--mostly because the art is always so 
atrocious, IMO.  Anyone remember the animated LWW from about, I don't 
know, 20 years ago, where Aslan looked like a great yellow grasshopper 
bounding around the countryside?  It would take a real artist to 
convey the majesty of Aslan in plush velvet.    

I think the marketers really need to relax.  The Lewis estate must be 
the envy of children's writers everywhere--the books have been 
unqualified hits for 50 years, and not just among "evangelicals" (half 
the evangelicals I hear on Christian radio wouldn't allow their kids 
to read Narnia--it doesn't toe the correct theological line--but 
anyway...)  Growing up in a devout Jewish home, I gulped the Narnia 
books down without knowing or caring that they were Christian 
allegories.  My parents had to point out the Christian imagery to me. 
 I got that there was something more about Aslan but I thought he was 
supposed to be God.  "Well, Jesus," said my dad, and I was shocked.  I 
kept reading, though--we all loved them, parents and kids, which is 
why my parents bought them for us in the first place.  Do they really 
think that there is no secular audience for Narnia?  Or are they just 
being greedy?  Fifty years of steady sales and a sudden increase of 
20% aren't enough--we need MORE MONEY!

Amy Z