Narnia

[rja.carnegie at excite.com]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> 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.  

I see _The Horse and his Boy_ as kind of an "extra" story, anyway.
I was about to say "because it isn't about the Narnian royal family",
but then I remembered - not to spoil - where they come in later,
after all.

The other day I freaked out Usenet alt.fan.harry-potter just
by suggesting that a successful Harry Potter film could lead
to a Saturday morning television cartoon series of "original"
stories.  I guess that the same goes for Narnia - i.e., that
it would freak you out, too.

I want to express an idea about how important it may be
for any story, but particularly fantastic stories for children,
to have a moral foundation of some sort.  It won't quite come.
Some of us, reading Narnia as adults, keep doing double-takes
as Christian bits turn up.  I think JKR is subtler, I won't argue
whether she's as clever - but Harry Potter's adventures aren't
such obvious pure morality plays.

Robert Carnegie
Meretricious!