#the magician's nephew

[fictionadventurer]

My latest dream job: Starting a film company that makes adaptations of the less-popular books by famous authors. Those series where the first book has a jillion adaptations and the later books have none at all? We're just adapting the later books. The author's got one super popular book with a jillion adaptations even though their best book has a small but devoted fanbase that is dying for just one film? We're adapting the obscure gems.

We're starting with The Blue Castle, Rilla of Ingleside, and The Magician's Nephew. All never-adapted stories that can stand alone so we don't have to adapt the popular books for it to make sense.

[cassandraxiv]

Ok, rant because I just re-watched The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe for the first time in years, and with the knowledge of storywriting I've accumulated in the meantime, the movie really impresses me.

One thing that struck me was that I could see that the people who made the movie had read the other books in the Chronicles of Narnia series. The most obvious is professor Kirke's reaction (beautifully played by Jim Broadbent) to learning of the world inside the wardrobe. He doesn't react with curiosity, but with recognition. Because he knows where the wood for that wardrobe came from. Because he has been to that world. Because he witnessed the creation of that world.

There are other minor examples, like the fact that the Lamp Post only has one cross arm (the other was torn off by queen Jadis in The Magician's Nephew).

This is something that has hugely bothered me about several more recent adaptations of books that I love, such as Eragon or The Letter for the King, which were clearly made by people with little to no knowledge of other books in the series, and perhaps no expectation to further adapt the series. These two are the most egregious examples I can think of right now, as they are both adapted so poorly that their respective sequels are pretty much impossible to adapt as a result of plot points they have changed, characters they have left out, or characters they included but killed off even though they are extremely important to the sequels.

Rant over.

[aliteraryprincess]

"When you were last here," said Aslan, "that hollow was a pool, and when you jumped into it you came to the world where a dying sun shone over the ruins of Charn. There is no pool now. That world is ended, as if it had never been. Let the race of Adam and Eve take warning." "Yes, Aslan," said both the children. But Polly added, "But we're not quite as bad as that world, are we, Aslan?" "Not yet, Daughter of Eve," he said. "Not yet. But you are growing more like it. It is not certain that some wicked one of your race will not find out a secret as evil as the Deplorable Word and use it to destroy all living things. And soon, very soon, before you are an old man and an old woman, great nations in your world will be ruled by tyrants who care no more for joy and justice and mercy than the Empress Jadis. Let your world beware."

C. S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew

[silversteampunk]

That one scene in the Magician's Nephew where Jadis bites into that apple.

[thebeesareback]

Thoughts on The Chronicles of Narnia

There are plenty of valid criticisms to make about the Chronicles of Narnia. There's the xenophobia, sexism, treatment of Susan, heavy and relentless religious overtones, and the fact that the plots get more and more bonkers throughout the series. The Silver Chair and The Last Battle, in particular, seem more like a description of a trip than an actual narrative. However, there is a criticism which I'd like to address, and that's the lack of humour.

These books are actually pretty funny. In Prince Caspian, the Pevensie kids are transported across time and space and brought to the ruined castle in which they used to live, climb into a magical vault full of incredible treasure... but they also have to worry about their torch running out of batteries. There's plenty of humorous juxtaposition whereby things have enormous power and potential, yet end up being used for incredibly mundane things. In The Magician's Nephew, there's a forest full of pools, and if you jump into a pool you're transported into a different world. Alas, the only beings which live there and can freely explore are, um, guinea pigs. Likewise, an apple (of course) which came from Narnia grew into a tree. It could have all sorts of incredible powers, but when the tree dies, they just turn its wood into a wardrobe and store old coats there. Finally, the first king and queen of Narnia are a random London cabbie and his wife because, well, they were there. Perhaps they're still in Narnia, grumbling about Bolt and taking the long way around.

anyway here's baby Ben Barnes

[chronicles-of-a-reader]

Digory Kirke in The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe (2005) makes me incredibly sad. Watching him snap to attention when Susan mentions that Lucy found Narnia in the upstairs Wardrobe. The way he starts to ply them with questions before realizing they don't believe her. His quiet sadness at the end of the movie when he tells Lucy that they can't get in through the Wardrobe. It's so clear that this is the Digory Kirke that went through the pools and saw the birth of Narnia, who couldn't bear to turn into firewood the only remaining physical reminder of the time he had there. They tied this version of the story so clearly to The Magician's Nephew, and it makes the small interactions between Professor Kirke and the Pevensies so meaningful but so incredibly sad.

[supernovasilence]

Thinking about how the books introduce us to Narnia as this vibrant, beautiful land and then make us watch it die piece by piece. If you read in publication order you start with Narnia a place of wonder and magic even under the Witch's power and then the Pevensies save it and we get "the Golden Age" and Narnia is really something; if you read chronologically you start with Aslan making Narnia and everything so full of life and song that trees grow from everything that touches the earth and people laugh to be the butt of a joke because they (and everyone else) have never heard a joke before in the history of the world and jokes are fun! And then you read LWW and get to see what Narnia has grown into and get the Golden Age.

And then you read about a Narnia where people are in hiding and magic is a legend (even under Jadis, there was magic) and Cair Paravel is in ruins and lions and beavers are extinct. Cair Paravel can be rebuilt but lions and beavers can't be revived. The characters restore Narnia but it will never be quite what it was. It will never be another Golden Age.

We watch Caspian, boy hero of the last two books, die, grieving and broken and old before his time. Narnia is saved again and it's time for a coronation, just like in MN, LWW, and PC! Yay! Except this coronation will happen alongside a funeral. Underneath Narnia swims a dead kingdom and caves full of monsters waiting for the end of the world. Remember children, all things die.

The next time we open a book, we become the Pevensies, returning to Narnia to find centuries have passed and our magical home has become warlike and worn. Aslan has not been seen in ages; guard towers have been built around Narnia's borders for the many battles. Where are the clearings full of moonlight dances that Mr. Tumnus spoke about, back at the beginning? Tirian assures us Narnia is like that, in times of peace, only visitors from Earth tend to be brought over when Narnia is in trouble. We will not see it. Narnia was like that; good and beautiful and wonderful things did happen. Narnia is death. There will be no after the battle this time, no awakening land or Golden Age after cruelty is stopped. Cruelty and war have seeped into Narnia itself. Guard towers must be built: not a temporary war, but long term militarism. People turn on one another. Everyone dies. Narnia dies.

"I saw it begin," says Digory/the Professor. "I did not think I would live to see it die." Neither did we.

"I did hope that it might go on forever," says Jill. It could have. This is a story. Turns out it's a tragedy.

[adaptationsvs-polls]

Which version of this property do you prefer?:

[theboredandkindaweirdhisotrian]

So you know Helen, Cabby's wife from The Magician's nephew? I was rereading the book and it struck me how weird it must have been for her, like one random Tuesday you're doing laundry by hand in your tiny, draughty, smelly London living space and the next you find yourself in a sunny meadow with a very large Lion announcing you and your husband will presently be crowned royalty of this here fairytale kingdom. Oh and your husband's hansom horse can not only talk now, he's given frickin wings and can fly.

I mean it's not like Polly and Digory hadn't had a wild day(s) - the Narnian timeline again- and whatever they've been through is way more in comparison to just being yoinked to a really nice woodland kingdom and be the ruler there now. It seems as if I take Polly and Digory a bit for granted in the scale of things, but still, as a kid you're probably gonna take magical adventures like that a bit easier than someone like Frank and Helen who had was harsh and tough lives that let little room for fancies. To them this scenario must have been beyond anything they've ever imagined.

And honestly good for them, I'd hardly imagine a better first King and Queen of Narnia than someone who had daily struggles and chose to remain a good, kind and decent person in the face of those struggles.

[whats-in-a-sentence]

But round middle of the guinea-pig there ran a tape, and, tied on to it by the tape, was a bright yellow ring.

"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew" - C. S. Lewis

[upthelagan]

Midsomer Murders. The Magician's Nephew.

[haveyoureadthisfantasybook]

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

[justasingaporegirl]

"But we're not quite as bad as that world, are we, Aslan?" "Not yet, Daughter of Eve," he said. "Not yet. But you are growing more like it. It is not certain that some wicked one of your race will not find out a secret as evil as the Deplorable Word and use it to destroy all living things. And soon, very soon, before you are an old man and an old woman, great nations in your world will be ruled by tyrants who care no more for joy and justice and mercy than the Empress Jadis. Let your world beware. That is the warning." ~ The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis

Do you ever think about how Lewis lived through two world wars and half of the Cold War? Do you ever think about how for most of his life so much of the world around Lewis was focused on developing new military equipment in order to subjugate other nations? Do you ever think about how Lewis began writing the Chronicles of Narnia to give comfort to children who were displaced from their homes during WW2, one of the darkest periods in modern human history? Do you ever think about how Lewis lived through the invention and first usage of the most deadly weapon ever created by man? Do you ever think about how he lived the last years of his life during the Cold War era, when any International incident could cause a nuclear war? Do you ever think about how Lewis was thinking back on his childhood and wondering where the world went so wrong that he would live through two world wars and a Cold War in the span of a single lifetime? Do you ever think about how Lewis was pointing out the great fault in the world that had existed since his childhood and continued to exist in his adult life?

Do you ever think about how even though Lewis wrote The Magician's Nephew 60+ years ago, this dialogue is still every bit as applicable today as it was in the 50s? Do you ever think about how our children today are still at risk of having their childhoods destroyed by adults who are too eager to go to war? Do you ever think about how, despite Lewis warning us 60 years ago not to let go of joy and justice and mercy, we have not heeded his advice and people are still suffering the same way they did 60 years ago?

[wipbigbang]

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[edgar-allan-possum]

[fictionadventurer]

Top five books that you would like to oversee the film/TV adaptation of (preferably ones that don't already have an adaptation)?

Rilla of Ingleside: Why is there not an adaptation of this yet? Coming-of-age story that's the only Canadian WWI home-front book written by a woman who lived through the war. That's at least as historically significant as Anne of Green Gables! Whether I'm in charge of it or not, it needs to exist as a matter of principle. (Though in terms of personally overseeing the adaptation, I'd probably give top spot to The Blue Castle.)

Ella Enchanted: I know it technically got an adaptation, but we both know it doesn't count. Sometimes it aches to know that the beautiful book-accurate version of my dreams doesn't exist.

The Magician's Nephew: Take it away from Greta Gerwig and give it to me!

Farmer Boy or These Happy Golden Years: The first one works as a standalone and would make a very cute movie, and it hurts to know that it'll probably never get an adaptation. The second one would probably need to be at the end of at least a three-movie series, but it's the one I most want to direct. (And I have to be involved in casting the perfect Cap Garland.)

Entwined: Maybe the author should be in charge of this one, but I also want to be on-board to make sure it becomes the animated musical masterpiece of my dreams.