50 Books - Books 10-13

[siercia]

The last four books in the Chronicles of Narnia : Prince Caspian, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and The Last Battle.

Of these, I think I liked Voyage the best. Exciting adventures, and I loved the snivelling little cousin who's name I've forgotten. I found the ending of Last Battle to be a bit heavy handed and over-done, although the bit about Tash and Aslan, and how they're opposites, but take deeds done in one another's name by whether they were good or bad was fascinating, and I've been puzzling over that a bunch this week. Given what I felt to be the somewhat heavy handed parallels between the Calormenes and Arabic (read in: Muslim) societies, I have to admit being a wee bit uncomfortable thinking that Lewis was drawing all the connections between Christianity and Islam that I was reading into it. Of course, I also wasn't sure what god Tash was supposed to be modelled after (the pictures in my book made him look a bit like a kachina doll on acid).

I am pleased that reading these so voraciously have put me into numbers that will have me on track for actually making my 50 books. With two business trips coming up soon - and one of them being cross-country flights, I expect I may even be able to get ahead of pace. Here's hoping.

Comments

[dietbubba.livejournal.com]

That would be Edmund. The little turd.

[siercia]

As dchenes said, Eustace, not Edmund. I liked him - he was annoying in the first half, but really, who hasn't had their moments of being truly unpleasant people? And he came around so nicely in the end.

[dchenes.livejournal.com]

I think it was Eustace. Edmund did have his turn at being a pain in the neck, but that was in a different book.

[kaasirpent]

Eustace it was, indeed.

In his own words to a fifth-grade class in Maryland in 1954:

The Last Battle - the coming of Antichrist (the ape). The end of the world and the last judgement.'

He further notes that Tash = the Devil/Satan.

I also rather liked his comment about whether or not the entire Chronicle is an allegory:

'I did not say to myself 'Let us represent Jesus as He really is in our world by a Lion in Narnia'; I said 'Let us suppose that there were a land like Narnia and that the Son of God, as he became a Man in our world, became a Lion there, and then imagine what would happen'.

You can read more of what he said here.

[siercia]

Oooooh, thanks =)

[bookwitch.livejournal.com]

Once you've gotten up off the floor from actually seeing a comment from me after all this time (life has been strange)....

Have you read Passion of Artemisia? Susan Vreeland....I've read parts of it and it seems AMAZING. Very much like Girl with a Pearl Earring.

[skreeky]

From memory, the first line of Voyage:
"There once was a boy whose name was Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."

Edmund was the total slimeball only in the first half Wardrobe, wherein he was redeemed by Aslan and became the best of the Good Guys for the rest of the series.

Can you tell I read them til they fell apart? I haven't read them in years, and was too young and ignorant to draw the connection to Islam. Thinking about it now... wow.