Terminalcoffee discussion

C.S. Lewis's birthday is November 29th...fan? Not fan? Going to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader? (I think that's what it's called, I saw a commercial.) He was a Christian, right? Does that impact the way you read this work? Did I just ruin his work for you by saying he was a Christian? Comments?

Definitely a fan. I love the Chronicles of Narnia but I've never read any of his other works. He was Christian but I read that when he wrote The Chronicles it was not with the intent to represent Christ and all the other stuff that is now associated with it. And if I recall correctly, he didn't become Christian until later in life. I only saw the first movie but was disappointed in it. I think it could have been much better (they should have had the director from the Lord of the Rings) and so I never bothered with the other films.

We're not supposed to read Chronicles of Narnia as Christian? really? I swear I thought Aslan was supposed to be a symbol of Christ.

That's what I thought too! As a matter of fact, I was never given Narnia as a kid, probably because it was too "Christian" by my Jewish parents.

I tried reading Narnia 7 years ago, but was bored. Jake liked the first book OK but never continued, probably because at that time he was scorning kids books, ya know, all of 8 at the time.

i've read some of the narnia books, but not all of them. my sister loves them and owns editions of the narnia books both in dutch translation and in english.

I'm a fan of C. S. Lewis, and the Chronicles of Narnia, but I didn't care much for the first movie. I love the book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and I'm wary of how it will be portrayed onscreen.

I like Lewis a lot more than Tolkien, and I like his philosophy. Whether or not he meant Narnia to be Christian allegory, it certainly CAN be read that way.

i didn't like the first movie either, but the second one was better.

I read the Chronicles of Narnia, and really enjoyed them, I have read nothing else by him. But based on what I've read I'll say Yay.

The Narnia books are the only classics of their genre that I didn't read as a child. I'm guessing that, like Lori, it was a Jewish thing.
I still haven't read them, but I saw the two movies, which were both enjoyable. I'll probably see the third.
Out of curiosity, aren't there two different orders in which to read the series? And don't these kids stop showing up at some point? I wonder how they'll deal with that.

Yes, there are two different orders to the Narnia books. They used to be in order of when they were written, with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe coming first:

1 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
2 Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia (1951)
3 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
4 The Silver Chair (1953)
5 The Horse and His Boy (1954)
6 The Magician's Nephew (1955)
7 The Last Battle (1956)

According to Wikipedia:
When Harper Collins took over the series in 1994, the numbering was revised using the internal chronological order, as suggested by Lewis' stepson, Douglas Gresham. To make the case for his suggested order, Gresham quoted Lewis' 1957 reply to a letter from an American fan who was having an argument with his mother about the order:

I think I agree with your [chronological] order for reading the books more than with your mother's. The series was not planned beforehand as she thinks. When I wrote The Lion I did not know I was going to write any more. Then I wrote P. Caspian as a sequel and still didn't think there would be any more, and when I had done The Voyage I felt quite sure it would be the last, but I found I was wrong. So perhaps it does not matter very much in which order anyone read them. I’m not even sure that all the others were written in the same order in which they were published.[12]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chro...

1 The Magician's Nephew
2 The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
3 The Horse and His Boy
4 Prince Caspian
5 Voyage of the Dawn Treader
6 The Silver Chair
7 The Last Battle

I like the as written order better.

So I guess the filmmakers are going in order that they were written. But they're taking liberties by using all four kids again, right?

If they are true to the books, only two of the original four kids will be in the new movie, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, along with their obnoxious cousin, Eustace Scrubb.

And then in the next book, The Silver Chair, it's Eustace and his sort of friend, Jill who go to Narnia.

BunWat wrote: "So they already filmed Prince Caspian? Clearly I've been paying attention.. Not!"

Yes, it came and went without much fanfare, Bun. Not my favorite book in the series, so I didn't bother to see it.

Jackie "the Librarian" wrote: "If they are true to the books, only two of the original four kids will be in the new movie, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, along with their obnoxious cousin, Eustace Scrubb.

And then in the next b..."

I saw all four original kids and Prince Caspian in the preview last night.

I would probably call myself a fan, thought not a rabid one. I read the first two Narnia chronicles as a kid but stopped there (the fantasy genre has never really done much for me). I really enjoyed the Space Trilogy. I have several of his nonfiction religious books and have read, if not all of them, some of them, and parts of others. I've read A.N. Wilson's bio. I am interested in conversion stories, so that's part of my interest.

I decided at the age of 33 that I wasn't satisfied with being an agnostic. It was time for a decision. I was deathly afraid of death (ha!), so I began to read widely about others' experiences. I read about near-death experiences; about reincarnation; about scientific theories that the body is flooded at the end with chemicals that make death a peaceful passage; about death being the end, period.

I read Mere Christianity during this time, and it made sense to me. When I read Lewis's bio, the book made even more of an impression on me. As BunWat said about Lewis, "The thing I like best about him is that he doesn't believe that having faith means you have to throw aside reason. He remains fully, even passionately, committed to finding a way to reconcile his faith and his intellect and his emotional life." Well said.

Mere Christianity has never made sense to me.

Fan. He makes one think.

I loved the books as a kid and liked movie 1 better than movie 2, even though the delicious Ben Barnes was in movie 2 for eye candy.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be a fun movie to go see with the family.

I agree, Rachel, he makes one think. Discussing faith in terms of reason and logic ain't easy, no matter what conclusions one draws.

FAN!!! Love the Narnia books I've read so far, I need to read the rest though.