LW&W musings
Dec. 3rd, 2005 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_tectonicWe went out to dinner (Red Robin) last night with the Floyds and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
goobermunch, whose father is well on the way to being all better from a "hypoxic insult" during bypass surgery. So T. needed some downtime with friends. We played Shadows Over Camelot afterwards. Like last time, we ended up without a traitor in our midst. Everybody gave me lots of suspicious looks just because I'm Sir Pragmatic ("screw the dragon, he only eats peasants. We need Excalibur."), but we won. Yey!
It snowed last night. Not a lot, but enough for a half-inch or so to stick in shadowed areas. It's cold tonight -- low of about 12, apparently.
Anyway, just sort of dinked around today. One of the things I did was to re-read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. (I can never decide whether to underline, italicize, or boldface titles when I'm writing about them...) I figured that (likezalena says) since it's coming out on film, it'd be good to read it one more time uninfluenced by the movie.
And I have to say, I'm kind of surprised that they're making a movie based on this book. Maybe it's just that I know the story too well, or that the experience mutates once you realize it's a Christian allegory, but reading it this time, it seemed like there wasn't really any drama in the story. There's no tension.
It's like, the characters just kind of follow their destinies, and everything turns out all right in the end. The never make any decisions; they just do whatever circumstances lead them to do. And the day is saved not because of anyone's choices or nature or anything, but because Aslan (who is, let's not forget, GOD) goes and does The Right Thing, which he knows will fix all the problems. The whole story is running on the rails of fate, and it all just happens automatically as soon as the right elements (which are prophesied, even) come into position.
So I'll be interested to see how they make that into a compelling movie, or whether it'll just be a whole lot of "Ooo, pretty" up on the silver screen.
EDIT: And the feeling of being on autopilot came as a surprise to me, because I am quite fond of the Chronicles of Narnia. So I felt a little bit let-down by this latest read.
goobermunch, whose father is well on the way to being all better from a "hypoxic insult" during bypass surgery. So T. needed some downtime with friends. We played Shadows Over Camelot afterwards. Like last time, we ended up without a traitor in our midst. Everybody gave me lots of suspicious looks just because I'm Sir Pragmatic ("screw the dragon, he only eats peasants. We need Excalibur."), but we won. Yey!It snowed last night. Not a lot, but enough for a half-inch or so to stick in shadowed areas. It's cold tonight -- low of about 12, apparently.
Anyway, just sort of dinked around today. One of the things I did was to re-read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. (I can never decide whether to underline, italicize, or boldface titles when I'm writing about them...) I figured that (like
zalena says) since it's coming out on film, it'd be good to read it one more time uninfluenced by the movie.And I have to say, I'm kind of surprised that they're making a movie based on this book. Maybe it's just that I know the story too well, or that the experience mutates once you realize it's a Christian allegory, but reading it this time, it seemed like there wasn't really any drama in the story. There's no tension.
It's like, the characters just kind of follow their destinies, and everything turns out all right in the end. The never make any decisions; they just do whatever circumstances lead them to do. And the day is saved not because of anyone's choices or nature or anything, but because Aslan (who is, let's not forget, GOD) goes and does The Right Thing, which he knows will fix all the problems. The whole story is running on the rails of fate, and it all just happens automatically as soon as the right elements (which are prophesied, even) come into position.
So I'll be interested to see how they make that into a compelling movie, or whether it'll just be a whole lot of "Ooo, pretty" up on the silver screen.
EDIT: And the feeling of being on autopilot came as a surprise to me, because I am quite fond of the Chronicles of Narnia. So I felt a little bit let-down by this latest read.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-03 11:08 pm (UTC)Think about something one age group past this - the Bridge to Terebitha. A lot of very important things are covered in the story. Friendship, loyalty.... death.
Aside from the unexpected twist of death being introduced, the book is almost all autopilot. It's indoctrination after all.
Perhaps the better question is when do you move from books that are indoctrination to books that require you to make value judgements about the characters? Where do we find out that those who are ugly are not always bad? When do you start reading books where the bad guys often have a pleasant face and attitude?
Some people never learn those lessons.