JKR vs C.S. Lewis

[meboriqua at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 25889

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Tabouli" <tabouli at u...> wrote:

 the Narnia series (which I love) doesn't have the glitches of 
internal consistency we're picking up in the HP series, at least, not 
that I've noticed.  However, I'd also argue that Narnia sits fairly 
safely in the middle childhood department, with a pretty, desexualised 
world, minimal character development, simple dualist moral messages a 
la Christian ideology, and fairly uncomplicated, discrete borrowings 
from mythology and folklore (Father Christmas, fauns, dryads, etc.).  
> 
> OK, I'm bracing myself for the responses...>

Tabouli, I am surprised that no one else has responded to this yet.  I 
happen to agree with you, even though I do understand Steve's 
comments.

I wrote my senior thesis on The Chronicles of Narnia and even though I 
adore the series, I actually found some pretty big and irritating 
inconsistencies (please don't ask what they were because I should be 
doing my lesson plans right now and I just don't have it in me to go 
through Narnia again!) and The Last Battle makes me downright angry.  
Give me Harry any day.

Another difference that, to me, makes JKR more appealing is the fact 
that HP is all about Harry Potter.  We see him grow and develop and I 
really like that (of course the fact that I am madly in love with 
Harry biases me just a bit).  I don't think any of CS Lewis's 
characters develop throughout the series.  Lucy seems as young in The 
Last Battle as she was in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  Lewis 
also switched focus from the four siblings to Edmund, to Jill, etc.  I 
like the time JKR takes to let us get to know Harry.

JKR as a writer has me hooked to the point where I cannot stop reading 
HP - maybe she really is a witch and did cast that spell Ron got so 
excited about in CoS!  The fact that there are 2000 of us obsessed 
enough to join a website all about Harry to talk about Harry and the 
fact that I actually agreed to be a List Elf when I do NOT know about 
computers even a little is more than enough proof that she is, IMO, a 
super duper writer.

--jenny from ravenclaw ********************