Things that stand out

[branchandroot]

An annotation re-read of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe leaves me with only a few outstanding reactions, one of which is, as usual, "whoa, yeah, hello Calvary" and another of which is "Edmund is the only one of them with any brains at all". There's the predictable and pathetic sexism and the fact that, despite a downright multinational assembly of fantastic creatures, the culture of Narnia couldn't be more British if it had the Union Jack stamped on its collective forehead. Those are old acquaintances from this series, and I give them a nod and a margin scribble in passing.

One of the more interesting points, which doesn't show up until the very end, is the whole anti-public-school theme that runs through a lot of the books one way or another.

And then there's the tug-of-war between "this only happens in Narnia" and the casual narratorial remarks about giants and fauns in England. The pattern seems to be that creatures are suggested to still live in real-life England while spirits and deities can only be found embodied in Narnia. Which, in combination with the "once a ruler of Narnia, always a ruler" really does put a spin of spiritual truths on the experience of Narnia itself. Kids can go beat the bushes at home for fantastic creatures, but can only experience embodied revelation by entering this one world. Kind of a double-edged moral to hand out to children.

Comments

[dragonscrawl]

"Edmund is the only one of them with any brains at all".

I think you've just given me another reason for Edmund to be my favorite Pevensie besides he was the only one that was a complex character over the course of the books he was in.

[branchandroot]

It's so true. He's the one we see grow.

[adalger]

Well, of course. Edward is the only one who's really supposed to be a sympathetic character; he's the only one who means anything. He's the sinner, without whom there would be no need of the sacrifice of JesusAslan for redemption. He's us.

[branchandroot]

*wry* I'd certainly say he's Lewis in a lot of ways.

[krait]

Eeeeenteresting; I really need to finish the series. (Alas, it's packed up in a box somewhere right now.) I did notice the anti-public-school thing in the third one, though I got more of a general anti-"newfangled 'natural' teaching methods/silly educational 'theories'" vibe from it. (Not to mention, of course, it doubles as theological backup -- the students at the Experiment School with Eustace are never reprimanded, on the assumption that children are good and innocent and whatever, but in fact they're little monsters; which lines up with the doctrine of Original Sin quite nicely.)

[branchandroot]

*nods* There's a consistent theme of "freeing" Narnian children from schools which are presented as traditional rather than experimental. And part of that is the fairy-land factor, of course (no school on holiday and all that) but Edmund's school is also blamed for his apparently new habit of bullying.

[krait]

and another of which is "Edmund is the only one of them with any brains at all"

This is why he's always been my favourite. :D

WHOA WHOA I just realised: Edmund? Is totally my proto-Snape. He's the unfortunate (middle child, outshone by Peter the Magnificent and Lucy the Saint) less-attractive dark-haired boy who makes a huge mistake and has to be rescued by a more powerful entity (Albus, Aslan), though being a children's book Edmund's ordeal is a lot less angsty and gets tidied away more neatly. But I think that's why I'm very willing to fall in with Edmund-fic that suggests he carries a lot of baggage from that; because who WOULDN'T? You can't just forget that you betrayed someone deeply important to you, and that for the rest of your life you have to go around being grateful for the fact that you were rescued and allowed back into the fold.

No wonder I fell so hard for Severus once I encountered HP...

[branchandroot]

That's a really good point. And both of them were, pretty much as soon as they met the bad guy, enchanted so they couldn't resist. And then blamed for not resisting!

That's actually one of the things that pisses me off the most.