Narnia’s Jilted Lover
— Saturday, December 6th, 2008 —
This morning’s Wall Street Journal features a review of a new book by a fan-turned foe-turned (conflicted) fan of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia.
The volume, The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia, by Laura Miller, recounts how the author was enchanted by the “Northernness” of Lewis’ stories only to feel defrauded when she learned of the Christian themes therein. You can read an excerpt here.
The reviewer, Meghan Cox Gurdon, quotes Miller as noting that the Narnia books showed her “how I could tumble through a hole in the world I knew and into another, better one, a world fresher, more brightly colored, more exhilarating, more fully felt than my own.”
Indeed. Here’s hoping the skeptic will find, like the children of which she once read, the True Narnia, of which the one she learned to love is just a copy.
I love Narnia. I never finished reading the series but my daughter is having me read them to her at bedtime now. Narnia is great. Knowing the ‘real’ Aslan is better. The movie didn’t stick entirely to the book but it was close enough.
Steve, Yes, I was expecting to hate the movie because I’m so invested in the books. I was pleasantly surprised. It still can match the visuals of an imaginative read.